Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: PBS Newshour - As seas rise, communities use native plants to fight worsening erosion
July 18, 2018
Only July 14, the PBS Newshour reported that planting “living shorelines”, rich in native species, is growing in popularity as a way to fight accelerating erosion from climate change and sea level rise. Studies show that native plants and living shorelines are more effective and less expensive than traditional concrete sea walls and other “hardscape” structures.
As restored native plant communities mature, the benefits extend far beyond erosion control. The Newshour reported the results of one project in Florida:
“A few years later, crabs and snails crawl among the oysters and grasses in [the] living shoreline... Fish school in it when the tide is up. The effects of years of erosion have been reversed; sand is being trapped … when storms and floods hit instead of being washed away.”
Another Florida project planted native “needlerush and cordgrass to create a root barrier”. They found that,
“With the grass, you get everything else. There’s more fish in the area, and the dolphins are entertaining.”
A
study by the University of California Santa Cruz and others supports this approach. The 2016 study of the impacts of hurricane Sandy found that conservation of coastal marshes and other native plant communities prevented more than $600 million in damage to East Coast communities fortunate (or well-prepared) enough to be near such protected natural areas.
Further, the Newshour reported, scientists recently
reported in the journal PLOS ONE that nature-based shoreline protections could halve the costs associated with future flooding along the Gulf Coast, potentially saving tens of billions of dollars.
Benefits can extend beyond property lines. Nitrogen pollution from lawns and farms that washes into waterways during storms, feeding harmful algae, can be reduced using native shoreline ecosystems. Marsh growth can support fisheries and clean water, which support wildlife, the economy and quality of life. And coastal vegetation slows climate change by absorbing carbon more effectively in some cases than forests.
Such research combined with empirical observations of the success of native plantings has led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others to ease permitting requirements for living shorelines in recent years.
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To find locally adapted natives to beautify your garden, protect against storms, help wildlife and the environment, go to your local botanic garden and/or native plant society for recommendations, care tips and the opportunity to purchase local native plants!
For a list of NPCC Affiliate botanic gardens and native plant societies see the
Affiliates Page
