Residents Reclaim and Improve Riverbank

Program or Category: Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA)/ Conservation Education / Earth Team

Overview: Whitings Neck Farm Estates Homeowners Association are launching their second year of streambank stabilization work along the 4500 feet of the Potomac River that makes up the 43 lot subdivision’s commonly held recreation land. Residents became alarmed with the extreme loss of streambank through erosion and undercutting caused by the wave action of the many boats on this section of the Potomac. Dr. Betty Beckley, who organized the residents said, “This river is our community’s ‘front door’, and we were losing it, bit by bit.”

Limited funds and complicated permit requirements were the major impediments to controlling the erosive waves. They contacted local NRCS District Conservationist, Rebecca MacLeod, to come up a method to repair the bare, vertical banks. An innovative approach was conceived using cut red cedar trees that homeowners, as Earth Team volunteers, fabricate into wave dissipation rolls and branch mats planted with native trees and shrubs. “What’s taking place on our waterfront will pay dividends for years by retaining the natural values that drew us here in the first place. The support that NRCS has devoted to this project just might serve as a model for how government can motivate homeowners to protect our environment,” said Whitings Neck Homeowners Association President Bill Hannon.

Accomplishments: Thirty individuals have contributed over 600 hours reclaiming and improving 500 feet of riverbank.

Program Benefits to Landowner: Residents were exposed to a common sense, economical solution that they felt personally responsible for achieving.

Program Benefits to Community: Articles on the project and visits to the site by other agency personnel and elected officials have encouraged others to look for non-traditional approaches to solving problems.

Contact Information:

Cedar logs anchored at the base of the streambank dissipate wave energy.


 

Brush mattress of cut cedars is placed under fence on the streambank.


 

Earth Team volunteers lace three wrapped cedars together to form a cedar econo-log.  Wave action
 

Volunteers place use cut red cedars to stabilize an eroding streambank on the Potomac River.

 

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