NC State Students Learn about Living Shorelines
NC State students enrolled in a Nature-based Solutions course recently visited the Morehead City area, where they learned about the importance of living shorelines. According to Dr. Stacy Zhang, who is teaching the course, “Nature-based solutions are actions that incorporate natural features and processes to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use, and manage natural or modified ecosystems to address social and environmental challenges while providing measurable co-benefits to both people and nature.”
Zhang said that one of the highlights of the trip was a boat excursion around the waters of Beaufort and Morehead City, NC. The class visited Sugarloaf Island to see first-hand the large scale shoreline restoration project that was installed this past summer. At Sugarloaf, the group met with Dr. Niels Lindquist (UNC) and Mr. Brian Rubino (Quible & Associates), who were both involved in designing and installing materials for the project, as well as post-installation monitoring. Zhang said students, “learned about the different future activities that may also occur at the island, why the project occurred to begin with, and how its functioning in terms of wave mitigation and a fish habitat!”
From sugarloaf, the group visited carrot island’s shoreline restoration project. The week before the trip, Ms. Boshek, Senior Coastal Engineer for Moffatt & Nichol (featured in the link) visited the class to talk to discuss the process of designing, permitting, and installing the project, as well as how the firm went about speaking with nearby homeowners.
After the Carrot Island trip, students toured the NC State Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST) and community college shorelines, where they discussed the different approaches to living shorelines based on wave intensity.
On the second day of the field trip, the class went to Hammocks Beach State Park where Rachel Bisesi of the NC Coastal Federation graciously gave a tour of the living shorelines and discussed stormwater management. Students are pictured standing on the quick reef is at Hammocks Beach State Park.
