Our Cost-Sharing Programs Protect Your Home And The Environment 

Interested in restoring the shoreline along your riverside home? Thanks to generous funders, we may be able help share the cost for eligible projects. Living Shorelines and Shoreline Buffers help protect your property from erosion, restore wildlife habitat and help your home adapt to tidal flooding and sea level rise. Learn more and get started today!

What Living Shorelines & Shoreline Buffers Do

• Prevent Erosion And Land Loss by Creating Wetland Habitat
• Reduce Polluted Runoff From Your Property
• Discourage Geese From Entering Your Yard
• Attract Butterflies And Songbirds With Salt-Tolerant Native Flowers And Shrubs

How Living Shorelines Work

Living shorelines use plants, sand and other natural materials to create a stabilized coastal edge. An eco-friendly alternative to “hardened shorelines” like concrete seawalls, they help purify water, buffer floods, reduce erosion, store carbon and create habitat for wildlife.

Salt Tolerant Native Plants

Explore this informative PDF highlighting a variety of Virginia’s salt tolerant plants, perfect for enhancing your coastal landscaping projects. Take a step towards creating a beautiful and thriving coastal garden by clicking the image below!

What we’ll do

We’ll consider sharing restoration costs with any riverside homeowner that meets the following requirements:

1. Own a tidal shoreline in the Elizabeth River watershed that is eroding or at risk of erosion
2. Enrolled in the Elizabeth River Project’s free River Star Homes program
3. Agree to convert at least 60 linear feet to living shoreline
4. Agree to maintain the shoreline as a living shoreline and allow annual evaluation by Elizabeth River Project staff and/or project funder. See the following document for an example maintenance document: Living Shoreline Long Term Maintenance Plan
5. Join or renew as an Elizabeth River Project member upon completion of the installation

Living Shorelines

• Free site visit from our restoration staff and technical advice
• Project design with $100 deposit applied to project cost upon installation
• Restoration staff can design and permit the process on behalf of the homeowner
• ERP staff will install the project or work with a local marine contractor; Homeowner can also choose their own preferred contractor if necessary
• ERP can cover some of the cost of the project, typically up to 50% to a maximum of ($5,000) but additional funding assistance may be available for qualifying projects as funding is available.
• ERP staff will provide a long-term maintenance plan including 1-, 2-, and 5-year annual check-ins. 

Shoreline Buffers

• Free site visit and technical advice
• Project design with $100 deposit applied to project cost upon installation
• ERP staff will install the project or work with a local landscape contractor; Homeowner can also choose their own preferred contractor if necessary
• ERP can cover some of the cost of the project, typically up to 50% to a maximum of ($2,000) but additional funding assistance may be available for qualifying projects as funding is available.
• ERP staff will provide a riparian buffer long term maintenance plan
• Long term maintenance plan includes 1-, 2-, and 5-year annual check-ins. 

From the permitting process, they’ve been there every step of the way. For me, it was about bringing the water quality back up. And it saves your land.

Tom Ivey
River Star Home

How to Apply