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.
HURRICANE ISABEL LEFT A MIXED LEGACY on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Dorchester County residents like Harriett and Bud Hankins were able to rebuild and elevate their house after the 2003 flood that inundated their whole first floor. But even with financial assistance from the state of Maryland and the National Flood Insurance Program, raising and reconstructing their 17th century-era residence proved costly and time consuming for them. Further south in the low-lying areas of Hooper's Island, many houses were abandoned. Some residents who owned their properties outright did not have federal flood insurance and assistance from the state would not prove sufficient. Others have only just begun rebuilding now, some seven years after the storm.
Credits: The Hankins House by Bud and Harriett Hankins and Hooper's Island by Erica Goldman.
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.
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