Ten feet of shoreline per year is a lot of land for a farmer to lose. When the Alliance learned of this situation at Trossbach Farm in Dameron, Maryland, we went to work on a solution. The Alliance and partners were able to design and implement a living shoreline to preserve the land and prevent thousands of tons of sediment pollution from entering the Chesapeake Bay. In 2024, the Alliance was awarded $3.9 million by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to construct a nearly three-quarter-mile-long living shoreline on the family-run heritage farm to preserve and restore its important marsh and aquatic habitat.

an aerial view of a coastal farm

A bird’s eye view of Trossbach Farm, showing the breakwater structures installed to disrupt wave energy eroding the shoreline

The shoreline design, funded by a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, is now helping reduce wave energy arriving from the 33-mile fetch that’s causing the farm to lose roughly 10 feet of shoreline per year. Once completed this year, the new habitat will benefit a range of native wildlife including fish, crabs, oysters, and birds.

A living shoreline is an engineered coastal system that mimics a natural shoreline and allows our shorelines to be more resilient and adaptive to change like they once were. The majority of the Chesapeake’s shoreline has lost its natural adaptability over the years due to human activity, causing loss of aquatic vegetation, the removal of buffer areas in favor of lawn, and the artificial armoring of shorelines with stone or wooden bulkheads.

a closeup of a sandy beach with various grasses

A living shoreline in Annapolis, MD

This past fall, the breakwater structures were completed, and sand was placed on site. The sand for the shoreline (27,000 cubic yards) was sourced entirely from a stockpile of dredge material from nearby Saint Jerome Creek. The stockpile site is leased and operated by St. Mary’s County, who donated the material to the Alliance for use in the project. Placed during Fall/Winter 2025, the sand is now adjusting naturally for several months before grass plantings begin in May of 2026.

a semicircular rock structure in shallow water

One of the breakwater structures installed on Trossbach Farm, designed to prevent beach or shoreline from washing away

a person looks at a large fallen tree on a beach

This fallen oak was repositioned and integrated into the structure of the new shoreline to help capture sand.

Thank you to Chesapeake Bay Trust, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, St. Mary’s County, Coastal Construction Services, Dameron Contracting, Mariner Science & Exploration, Sustainable Science, and the Trossbach and Wilson families for supporting habitat restoration/preservation. This project demonstrates that when we focus on forming partnerships based on mutually beneficial action, we can go so much further towards a cleaner Chesapeake!

Learn more about living shorelines