With sea levels rising faster in Nova Scotia than almost anywhere in Canada, experts say the need for coastal property owners to take action to mitigate against erosion is more important than ever.
Due to a combination of land subsidence and climate change, it is projected that sea levels here will rise between one and 2½ metres by 2100, while storm surges and wave action exacerbate coastal erosion.
In Nova Scotia, there are thousands of properties located on the coast.
“Climate change is here … and reversing it doesn’t look like it’s actually going to happen in our lifetime, so if that’s not a possibility to fix it from the root end, then we have to take charge of the symptoms and then really engage people at education,” said Rosmarie Lohnes, founder of Helping Nature Heal, an ecological restoration company based in Bridgewater, N.S.
Several initiatives are encouraging property owners implement living shorelines also known as nature-based systems such as wetlands, tidal flats and revegetating the shoreline, rather than popular hard barriers, such as armour stones.
Lohnes said rock walls “are sort of an old technology and old methodology.”
In fact, rock walls come with their own set of problems. Armour stone may protect the individual property, but it causes the wave energy to be deflected to another part of the shoreline, and blocks the natural movement of sediment, exacerbating erosion elsewhere. Waves can also erode around the stone, causing structures to collapse.
Lohnes said she instead encourages people to consider how planting the coast with a particular mix of native species can more effectively slow down erosion. “The right plants in the right place make all the difference, for sure.”
Living shorelines are increasingly recognized as an important form of protection for coastal properties and communities. A 2018 report by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, for instance, recommended retaining and restoring “natural infrastructure,” such as wetlands, as a way of reducing risks for those on the coast.
Lohnes runs a program called Shore Up, which teaches people about living shorelines. In 2019, the group ran a pilot workshop in St. Margarets Bay.
“Lots of people don’t understand the ecosystem that they’re living in,” she said. “And so this is an opportunity to really talk to them about how the plants work, and how they work together, and then what happens when a storm arrives.”
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