Shoreline Protection

Erosion is the water doing work on your land. Shoreline protection is about taking that energy out, keeping the soil where it is, and doing it in a way that suits the site — its exposure, its slope, its soil and the regulations that apply to it.

We have been protecting Delmarva shorelines since 1980, and since 1996 that has included the nature-based methods Bart Hastings helped develop with DNREC.

Which one does your shoreline need?

• Rip-Rap armors the shoreline directly with DelDOT-rated stone, sized to the exposure. The dependable answer for a shoreline under sustained wave and wake.
• Living Shorelines use vegetation, stone and natural materials in a site-specific design. They suit the right site well; they are generally not suited to steep or sharply defined banks that need significant soil retention.
• Erosion Control places offshore rip-rap sills waterward of the shoreline, reducing wave energy before it reaches land — and sometimes making room for vegetation to establish behind them.

And where the shoreline needs a vertical wall to retain soil, that is a bulkhead. When we look at your site, we will tell you which of these we would build on our own property, and why.