Abstract
Natural shorelines provide ecosystem services that are integral to maintaining healthy and resilient coastal ecosystems and communities. However, anthropogenic and environmental stressors are reducing the extent of natural shorelines and, thus, their capacity to provide critical ecosystem services. Small-scale private property owners own an overwhelming majority of waterfront property in coastal Mississippi and Alabama. Therefore, environmentally-focused management of private shorelines can provide large-scale benefits. Unfortunately, the most common shoreline management strategies for private property owners are hardened structures (e.g., bulkheads and seawalls) that are known to impair coastal ecosystems. An alternative to hardened shorelines is living shorelines, which are a collection of shoreline stabilization techniques that incorporate natural materials such as native shoreline plants. To promote living shorelines with private property owners, the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Living Shorelines Program and its partners began producing guidance documents, offering technical assistance, and conducting trainings for private property owners and contractors. Throughout these interactions, property owners and contractors have expressed their potential barriers to living shoreline adoption and needs (living shoreline research, communication, and training). In this presentation, we will discuss the status of addressing those barriers and needs as well as introduce some new living shoreline assistance programs in Mississippi and Alabama.
