Weighing Your Options How to Protect Your Property from Shoreline Erosion: A handbook for estuarine property owners in North Carolina Written by Seachange Consulting for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management - North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve in association with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Center for Coastal Fisheries Habitat Research, and The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Funding and support for this project was provided by CICEET, the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology. A partnership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of New Hampshire, CICEET develops tools for clean water and healthy coasts nationwide. June 2011 INTRODUCTION This guide focuses on estuarine property. We’ll Welcome to Weighing Your introduce you to the six main Options: How to Protect Your erosion control options in use in Property from Shoreline North Carolina and give you Erosion. If you own property on information about the out-of- one of North Carolina’s pocket costs and tangible estuaries, you can use this guide benefits of each option. We’ll as a tool to learn about the also give you information about choices you have to control your “hidden” costs and benefits that shoreline erosion and help you may want to factor into your decide which approach may be decision-making. right for you. In North Carolina, we make a distinction between waterfront property that is located on the estuary, referred to as estuarine, shoreline, soundfront or riverside property, and waterfront property located directly on the ocean, referred to as oceanfront. Why? State laws and regulations addressing estuarine and oceanfront Kite-boarding, Cape Hatteras property, and the available You are fortunate to have a erosion control methods, are piece of estuarine shoreline to quite different. call your own, whether it’s your year-round residence or a weekend getaway. And if you’ve noticed some shoreline erosion lately, you’re probably a little concerned. But there are ready solutions. Let’s start with some preliminary steps to get a “big picture” overview before we get Exploring the estuary, Bogue Sound to the details. Weighing Your Options 1 STEP 1: LOOK AT ALL THE associated with each option that OPTIONS affect the beauty and ecological health of the estuaries and Main Erosion Control sounds that make coastal North Methods Used for Carolina so special. Shorelines in North Carolina Estuaries Vegetation Oyster Reefs Marsh Sills Riprap Breakwaters Bulkheads Nesting egret Some of the methods used to protect against shoreline erosion STEP 2: CONSIDER WHAT may be familiar to you, and YOUR ESTUARY DOES FOR some less so. Each method has its advantages and YOU disadvantages, depending upon location and exposure – that is, North Carolina has one of the which direction your property longest estuarine coastlines in faces, the amount and power of the nation – close to 9,000 miles the wind and waves it in fact, and we’re proud of that. withstands, geography, and Besides being beautiful, our shore type. We’ll discuss each estuaries provide jobs, offer food alternative, using photos and and habitat for aquatic and land- drawings to explain each loving creatures, purify our approach and how it works to water, help temper the effects of control erosion. We’ll also list hurricanes, and provide property characteristics recreation for fishermen, sailors, favorable to each option, note kite-boarders, hunters, installation costs, and talk about swimmers and bird watchers, other costs and benefits among many other attributes. 2 How to Protect Your Property from Shoreline Erosion shoreline alterations in your area can alter the balance of ecosystems in the near-shore environment. Bird watching in winter, Pamlico Sound Estuaries also provide a source of transportation and beautiful real estate. And in addition to Boating in Back Sound protecting us from storms and wave surge, a healthy estuary STEP 3: NARROW YOUR provides a nursery for juvenile OPTIONS fish, offers a home and feeding ground to birds, and feeds and Six may seem like an over- houses innumerable shellfish, whelming number of choices, dolphins, otters and turtles – and that’s before we count the making it possible for us to combinations. Oyster reefs and enjoy the aforementioned vegetation can be combined with opportunities. all the other options. But Together, these chances are good that you can characteristics make up the narrow the number down pretty “estuarine ecosystem.” The quickly. You’ll find a list of functioning of estuarine questions in the back of the ecosystems is largely dependent guide on a worksheet. Answer on how people use the adjacent the questions as best you can coastal land, and while you may before reading the guide, and not think your individual then compare your answers with shoreline stabilization protection the information presented as you project will have much effect on read through the text. the surrounding ecosystem, the cumulative effect of all the Weighing Your Options 