Significant human impacts on the area began in the 16th century.
Deforestation of the spit due to overgrazing, timber harvesting, and building of boats for the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf in 1757 led to the dunes taking over the spit and burying entire villages.
Alarmed by these problems, the Prussian government sponsored large-scale revegetation and reforestation efforts, which started in 1825.
  Other sources credit George David Kuwert, the owner of a post station in Nida in the late 19th century, with beginning the spit's reforestation.
Owing to these efforts, much of the spit is now covered with forests.

In the 19th century the Curonian Spit was inhabited primarily by Kursenieki, with a significant German minority in the south and a Lithuanian minority in the north.
The population of Kursenieki eventually dwindled due to assimilation and other reasons; it is close to non-existent these days and had been even before 1945, when the spit had become ethnic German.
Significant human impacts on the area began in the 16th century. Deforestation of the spit due to overgrazing, timber harvesting, and building of boats for the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf in 1757 led to the dunes taking over the spit and burying entire villages. Alarmed by these problems, the Prussian government sponsored large-scale revegetation and reforestation efforts, which started in 1825.   Other sources credit George David Kuwert, the owner of a post station in Nida in the late 19th century, with beginning the spit's reforestation. Owing to these efforts, much of the spit is now covered with forests. 
In the 19th century the Curonian Spit was inhabited primarily by Kursenieki, with a significant German minority in the south and a Lithuanian minority in the north. The population of Kursenieki eventually dwindled due to assimilation and other reasons; it is close to non-existent these days and had been even before 1945, when the spit had become ethnic German.
Curonian Spit