A new grant-funded project will develop critical tools to encourage shoreline property owners to make their shorelines greener. Tools will include a voluntary rating system for shoreline development, along with incentives.
The City of Seattle, San Juan County, Washington Sea Grant and Islands Trust in British Columbia are partnering on the Green Shores for Homes grant.
The project will focus on both freshwater and marine shorelines.
More than 70 percent of the Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish shorelines are lined with bulkheads, rip rap or other armoring. Along Puget Sound shorelines, 25 to 60 percent of the shoreline is armored. These hard shorelines don’t provide shelter and limit food for fish, birds and other wildlife. They have also lost their natural function of replenishing beaches with sediment.