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Arundel Rivers Federation is partnering with the Hillsmere Shores Improvement Association to install a 650-foot-long marsh along their community marina, a sand spit peninsula. After completing numerous smaller stormwater best management practices together, we have identified this site as the community’s highest priority for coastal resiliency due to ongoing threats to infrastructure from increasing storm surges. This location has significant need due to the damaging high tides that periodically wash into and over the bulkhead and the riprap that lines the only access road leading onto the sand spit and community marina. With a lack of natural buffers against flooding and climate change, this area is increasingly vulnerable and the areas behind the riprap are frequently washed out. The peninsula will continually erode without intervention, which will require more costly and hardened infrastructure and impervious surfaces to repair and maintain the community’s recreational access to the area. Coupled with the opportunity to restore habitat to over 650 linear feet of shoreline, Arundel Rivers is excited to break ground on our largest project to date within the Hillsmere community.
Project goals include:
Increase the resiliency of the sand spit marina against the impacts of climate change and increasing storm intensity.
Design a shoreline that considers the historic nature of the sand spit and how the area has evolved over the past century to replicate a more natural and dynamic system.
Create new dune and marsh habitat that will provide benefits to Bay wildlife.
Create new oyster habitat through the installation of oyster reef balls, some of which will be set with spat.
Provide water quality benefits to the Bay and South River by reducing and preventing shoreline erosion and filtering excess nutrients from stormwater runoff.
Maintain invaluable water and recreation access to the South River for a community of over 1,200 homes.
The rock headland structures are engineered to maximize protection of the sand spit from a combination of winter and summer storm surges and wave action while also keeping the project cost effective. According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Shoreline Management in the Chesapeake Bay, the headland control method keeps the overall cost of shoreline stabilization down because it relies on a few strategically placed structures to protect long stretches of shoreline and reduces the linear feet of traditional structures needed.
The project will create over 8,000 square feet of high marsh and over 10,000 square feet of dune habitat, allowing the project to accomplish the habitat goals described above. Widely spaced headland breakwaters will absorb and direct the wave energy to maintain stable, crescent-shaped beaches with a combined 18,000 square feet of habitat. This project will provide ecological lift through water quality improvements and the creation of pollinator, dune, marsh, beach, and shallow water habitat. The sand beach area will provide habitat for terrapins and horseshoe crabs. Fish and other estuarine invertebrates can seek shelter in the coves and amongst the woody debris. Oyster reef balls will serve to help disrupt wave action and create new oyster habitat. Conservation plantings and dune grasses will help filter stormwater run-off and hold the soil in place during storms as well as create a migration corridor for tidal marsh as sea levels rise.
**This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 4I-95300101 to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.