Restore and Protect Habitat
Increasing the quality and quantity of important waterbird habitat is important for conservation of waterbirds.
Living Shorelines
Important waterbird nesting and wintering sites will be restored or created using living shorelines. Instead of using hardened structures, such as bulkheads, revetment, and concrete seawalls which often increase the rate of coastal erosion and remove the ability of the shoreline to carry out natural processes, the “living shorelines” approach uses plants, sand, and limited use of rock to provide shoreline protection and maintain valuable habitat. A variety of structural and organic materials, such as wetland plants, submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster reefs, fiber logs, sand fill, and stone are parts of the living shoreline method of erosion control.
The benefits of living shorelines include:
• Stabilization of the shoreline.
• Protection of surrounding riparian and intertidal environment.
• Improvement of water quality via filtration of upland run-off.
• Creation of habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species.
Vegetation Management
• Planting of desirable vegetation for dune accretion at key nesting sites.
• Removal of undesirable vegetation to promote nesting habitat.
• Management of herbaceous aquatic plants in wading bird colonies to eliminate over-water pathways for mammalian predators.