Headline: The Living shoreline project gives UNE students the opportunity to take positive action in the face of climate change.

 By: Kayleigh Duncan 

 At the University Of New England under the guidance of Dr. Pam Morgan (professor of environmental studies), students in the Gulf of Maine field studies class are delving into innovative strategies to safeguard the coastlines surrounding the university’s picturesque campus. 

Their mission: Combat erosion and protect the delicate marine ecosystems that thrive along the shores. Students are actively investigating the feasibility of implementing living shorelines on campus. Living shorelines are characterized by their “green” approach harnessing the power of nature through strategic use of plants and other natural elements to fortify vulnerable coastal areas.

Morgan said “a living shoreline will help protect UNE’s campus from coastal erosion while protecting the plants and animals that students utilize in their environmental and marine classes and research — organisms that have called Saco Bay home long before the University was ever established.”

For the Living Shoreline Project, UNE is collaborating with UNE students, engineers, and the Saco Watershed Collaborative, which would help get the word out about the project. To construct the project, UNE will need to acquire permits from Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Saco River Corridor Commission, and others.

Coastal erosion on the Biddeford campus is an issue for several reasons: Geographic location, Soft rocks on the Shorelines, Sea level rise, Storm events and finally Human activities. UNE has recognized the severity of this issue for the past decade. The university has even made a documentary called “Reckoning with Climate Change in the Gulf of Maine,” where it features some of the main issues the shorelines are facing. 

In the documentary Charles Tilberg director of Marine programs at UNE stated “The gulf of Maine is important for two main reasons. One, it supports an incredibly large fishery, but what’s more important to me as a scientist is the fact that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the rest of the ocean. This is a testbed for what’s going to happen over the next 40-50 years all throughout the world’s ocean.” 

Other faculty members also had a lot to say about this issue. Susan Faraday, Professor of Marine Affairs, said that “Ultimately, I think we will need some changes in the Law because it’s not built to regulate really dynamic and changing ecosystems”.  Morgan also said “When looking at the future predictions by 2100 in the best case scenario for sea level rise we will lose 60% of our coastal marshes and if we do nothing to take greenhouse gasses out of the Air we will lose 90%.” 

Much of the shoreline along UNE’s campus in Biddeford is on the Saco River, including fringing salt marshes. These coastal wetlands provide many benefits to people and help sustain biodiversity. Salt marshes are known to help clean water as they are a nursery ground for juvenile fish and provide habitat for many plants and animals, including birds such as great blue herons. They also protect the shoreline from wave action. Therefore, all of these crucial components would be lost if the marshes were to erode away.

In January 2024 UNE was awarded a two-year, $138,432 grant from the Builders Initiative and the Broad Reach Fund, through the Maine Community Foundation, for the development of a living shoreline on its campus using green methods. This grant is a result of the tireless research efforts that students and faculty have put into the living shoreline project since the beginning of 2020. The money from the grant has helped students from the Living Shoreline Project plant an abundance of different plants along the shorelines.

This is one of the best techniques because the plants, particularly those with deep and extensive root systems, such as grasses, shrubs, and trees, help bind soil together. Plants are good because the vegetation can absorb the energy of the incoming waves. Plants will also protect the shorelines against the coastal wind.  

The money is also helping students collect data before and after the construction to help monitor the project’s success. Because this project includes helping to restore the fringing salt marsh along the shoreline, students have been collecting data on marsh birds, plants, elevation, sedimentation rates, and erosion.

Students have played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for the living shoreline project. They have conducted comprehensive assessments of bank stability, evaluating the structure, and functionality of salt marshes analyzing their susceptibility to erosion. 

Sources: 

https://www.une.edu/news/2020/building-sustainable-shorelines-withstand-tides

https://www.une.edu/une-awarded-140k-develop-living-shoreline