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Volunteers plant marsh grass for a living shoreline at Trinity Center.

The salt marshes that fringe our coastal waters are some of the most productive and valuable natural habitats in the world. And North Carolina’s got them — more than 3,000 square miles of them.

They offer many benefits, including the following:

  • Provide food and shelter for many creatures.
  • Serve as critical nurseries for many important marine species.
  • Filter pollutants from stormwater runoff, the most significant water quality pollutant in North Carolina.
  • Protect the land from wave energy, storm surges and tides.
  • Provide aesthetic value, enhanced views, a sense of place and privacy.

However, these valuable habitats face many pressures from daily tides, waves, boat wakes, and sea level rise. The way natural marshes respond to these stressors is to migrate; the waterfront side erodes and the marsh builds up on the landward side.

People who build close to our marshes are also affected by erosion. However, instead of moving back, many respond by building wooden or concrete walls or placing piles of rock to protect their property.

Locked in place in front of the wall or rocks, the marsh can’t retreat and will eventually disappear, taking its benefits with it. As many as 20 miles of the state’s estuarine shoreline are walled or rocked each year.

Living shorelines offer an effective, natural way to address estuarine shoreline erosion.

This living shoreline is helping to stabilize erosion on the southeast edge of Carrot Island near Beaufort.

This living shoreline is helping to stabilize erosion on the southeast edge of Carrot Island near Beaufort.

Volunteers plant marsh grass behind a sill of bagged oysters to stabilize shoreline erosion at Jones Island.

Volunteers plant marsh grass behind a sill of bagged oysters to stabilize shoreline erosion at Jones Island.

Why Living Shorelines?

The Federation maintains that the best way to deal with erosion is to plan for it, to build as far as possible from the water’s edge, and to retreat when the time comes.

When that’s not possible, the Federation recommends using stabilization methods that maintain the natural integrity of the marsh and do the least damage to them. Living shorelines are one method of doing that.

Livings shorelines use as many natural elements as appropriate for the site to protect the shoreline from erosion. Specific materials include bags of oyster shells, native marsh grasses, wood, limestone, rip rap, or constructed ‘oyster domes’. They range from construction setbacks and simple plantings of marsh grass to more complex approaches that use the materials listed above or other structures to dampen wave energy.

No two shorelines are the same, and living shoreline strategies must be selected based on:

  • Existing land uses.
  • The amount of wave energy at the site.
  • Individual local conditions.

The Federation and many other organizations consider this method a better alternative than traditional bulkheads or walls. Bulkheads reflect the wave energy back along the shoreline, which worsens erosion. Living shorelines act as a natural buffer, absorbing the wave energy, minimizing shoreline erosion, and protecting the marsh.

Learn how living shorelines outperform bulkheads during storms and cost less to repair.

The Federation has designed, constructed, and monitored dozens of living shoreline projects all over the coast. Several renowned scientists, such as Carolyn CurrinRachel Gittman, and Lexia Weaver, have assessed these living shorelines and, in summarythey work.

The habitat values, erosion control, and filter effects of living shorelines compare well with natural marsh and perform significantly better than bulkheads.

What kinds of creatures live around living shorelines?


Striped hermit crab

Check out the ones the federation has spotted around their living shorelines:

  • Blue crabs
  • Stone crabs
  • Mud crabs
  • Hermit crabs
  • Shrimp
  • Mussels
  • Fish! Mummichog, killifish, anchovies, silversides, mullets, pin fish and many more juveniles and adult species.
  • Starfish
  • Sea squirts
  • Slipper shells
  • Snails
  • Barnacles
  • Herons
  • Pelicans
  • Osprey
  • Skimmers
  • Terns

Interested in living shorelines, but not sure where to get started?

Visit Living Shorelines Academy.

The academy provides many tools:

Learn More Here