As erosion threatens treasured places around the Chesapeake Bay, communities are turning to nature-based solutions. Explore how living shorelines are helping to protect coasts and heritage on opposite shores of the Bay.
Living shoreline plants have a tough job: they must hold down the sandy shoreline with their roots and ease waves with their stems, all while surviving salty water.
Researchers are on a mission to determine which key components make a living shoreline successful at preventing erosion—but first they must gather crucial data.
Oyster biology is both an obstacle and an opportunity when it comes to living shorelines. Learn how and why oysters are sometimes included in living shoreline projects.
A living shoreline is under construction in Baltimore City—part of a sweeping project that aims to restore more than 50 acres of habitat along 11 miles of shoreline.
POPLAR ISLAND NEARLY VANISHED from sight before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building dikes for storing dredge material dug out of the shipping channels of Chesapeake Bay. Now the man-made island with its new wetland cells is becoming home to thousands of terrapins who are finding safe nests for their offspring. To keep track of births on the site, field technician Ryan Trimbath (above) and another assistant patrol the island during nesting season. When they find a nest, they dig it up, count the eggs, then cover them again, and flag the site. Fifty days later they ring the nest with aluminum flashing, creating a little terrapin corral to keep hatchlings from wandering away. When the hatchlings finally crawl out, Trimbath captures them for weighing, measuring, and tagging. The survival rate for these nests is running in the 70 to 80 percent range — happy news for biologist Willem Roosenburg (below) who releases hatchlings back into the wetlands. Photographs by Michael W. Fincham.
As erosion threatens treasured places around the Chesapeake Bay, communities are turning to nature-based solutions. Explore how living shorelines are helping to protect coasts and heritage on opposite shores of the Bay.
Living shoreline plants have a tough job: they must hold down the sandy shoreline with their roots and ease waves with their stems, all while surviving salty water.
Researchers are on a mission to determine which key components make a living shoreline successful at preventing erosion—but first they must gather crucial data.
Oyster biology is both an obstacle and an opportunity when it comes to living shorelines. Learn how and why oysters are sometimes included in living shoreline projects.
A living shoreline is under construction in Baltimore City—part of a sweeping project that aims to restore more than 50 acres of habitat along 11 miles of shoreline.
![[Maryland Sea Grant]](/images/uploads/siteimages/CQ/MD-Logo.png){kind=logo}
