Shoring up Hampton Roads

Right around 8 a.m., the national anthem plays in Norfolk, Virginia. I’m waiting in a neighborhood tucked up against the Lafayette River, though my view of the water is blocked by trees and houses. Two members of the Elizabeth River Project (ERP) are with me. Their team is here to put the finishing touches on a homeowner’s shoreline they've been working to restore.

“That’s from the Naval base,” says Samantha Miller, an environmental restoration foreman with ERP. “I don’t even notice it anymore.”

As the anthem fades, we walk around the side of the house, through the backyard and to the foot of the homeowner’s dock. The view from the dock is striking. Bright green marshes grow waist-high in the water, bordered by mudflats visible during the low-tide. In one direction, an egret skims low over the river. In the other, a heron stalks prey from a neighbor’s dock.

“It really is a beautiful spot,” says Casey Shaw, ERP’s director of marketing and communications.

The homeowner’s shoreline is modestly sized—45 feet long with about 4,000 square feet of recovering marsh. Erosion has created a gap between the healthy marsh in the water and the homeowner's backyard. Since 2022, ERP has been working on behalf of the homeowner to fill in the vegetation to create one large wetland and establish a natural slope on either side of the dock.

“We're just connecting the marsh all the way to their backyard,” Miller says.

The recovering marsh calls to mind a construction zone for nature. Wooden stakes with string tied between them stick out of the mud, with foot-high grass growing below. A fence surrounds the grasses to protect them from geese. And on the other side of the fence is a row of cinder block-sized “oyster castles”, followed by a border of oyster shells. The construction is similar on the other side of the dock, though instead of oyster castles, ERP has coir logs in place—rolls of natural fiber used to protect against erosion.

While it’s too early for oysters to start growing on the castles or shells, the ERP team is starting to see signs of interest from other species.

“The marsh crabs, I feel like, are the pioneer investigators crawling all over the oyster castles,” says Shaw.

The wildlife habitat is just one attribute of the restored shoreline. Wetlands like these attract smaller aquatic invertebrates, which, in turn attract fish and fish-eating birds like egrets, herons and bald eagles. The future oyster colonies will filter nutrients and sediment out of the water, helping to keep it clean. The wetland plants and oyster castles also keep the shoreline from eroding, which is one of the biggest concerns for homeowners.

“It helps protect the shoreline and it also provides habitat value. So it's a double whammy,” Miller says.

Oftentimes, instead of these vibrant, natural shorelines along the river, you’ll find wooden or concrete barriers known as bulkheads. Bulkheads are meant to keep the water from flooding people’s properties or eroding the edge. However, sea level rise within the James River watershed means the water comes up over the bulkhead frequently, further deteriorating them.

“A lot of those were built in the ‘80s,” says Shaw. “And a lot of them are failing now. They've reached their lifespan.”

Where the Elizabeth, James and Nansemond rivers converge and enter the Chesapeake Bay is known collectively as Hampton Roads. In this area, a combination of sea level rise and land subsistence is causing some of the most extensive flooding in the country. Research has shown that natural shorelines are actually better at reducing the impact of flooding than hardened ones, while adding additional ecosystem benefits like wildlife habitat and stormwater management.

It’s for this reason that ERP has done 87 residential shoreline projects since 2014. The nonprofit often designs the restoration site, handles all the construction and engineering (typically with the help of volunteers) and manages the grants needed to pay for the project. Their program, River Star Homes, uses state and city funding to cover part of the costs for the shorelines, typically 50%. There is a waiting list for shoreline projects as the nonprofit can only do 10-12 a year.

“Our small little nonprofit here on the Elizabeth River is now the regional leader in living shorelines, training other organizations on how to do this work,” Shaw said.

Later in the day, the ERP team takes me to the other side of the Lafayette to see a restored shoreline that’s had a few more years to grow in.

At this location, Marie Jensen’s yard connects to a waterfront wetland that is owned by the city. The city picked the spot for restoration because the land was eroding and the wetland grasses were no longer growing. The site also juts out pretty far into the water and breaks up waves, protecting the shoreline behind it.

ERP was selected to revive the shoreline, which they did over multiple phases. Today, the natural shoreline is about 2,000 square feet and includes wetland grasses, beach, trees and oyster castles along the southern portion. Unlike the previous site, these castles have had several years to attract wildlife.

“They’re absolutely covered in oysters and mussels,” says Barbara Gavin, former environmental project manager with ERP.

Right off the shoreline is an oyster reef installed by ERP and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation some years ago, though the tide is too high for me to see it. In 2014, the Lafayette River became the first of eleven tributaries across the Bay to have its oyster habitat restored. This Bay-wide effort has so far resulted in over 2,000 acres of restored reef and is considered the largest oyster restoration project in the world. The Chesapeake Bay Program coordinates this effort and provides funding and monitoring support.

Between the restored shoreline and the reef, habitat conditions have improved greatly for oysters, fish, birds and even dolphins.

“The wildlife that comes in is wonderful,” said homeowner Marie Jenson. “It’s like living next to National Geographic.”

While the first shoreline we visited was tucked into one of the Lafayette's branches, this site offers a more expansive view of the river. Taking in the view of the residences, storefronts and marinas lining the waterway in each direction, I think about all the potential for hardened shorelines to be turned into natural ones. The work is undoubtedly daunting. It's an expensive process that is difficult to navigate. Luckily, conservation groups like ERP can help homeowners with the complicated permitting and funding process, and design solutions that are unique to each property.

As the tides in Hampton Roads continue to rise, communities may have to make a choice between reinforcing their bulkhead or switching to a natural shoreline. For now, I feel fortunate to stand at a spot where a compromise between people and nature has already been made.