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The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association established its Best Restored Shores awards program to recognize and encourage more effective coastal risk management that restores natural infrastructure to address growing erosion, flooding, and related hazards associated with increased storm severity and sea level rise.
“Shoreline projects that restore natural infrastructure protect coastal communities while also enhancing habitats, increasing resilience, and providing far-reaching economic benefits,” says ASBPA Executive Director Nicole Elko. “ASBPA’s Best Restored Shores award aims to showcase these successful projects to build public awareness and support.”
The 2024 Best Restored Shores awards are Dollar Bay Marsh Restoration, TX; Fort Smallwood Park Shoreline Enhancement, MD; and Lowman Beach Park Shoreline Restoration, WA.
The Dollar Bay Marsh Restoration located in Texas City, Texas fully embodies a successful habitat restoration project from beginning to end. The Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF) and their project partners recognized that significant funding was going to become available to the Texas coast from RESTORE, GOMESA, and other sources. As a result, the GBF began using partnerships to start the design and permitting of several projects in the Galveston Bay watershed so that they would be in prime position to receive construction funds, which is the largest component of a restoration project. The Dollar Bay project was one of the first projects implemented with GOMESA funds by the Texas General Land office, the managing organization for GOMESA funding, and also included the ability to acquire the adjacent land with additional GOMESA funds. Since implementation, the site has become nearly fully vegetated and serves as a nursery for juvenile fish, crabs, and other fauna. The nursery then supports a number of other species and has revitalized the ecosystem in this part of the bay.
The Fort Smallwood Park Shoreline Enhancement Project located in Pasadena, Maryland represents one of the best restored shores in the U.S. because it utilizes an array of shoreline enhancement techniques that were appropriately suited to the site conditions and project goals. Project goals such as increased resiliency, recreation and environmental uplift are often a challenge to balance. Maximizing the benefits of one project feature will often restrict achieving another (i.e. how to maximize environmental uplift while still providing public access). This project achieved all project goals by implementing the appropriate technique (living shoreline, revetment, beach nourishment) where site conditions and park use were viable. The Fort Smallwood Park Shoreline Enhancement project embodies the notion that many different objectives, even those that are often conflicting, can be implemented through holistic planning, thorough and expert design, careful construction and continuous coordination.
The Lowman Beach Park Shoreline Restoration located in Seattle, Washington is a standout example of urban shoreline restoration. It serves as a blueprint for similar projects in urban areas constrained by existing infrastructure and private properties. The project aims to enhance both the park and the shoreline in a sustainable manner, achieving multiple objectives: improving park access, enhancing ecological process, expanding nearshore habitat, and enhancing adaptive capacity in the face of rising sea levels. Another key aspect of the project that makes it unique is the daylighting and creating a natural bank for over 100 feet of creek that was previously buried culvert and allowing for fresh water to flow across the shoreface. This not only restores the natural hydrological process but also offers the public a unique opportunity to experience the dynamic interactions between fluvial and coastal systems for the first time in nearly 90 years.
The 2024 Best Restored Shores award recipients will be recognized on August 27, 2024 at the ASBPA National Coastal Conference in Galveston, Texas. A complete list of Best Restored Shores award recipients are available at https://asbpa.org/about-us/awards-program/.