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Erosion
Control
"Living Shorelines" Program
The Living
Shorelines Projects are a fairly new shoreline erosion control approach
of the North Carolina Coastal Federation that provides an alternative to
bulkheading. The program is a joint effort with NOAA and Restore
America's Estuaries. Many of the projects qualify for the costshare
program, although some are entirely privately funded. They are
comparably priced to a bulkhead, but avoid many of the potential
negatives associated with bulkheading.
In brief, the living shoreline combines a stone sill structure with
vegetated marsh area to provide shoreline stabilization, important
habitat area, and improve water quality. The stone sills are somewhat
intertidal, usually about 0.5 feet above mean high water, so they are
inundated at spring tides and storm tides. Behind the sill they most
often plant spartina alterniflora in the low marsh region and then
spartina patens in the high marsh where applicable. Program staff
members have placed sills in other environments where other plants were
appropriate, such as cypress swamp areas. The sills have low points or
breaks spaced along them so that fishes can have access to the habitat
behind the sill. Oysters have also been observed settling on the sill,
increasing their value as habitat and their affect on water quality.
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