The living shoreline project in Deale, Anne Arundel County, was completed with plantings in 2023. Maryland Department of Natural Resources photo.
Spring is a season when we celebrate nature’s emergence and revival, and it’s also when we recognize its awesome and sometimes devastating power. In April, we celebrated Arbor Day with a renewed purpose to plant more trees and at the same time recognized Flood Awareness Month with goals to better protect our lives and communities.
In fact, the planting of trees and resilience against rising waters are closely linked. The roots of native trees and shrubs absorb water, prevent erosion, and serve as a sustainable, renewable means of flood remediation. The Maryland Forest Service website has a list of recommended buffering trees and shrubs for residents dealing with recurring flood issues.
On a larger scale, trees and grasses are essential parts of living shorelines, which use nature-based erosion control, such as marsh plantings, breakwaters, and other natural features to reduce erosion and flooding, protect infrastructure, lower long-term costs, support working waterfronts, and strengthen coastal resilience.
Sea level rise and erosion have converted an estimated 29,100 acres of upland forests and farms to tidal marsh since 1984. Models project that sea level rise could lead to the loss of a third of the Eastern Shore’s high marsh by 2050.
The “ghost forests” of dead trees along the lower Shore already tell part of the story of saltwater intrusion and the problems it creates in low-lying areas. These vulnerable rural areas are experiencing the effects of rising sea levels and more intense storms.
To expand our efforts to deal with these ongoing issues, this month the Department of Natural Resources and our partners will announce a new initiative called Roots for Resilience. This program will provide funding for living shoreline projects, tree plantings, and marsh restoration on the Eastern Shore. We will make new investments that will make ecosystems and communities more resilient by protecting people, property, and infrastructure while also improving wildlife habitat.
This work will ultimately help save taxpayer dollars. These green solutions such as planting more trees along river banks, reconnecting marshland to historic flood plains, and reducing erosion on shorelines are generally far less costly than grey solutions such as levees, armored shorelines, and massive underground storage tanks.
In a warming world, we must acknowledge nature’s power as a threat, but by implementing nature-based solutions we can work with nature to protect our communities.
Josh Kurtz is Secretary of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
