Mahone Bay Living Shoreline
Monitoring Summary Now Available!
Our research partner, TransCoastal Adaptations: Centre for Nature-based Solutions at Saint Mary’s University, has been hard at work collecting data and monitoring our living shoreline demonstration site. They’ve compiled their findings into a report that is now available!
Visit the Research page to view the 2021 - 2023 Monitoring Summary!
Expansion Announcement!
We are thrilled to announce that we are preparing to continue construction of the Mahone Bay living shoreline! This next phase of the project plans to see another approximately 100-meters along the shoreline installed with a vegetated bank, tidal wetland restoration, and rock sills!
We are busy working away getting everything in order to be shovel-ready in 2024! Join us in celebrating along with our project partners, the Town of Mahone Bay, TransCoastal Adaptations: Centre for Nature-based Solutions at Saint Mary’s University, CB Wetland and Environmental Specialists, and CBCL Limited!
This project is supported by the Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund, delivered by the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities on behalf of the Province of Nova Scotia. To read more about the announcement of this funding for our project, visit this link: https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20231123004.
November 28, 2023
Winter Update
This first, unseasonably warm winter for the living shoreline is providing ample opportunities for adaptive management and research. Our project partners, TransCoastal Adaptations, are studying the capacity of the shoreline to buffer against climate change in areas exposed to freeze-thaw winter conditions.
With our temperatures staying mostly above freezing, the ground hasn’t been able to freeze and stay frozen, yet this season. Fluctuating temperatures over the winter can damage soil and plants because it leaves the soil loose and at risk of erosion by wind and rain. This can leave the plants’ roots exposed to cold and harsh conditions.
We are mitigating these challenges by repurposing Christmas trees! We have taken the boughs off some Christmas trees and interlocked them at the base of our vegetated bank shrubs, which provides both stabilization to the soil and protection from winter conditions as an insulating layer of ground cover. We are also using Christmas trees at the base of the vegetated bank to provide further protection to the site from storm surge events at high tide.
We are continuing to monitor the site and will be providing adaptive management as needed. Adaptive management is the process of decision-making based on changing conditions. It is also a normal and expected component of any nature-based infrastructure project and helps to ensure the success of a newly installed project!
January 23, 2023
Hurricane Fiona Update
The living shoreline has survived hurricane Fiona! The storm came through Nova Scotia on September 24, 2022 causing major damage throughout the province and Atlantic Canada. Fortunately, the impacts of the storm weren’t seen as harshly in the Mahone Bay Harbour, where the living shoreline is located, as other parts of the province and Atlantic Canada. All of the newly installed plant material survived the high winds without damage or upheaval from the site, and there was no major movement of sediment from the increased precipitation over such a short time.
Data was collected before, during, and after the storm, and will be analyzed and compiled into the final report in 2023. We chose to keep the silt curtain, the yellow buoy-style fence seen in the photos, in the nearshore water for the majority of our typical hurricane season. This was done as a just-in-case since the site was so recently installed and the plants are still trying to establish. The silt fence will be removed now that the majority of hurricane season has passed. The photos below were taken in October.
November 22, 2022
Project Update
Construction of the living shoreline has been completed! We are now moving into our monitoring stage. Thanks to the help of volunteers and community members there are 1250 plants within the vegetated bank and tidal marsh of the living shoreline. Research will continue to be conducted to measure the impacts of this natural infrastructure, the results of which will be compiled into a report in 2023.
It is crucial that the plants, vegetated bank, and tidal marsh are not disturbed, especially while they are still establishing their root systems. We ask that visitors to the site respect the work that has been done and stay off of the natural infrastructure as the plants are particularly sensitive right now.
Before photo
After photo
SEPTEMBER 8, 2022
JULY 20, 2022
JUNE 1, 2022