As Oregon’s coastline faces growing challenges from coastal erosion, powerful storms, and rising sea levels, new resources from the Cascadia CoPes Hub are helping coastal communities explore alternatives to traditional shoreline armoring.
Oregon’s beaches are dynamic landscapes, constantly shaped by waves, tides, storms, and shifting sand. While these natural processes are essential to our healthy coastal ecosystems, they can also pose challenges for coastal communities and development. As climate change and development increase pressure on our shorelines, finding effective and sustainable ways to manage erosion is more important than ever.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to traditional hard armoring that can help protect coastal communities while preserving the natural processes that make Oregon’s beaches so special.
Introducing the Coastal Erosion Control Snapshots
The Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub (CoPes Hub) recently released a new series of Coastal Erosion Control Snapshots, designed to help landowners and coastal managers better understand the range of strategies available to address coastal erosion in Oregon.
Created by researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Washington, the Snapshots provide accessible illustrations and practical information about different erosion control approaches, including their advantages and disadvantages, appropriate environmental settings, relative costs, permitting considerations, and maintenance requirements.
The snapshots were developed with input from a working group of Oregon state agencies and non-governmental organizations, including Surfrider, with additional feedback from coastal engineers, contractors, planners, and landowners throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Importantly, the Snapshots feature both traditional structural approaches, such as riprap and seawalls, and nature-based solutions that work with natural coastal processes. By presenting these strategies side by side, the resource helps stakeholders better understand the tradeoffs associated with different approaches and identify alternatives that may be appropriate for their shoreline.
Working with Nature, Not Against It
Nature-based solutions offer an important opportunity to rethink how we manage erosion along the Oregon coast. They draw on the natural functions of coastal features such as dunes, composite beaches, vegetation, and marshes to help reduce coastal hazards. These approaches are designed to accommodate dynamic coastal conditions and, depending on the setting, can support natural sediment movement, enhance habitat, and provide additional ecological benefits. Examples highlighted by the CoPes Hub include dynamic revetments, vegetated slope stabilization, and dune enhancement.
Unlike traditional hard armoring structures that interfere with natural processes and contribute to beach narrowing or loss, nature-based solutions can help support more resilient shorelines while preserving the environmental and recreational benefits of our beaches. Although nature-based solutions may not be suitable for every case, they represent an important and underutilized option for coastal erosion management in Oregon. The new Snapshots provide a valuable starting point for exploring where and how these approaches could be implemented.
Why This Matters for Oregon’s Beaches
As sea levels rise and coastal hazards intensify, Oregon faces important decisions about how to protect coastal communities without sacrificing the public beaches we all depend on.
In many areas, coastal development and erosion are creating a growing coastal squeeze, leaving beaches caught between an advancing ocean and development that prevents them from naturally shifting. Traditional hard armoring structures, such as riprap and seawalls, are built to protect individual properties, but they can disrupt natural coastal processes and contribute to the long-term loss of beaches.
Protecting Oregon' s beaches for future generations requires a shift from reactive, property-by-property shoreline defenses toward proactive, adaptable coastal management that considers the future of the entire shoreline. The Coastal Erosion Control Snapshots are an important step toward that goal. By making information about nature-based solutions more accessible, we can explore approaches that better balance community protection with the long-term health of our coastline. Resources like these will help us advance our Oregon Beaches Forever work and support a more resilient future for our coast.