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Living shoreline project underway at Mispillion Harbor

Part of Mispillion Harbor’s shoreline is getting an environmental facelift.

The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary is finishing their final living shoreline project for the year to help fend off erosion along the Delaware Bay.

Crews from the organization began planting marsh grasses on top of coconut fiber logs along the front of the DuPont Nature Center Tuesday morning.

Jennifer Adkins, executive director for the partnership, says this approach doesn’t prevent wildlife from using the shoreline like other manmade barriers can.

‘“Something like riprap or a bulkhead can be very effective if you’re just looking at trying to protect something from that erosion, but you lose a lot of the ecological benefits by doing that because you cut off that land-water interaction,” said Adkins.

Since it’s a newer technique, Adkins adds these projects will be more maintenance intensive than other methods.

“So that maybe every five years or so, you’re just putting in one or two new logs and maintaining and shoring up some of the things you already have as the conditions there are also changing,”said Adkins.

DNREC’s Water Infrastructure Advisory Council awarded the organization a more than $100,000 grant for the initiative.

Other living shoreline projects were installed in Lewes, the Indian River Marina and in Money Island, New Jersey.