.jpg)
Hillsmere Shores Marina
Hillsmere Shores Community Marina
Watershed: South River/Duvall Creek
Restoration Approach: Living Shoreline and Habitat Creation
Status: Under Construction (as of November 2024)
Project Sponsors: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
AA County Bureau of Watershed Protection and Restoration
Maryland State Bond Program
Construction Contractor: Resource Restoration Group
Arundel Rivers Federation has partnered with the Hillsmere Shores Improvement Association to install a 650-foot-long marsh and living shoreline along their community marina, a sand spit peninsula. After completing numerous smaller stormwater best management practices together, we have identified this site as the community’s highest priority for coastal resiliency due to ongoing threats to infrastructure from increasing storm surges. This location has significant need due to the damaging high tides that periodically wash into and over the bulkhead and the riprap that lines the only access road leading onto the sand spit and community marina. With a lack of natural buffers against flooding and climate change, this area is increasingly vulnerable and the areas behind the riprap are frequently washed out. The peninsula will continually erode without intervention, which will require more costly and hardened infrastructure and impervious surfaces to repair and maintain the community’s recreational access to the area. Coupled with the opportunity to restore habitat to over 650 linear feet of shoreline, Arundel Rivers is excited to break ground on our largest project to date within the Hillsmere community.
Before
In order to create 650 feet of new marsh habitat and prepare the marina for future storm surges, the shoreline will be bolstered with sand, rock, woody debris, and grasses. Widely spaced headland breakwaters will absorb and combined 18,000 square feet of habitat. This project will provide ecological lift through water quality improvements and the creation of pollinator, dune, marsh, beach, and shallow water habitat. The sand beach area will provide habitat for terrapins and horseshoe crabs. Fish and other estuarine invertebrates can seek shelter in the coves and amongst the woody debris. Oyster reef balls will serve to help disrupt wave action and create new oyster habitat. Conservation plantings and dune grasses will help filter polluted rain water and hold the soil in place during storms as well as create a migration corridor for tidal marsh as sea levels rise.
Construction
The Hillsmere Shores community holds 1,200 family homes, as well as the Key School, a private, pre-K-12 school. Arundel Rivers has a longstanding, excellent relationship with both stakeholders and regularly partners with each for Best Management Practice (BMP) maintenance as well as outdoor education programming for students. Arundel Rivers looks forward to engaging both the students and residents in the shoreline project during the implementation phase and planting projects post completion. Additionally, Hillsmere Marina has been the largest Marylanders Grow Oysters (MGO) site for Arundel Rivers for years, and the Arundel Rivers bacteria monitoring program seasonally monitors both the marina and the community beach.
**This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 4I-95300101 to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document.