Integral polypropylene oriented nets are made by stretching and orienting a polypropylene starting sheet material having a defined pattern of holes or depressions in which the polypropylene is at least 20%, and preferably up to about 80%, beta crystals caused by adding a beta nucleating agent to the polypropylene, preferably in concentrations between about 10 ppm to about 100 ppm. Such beta nucleated polypropylene nets exhibit increased yield and break tensile strengths, flexural stiffness, modulus characteristics, and crimping retention and resiliency over substantially identical oriented nets made from polypropylene without a beta nucleating agent added. A method for manufacturing the beta nucleated polypropylene oriented net is disclosed, along with a crimped beta nucleated polypropylene oriented net (16) and a sandwich mat product (10) for erosion control which includes the crimped beta nucleated polypropylene oriented net (16) as a layer therein.