Over the past five years, homeowners have participated in the Shore Friendly Kitsap program, receiving cost-share mini-grants as well as technical and permitting assistance. They have helped landowners accomplish 14 shoreline projects (and counting!) that have enhanced the environment and the natural beauty of their shorelines. While we all may be living a more insular life right now, we hope you enjoy these success stories, and check out the online resources to explore how our shorelines can be more “friendly.”
Mike Schiller, a homeowner in Oyster Bay, Bremerton, participated in the Shore Friendly Kitsap program. With assistance from the program, Mike completed a bulkhead removal project on his shoreline property. While not having specific design in mind when starting the project, by removing the decaying timber bulkhead, he was able to create a more beautiful, naturalized beach. “We’ve been really happy and pleased with the results,” Schiller reflected, “it has activated the back yard… now it’s much more inviting.” (Spoiler Alert – see the amazing before and after photos from this project around 6:12 in the video above!)
Interested in hearing from other landowners? Property owners Sheri and Michael Flynn, who live on 200 feet of waterfront on Miller Bay in North Kitsap, have written about the ups and downs, and ultimate success, of their soft shore project. As they say, their project was “a lesson in patience, persistence and perseverance,” but the outcome will be favorable both to them and the environment.
Before and after photos are available for many of the projects.
Shoreline Armoring
A functioning, resilient Puget Sound ecosystem includes dynamic shorelines maintained by coastal processes, such as shoreline erosion and ecological exchange between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Shorelines are among the most valuable and fragile of our natural resources. 29 percent of the shoreline has been armored to protect public and private property, ports and marinas, roads and railways, and other uses. Shoreline armoring, the practice of constructing bulkheads (also known as seawalls) and rock revetments, disrupts the natural process of erosion, which supplies much of the sand and gravel that forms and maintains our beaches and creates habitat for many other species.
About Shore Friendly Kitsap
Shore Friendly Kitsap’s mission is to empower Puget Sound waterfront landowners to create beautiful, environmentally friendly shoreline s for themselves and generations to come. Shore Friendly Kitsap is a parternship of Kitsap County, WSU Extension Kitsap, and Washington Sea Grant. For more information on Shore Friendly Kitsap’s shore-front restoration resources, please visit us at www.shorefriendlykitsap.com.
Did you know?
One of the main goals of the Shoreline Armoring Implementation Strategy is to support marine shoreline landowner incentive programs throughout Puget Sound. Throughout the Sound, a number of organizations provide a range of educational opportunities as well as technical and financial assistance.
The Habitat Strategic Initiative is proud to have supported this project and look forward to seeing more successes from this and other Shore Friendly Projects. This project, based on NTA 2016-0196, was chosen for funding by the West Central LIO and funded by the Habitat Strategic Initiative in 2016. Check out our funding page to see other Shoreline Armoring projects we have supported!