Living Shorelines on Lakes and Rivers?

Hi All - New to the forum here and am excited to join this network of living shorelines practitioners and advocates.I am looking to this forum to see if anyone in the community knows of good living shorelines projects in inland rivers and lakes - especially in Pennsylvania and the Midwest/Great Lakes. Any guidance, ideas or contacts in these regions would be greatly appreciated.Thanks! -Zach Zach,There have been a number of natural bank stabilization projects along rivers and in lakes throughout the US. These projects largely have not been labeled as "living shorelines" but they are exactly that. There are some examples of pocket beaches in the Great Lakes and use of marsh sills along tidal creeks/rivers that connect to major estuaries like the Chesapeake, San Francisco Bay, Mobile Bay, etc.Instead of focusing on project "location" in a specific region or water body, I would encourage you instead to focus on these three things: bank elevation/condition; wave energy exposure (e.g., short fetch or long fetch); and local ecology. Just for something a little different, you should check out some of the things that Martin Ecosystems is doing in low wave energy environments throughout Louisiana. Are you aware of the ASCE-COPRI Living Shorelines Database? If not, check this out: mycopri.org/ . And by the way, the database is now accepting user entries so if you have a project to add please let us know.Hi Zach,Suzanne beat me to the punch, but the MI Natural Shoreline Partnership is a great place to start. I'm Vice Chair and would be glad to share what we've put together so far. And we're actually in the process of cataloging all of the natural shorelines on MI inland lakes that we can, but that will be a year long process (or more). You can email me direct at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I'll share what I can. Thanks!Brian MajkaGEI ConsultantsHi Zach,There are lots of great things going on in the Great Lakes. I'd recommend that you start with the Michigan Natural Shoreline Partnership site [ www.mishorelinepartnership.org/ ] as it's a good jumping-off spot. While it's Michigan-focused, other states also host a number of projects, efforts, etc. I'm happy to put you in touch with some folks who have a lot of experience with them - let me know.Best,Suzanne SimonRestore America's Estuaries