3 The Importance of Shoreline Type The first question asks, “What is your type of shoreline?” In North Carolina, the shoreline bordering an estuary can be, broadly, a swamp forest, a marsh, an oyster reef, or a sediment bank (photo examples are on the right). Certain protection methods are better suited to certain types of shoreline. For example, a low sediment bank, which has a continuous gentle slope below and above the water line, can be protected well by a marsh sill, whereas a high sediment bank, with a steep slope, can’t. A swamp forest works well with certain vegetation (i.e., cypress trees), but since there is no bank to stabilize, a bulkhead would not be a good match. We’ll point out the good matches throughout the document. Right column: Shoreline Types (top- bottom): swamp forest, marsh, oyster reef, low sediment bank, high sediment bank. 4 How to Protect Your Property from Shoreline Erosion You’ll notice that two shoreline within two weeks. The types, marshes and oyster reefs, representatives from the North are also included in our list of Carolina Division of Coastal erosion control methods. That’s Management (DCM) who come because they have the ability to to look at your property can be stabilize the shoreline on their very helpful. They are a part of own. If your property includes a DENR – the Department of marsh, it’s partly under water at Environment and Natural high tide or during a wind tide. Resources, and have permitting The marsh vegetation traps the responsibilities under CAMA – sediment washed in by the tides, the Coastal Area Management and their dense root system Act. The permit reps have the holds it in place. Marsh same goals you have: to keep vegetation dies back and roots you and your property safe and become incorporated into the the estuary healthy. sediment, further building the foundation for sustaining marsh growth. Together, these self- perpetuating processes counter erosion by dissipating waves and adding sediment. If you have an oyster reef, it accumulates shell material and traps sediment landward of the reef, adding fill and maintaining the shoreline. Step 4: Understand the Permit Process Surveying near Wilmington, N.C. Types of Permits and Costs Your State Representative Marsh sills, riprap revetment, Permitting is often viewed as a and bulkheads can require a bureaucratic quagmire. Actually, general or a major permit; oyster the process can be streamlined reefs and breakwaters require a and efficient, and over and done Weighing Your Options 5 major permit; and vegetation can appears at the end of this guide, require a major, minor, or with a brief explanation of what general permit, or none at all. A they do and why they would be general permit is used for concerned with your project. projects that have relatively DCM permit costs run small impacts on the between $100 and $400, and environment, and the process additional charges may be usually involves contact with encumbered depending on the only DCM. A major permit is permit requirements of the used for large projects and those agencies involved. requiring other state or federal permits. Doing It Yourself vs. Bringing You may need a major permit in the Professionals – or Both if, for example, your project will cover vegetation that’s in the Two erosion control alternatives; water, alter fish habitat, or vegetation and oyster reefs, lend interfere with water quality. If themselves to being Do It your project requires a major Yourself (DIY) projects. permit DCM reps can provide Consider your personal situation: help with the process. do you have more time than Depending on the scope of your money? If so, then pay particular project, your location, and the attention to the vegetation and permit required, you (or your oyster reefs descriptions and see contractor, engineer, or if they fit your project goals. The landscaper) may need to interact other options – riprap with as few as one or as many as revetments, marsh sills, 14 federal and state agencies, bulkheads, and breakwaters – such as USACE (United States will probably require the Army Corps of Engineers), services of a contractor or North Carolina DMF (Division coastal engineer. of Marine Fisheries), or North Carolina DWQ (Division of Water Quality). A list of all 14 agencies, including their acronyms and full names, 6 How to Protect Your Property from Shoreline Erosion skills you’re looking for, and then call DCM. Ask for a preliminary visit, and ask your rep for a list of local contractors – and ask your neighbors, friends, and real estate agent for their recommendations. Contractors tend to specialize in one stabilization type based on their experience and the Bulkhead under construction equipment they own or can readily access. Not surprisingly, These options can be that will be the method they supplemented by planting recommend, and they may not vegetation or adding hard take into account all the specifics material that supports oyster regarding your property and the growth, such as oyster cultch impact you choose to have on (shell material), limestone or your estuary.