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To: Bluedot Living
From: Stephanie Tsui, Graduate Fellow for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts
Subject: Our Coasts Protect Us, and We Should Protect Them, Too
Growing up in suburban New Jersey, I felt far removed from coastal environments. I didn’t understand how the rivers near me connected to the ocean and how coastal habitats, in turn, connected to me. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck my state, devastating the coastline and flooding inland towns. Nearly every home in my town lost power and I was displaced for nearly a month. It wasn’t until I began studying coastal ecology that I learned how much worse the storm could have been without wetlands. Because of wetlands, New Jersey avoided an additional $625 million in flood damages.
Whether you can see the ocean or not, we all rely on healthy coasts. In fact, more than half of the population of the United States lives within 50 miles of the coast, known as the coastal zone. Coastal habitats — such as salt marshes, sand dunes and shellfish reefs — provide many ecosystem services, or benefits, to us. They strengthen shorelines and help slow wave energy from storms and high tides, provide habitat for food and other species, and serve as great recreational and educational spaces.
At The Nature Conservancy (TNC), we are working to advance the use of living shorelines to help protect coastal communities and support our goal of helping 2 million people at risk from climate-related emergencies. Living shorelines are nature-based solutions that mimic coastal habitats with structural elements such as native plants, coconut coir logs, or oyster reefs. Beyond flood mitigation and shoreline stabilization, living shorelines also help maintain recreational opportunities, provide habitat for a variety of species, and improve water quality. With the growing threats of sea-level rise and storms worsened by climate change, living shorelines are becoming a popular tool to strengthen coastal resilience against flooding and erosion.
Living shorelines can be constructed with nature-based elements or a hybrid approach of green and gray infrastructure. These options are also referred to as soft or hard techniques. Green or soft techniques include planting native vegetation, such as salt marsh plants or subtidal eelgrass beds; nourishing beaches with more sand; or installing large rocks and shellfish reefs parallel to the shoreline to further reduce erosion. Gray or hard techniques include breakwaters, revetments, bulkheads, and seawalls. Living shorelines are designed to help us live with water, while gray infrastructure is designed to keep water out.
Gray techniques have been the most widely used, so they are easy to permit and design. However, they require long-term upkeep and can eventually fail if not maintained. Meanwhile, green techniques are newer and therefore can be challenging to permit. Yet, they perform better over time in controlling erosion and preventing flood damage. As living shorelines accumulate sand and sediment, they protect young plants as they mature and repopulate the area. This helps strengthen the living shoreline each year.
Where are living shorelines appropriate? Living shorelines cannot replace all gray infrastructure, but in some places, they provide a better long-term solution than seawalls. They work best in areas with low to moderate wave energy, such as a protected cove. Importantly, they are not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each living shoreline must be designed to fit the site’s unique characteristics.
Currently, TNC is partnering with the Northeast Regional Ocean Council (NROC) to provide in-depth training and technical assistance to communities, Tribes, and non-profits looking to design living shorelines across New England. This workshop series will occur in summer 2026.
With continued support, living shorelines will become part of the typical set of tools used to address coastal resilience. Not only can they protect coastal communities and public access points like the Cape Cod Rail Trail, but they can also potentially provide benefits to those living more inland from extreme weather events similar to Hurricane Sandy.
Want to see a living shoreline in person?
There are several living shorelines projects in New England. You can find an example of a dune restoration project at Cow Bay Beach. Other partners also piloted a living shorelines project at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary to protect a fringing salt marsh. However, additional studies are needed to find a more resilient approach. At Collins Cove in Salem, a three-quarter-acre salt marsh was restored several years ago with plants, coir logs, and sand fill. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) created a map that shows NOAA-funded living shorelines projects since 1998.
