Living shorelines are a green infrastructure technique using native vegetation alone or in combination with low sills to stabilize the shoreline. Living shorelines provide a natural alternative to ‘hard’ shoreline stabilization methods like rip rap or bulkheads, and provide numerous benefits including nutrient pollution remediation, essential fish habitat structure, and buffering of shorelines from waves and storms. Research indicates that living shorelines are more resilient than bulkheads in protecting against the effects of hurricanes.
The Reef Ball Foundation initially concentrated on coral reef restoration. Hundreds of projects ranged from designed artificial reefs to storm, tsunami and construction-related damage mitigation to developing and implementing groundbreaking coral propagation and planting systems. We have continually expanded our technology to meet the challenges of other environmental problems as well: protection and restoration of specific marine habitats such as turtle and bird conservation; estuary restoration; mangrove restoration; oyster restoration; and erosion control.
Reef Ball’s growth has been directly related to our technology’s flexibility and expanding use in a wide range of applications and a perfect example has been its recently proven effectiveness in Living Shorelines projects.
