Bohemia River State Park - Living Shoreline

Cecil County Department of Public Works is partnering with the Maryland Park Service to construct a living shoreline demonstration project at Bohemia River State Park. The park is a valuable community asset and has been experiencing erosion of its shoreline due to boat wake and storm surge, becoming increasingly vulnerable to the future impacts of sea level rise. The project will install approximately 1,000 linear feet of native trees, shrubs, grasses, and marsh vegetation with five vegetated rock sills and three log sill structures in order to mitigate current erosion, enhance wildlife and aquatic habitat, improve water quality, and provide for new educational opportunities in concert with improved public access to the water and a future observation platform.

The average bank height for this section of shoreline is five feet, with an estimated erosion rate of 0.669 linear feet per year and 3,345 cubic feet of soil per year. Due to bank erosion, there is little intertidal or backshore zone. There are no beaches, but there is a low marsh zone in the middle of the site with invasive pressure from phragmites. The phragmites competes with native vegetation for resources, and invasive vines threaten the single strip of trees along the bank. The project area is located within FEMA's 100-year floodplain, with a shoreward extent of approximately 150 feet in from the current shoreline. The inundation area projected by the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, factoring in sea level rise by the year 2100 combined with a 100-year storm event, shows the shoreward extent increasing to approximately 300 feet in from the current shoreline. The eastern section of the site is presently categorized as having a low Marsh Protection Potential.

The project will help to reduce active erosion along the shoreline by buffering wave action, retaining soil using native vegetation, and promoting natural sediment deposition. It will restore habitat in intertidal and backshore zones by removing phragmites in select marsh locations as well as invasive vines along the banks and replacing them with a variety of native species including trees, shrubs, grasses, and emergent vegetation. The project will mitigate current flood hazards and provide habitat for future marsh migration.