The Few, the Proud, the Marines and Volunteers Who Built a Living Shoreline

In 2022, The Nature Conservancy of South Carolina engaged Robinson Design Engineers to provide design and permitting support for 2,000 feet of living shoreline along the Broad River in Beaufort, SC. The project is located in the Laurel Bay community of Port Royal Island, part of the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

Volunteers building an oyster castle living shoreline reef near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort (Photo: Lance Cpl. Kyle Baskin/U.S. Marine Corps, via NOAA Fisheries)

The goal of the project is to protect a segment shoreline that has been eroding due to persistent boat wake and to foster the regrowth of a natural oyster reef and intertidal marsh vegetation. The project was supported with grant funding by the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation, and constructed by volunteers from the local community, DoD personnel, and the Sustainability Institute’s Environmental Conservation Corps—who worked to place nearly 42,000 Oyster Castles — a proprietary living shoreline system of interlocking concrete blocks. One of the first living shoreline projects permitted along the South Carolina coast, the project was technically challenging and required close coordination with the project sponsor, state and federal permitting officials, and Department of Defense staff.

Illustration of Oyster Castle living shoreline by Robinson Design Engineers. 

This project is helping The Nature Conservancy and other partners to expand its community assistance program to build living shorelines along the properties of residents in historically marginalized coastal communities, including within the Gullah Geechee Natural Heritage Area.

Read more in this Feature Story by NOAA Fisheries or in this article by the Post & Courier.