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Preparing Your Coast
Healthy Coastal Ecosystems
Fortifying the Coast
 With shorelines under assault from rising seas, an
acidifying ocean, and increasing human
development, creating a plan to combat these forces
will be important to maintaining the coasts that help
protect humans and nourish life.
 Several recent studies have shown that intact coastal
wetlands and barrier islands help protect coasts
from hurricanes and tsunamis.
 No single strategy is going to work to fortify coastal
ecosystems, so it's important to learn about the
entire spectrum of options.
Ecological Buffer Zones
 Ecological buffers are land use practices that can
lessen the impact of development on natural areas.
 In coastal settings they can be used to create a
transition zone between a coastal ecosystem and
human activity in which no disturbance is allowed.
 They promote good habitat and connectivity, help
prevent erosion and stabilize soil, slow down floods
and help store floodwater, and filter water to
improve water quality.
 Buffers can also help sequester carbon and help
wetlands migrate inland as sea levels rise.
Ecological Buffer Zones (cont’d)
 For example, Rhode Island requires ecological
buffers for most new residential, commercial, and
industrial development.
 Buffer widths range from 15 to 200 ft (4.6 to 61 m),
and are required to be 200 ft (61m) around all
properties adjacent to designated critical habitat.
Open Space Preservation and
Conservation
 When it's possible to purchase and create open
space, this technique can provide a number of
ecosystem-sustaining benefits including habitat
protection, reducing runoff from floods and storms,
maintaining water quality, promoting groundwater
recharge, providing recreational opportunities,
sequestering carbon, and promoting evaporative
cooling.
 What are the best ways to go about creating open
space?
Open Space Preservation and
Conservation (cont’d)
 Zoning, redevelopment restrictions, acquisition,
easements, and ecological buffers can all be used to
preserve open space.
 While some of these techniques cost money, the
public expense in the long run may be less than if
the land was developed and the county required to
provide full services to homes or businesses.
Ecosystem Protection and
Maintenance
 Keeping ecosystems healthy is a good way to
prepare them for changing climate.
 Because it's expensive and hard to repair or replace
ecosystems, protecting those in good condition from
harm is a better strategy.
Ecosystem Protection and
Maintenance (cont’d)
 There are many ways to increase ecosystem
resilience to climate change, including restricting
harmful activities; removing shore protection
structures or upstream dams to restore natural water
flow and sedimentation; taking actions to prevent
nitrates and phosphates from getting into water;
reducing land-based pollution; modifying fish
harvest or use rates; monitoring algal blooms,
hypoxia, and coral bleaching and responding when
possible; reaching out to and educating those in
your community about how they can help; acquiring
sensitive land; and designating protected areas.
Ecosystem Protection and
Maintenance (cont’d)
 As sea levels rise, wetlands must either move inland
or accumulate enough sediment to maintain their
elevation with respect to mean sea level.
 Some coastal wetlands can keep pace with sea level
rise by accreting mineral or organic sediments, but
other coastal wetlands may "drown" in place due to
insufficient sediment supply.
Facilitating Wetland Sediment Accumulation
and, if necessary, Wetland Migration
 Restoring natural waterways or piping in sediment
dredged from navigation channels can help wetlands
hold the ocean back.
 In some cases, action can be taken to help those
wetlands that cannot keep pace with sea level rise
move inland.
 In others, migration is not possible due to barriers
such as roads.
 In those cases, the loss of wetlands trapped by
coastal development may be compensated for by
creating new wetlands in other suitable areas.
Facilitating Wetland Sediment Accumulation
and, if necessary, Wetland Migration (cont’d)
 In places where it's possible, wetlands can be helped
to move inland by prohibiting or removing shore
protection structures; setting aside land through
easements or purchase; promoting compact
community design; and creating ecological buffer
zones, setbacks, or rolling easements — that is,
rights to use private property like beaches that move
inland as shores do, and which prohibit shore
protection structures but not development.
 In all cases, it's important to understand which
coastal ecosystems are likely to be inundated as sea
level rises and then take action there before suitable
inland locations for wetland migration are too
developed.
Ecosystem Restoration, Creation,
and Enhancement
 Where ecosystems have already been damaged,
restoration is an option.
 When such projects are undertaken, planners should
focus on promoting connections between natural
areas (connected habitat corridors are often better
for wildlife than pockets of habitat) and on
preserving ecosystem functionality and services
instead of trying to recreate a specific species
composition.
Ecosystem Restoration, Creation,
and Enhancement (cont’d)
 Such activities could include planting and seeding,
modifying watercourses, diverting sediment, filling
canals, recontouring topography, dredging and
removing fill, or removing shore protection
structures or invasive species.
 In general, it is easier to create wetlands in open
water than at higher elevation.
Examples of Restoration
 The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration
Authority and EPA have begun a project to pipe
Mississippi River sediment to 500 acres (2 km2) of
marsh to help restore its coastal wetlands.
 In southern Maine, trained volunteers are helping to
assess the state's beaches by making topographic
profiles of 10 important barrier systems.
 Coral reef restoration can involve stabilizing and
repairing damage, recreating topography, or
transplanting coral that has been dislodged, grown
in a nursery, or orphaned by coastal development.
Examples of Restoration (cont’d)
 Artificial reefs can also be created and may be
beneficial in some cases, but they must be carefully
planned and located because botched jobs may end
up causing more problems than they solve.
 Mississippi undertook a good example of artificial
reef installation when their Department of Marine
Resources Artificial Reef Bureau rebuilt the 90% of
artificial reefs destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Dealing with Invasive Species

Federal law mandates that states develop aquatic
invasive species management plans.
 Incorporating climate change in these plans is a
good way to start tackling both problems.
 The most critical aspect is to incorporate a
monitoring plan to detect new aquatic invasive
species and changes in populations of existing ones.
Dealing with Invasive Species (cont’d)
 Massachusetts's Office of Coastal Zone Management
published an aquatic Invasive Species Management
Plan in 2002 that created a program called the
Marine Invader Monitoring and Information
Collaborative – a network of trained community
groups and citizens – that use standard monitoring
techniques to keep tabs on invasives.