Washington Sea Grant

Shoreline monitoring is often a desired or required goal of volunteer groups and local entities, but protocols and guidelines can be hard to find and misleading if not used appropriately. To overcome these obstacles, Washington Sea Grant, working with the Puget Sound Partnership and Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program Nearshore Work Group, has standardized approaches for monitoring and a “toolbox” of protocols and information. The toolbox emphasizes methods that are simple and affordable, and that can be used for monitoring restoration sites and evaluating status and trends. In addition, Washington Sea Grant coordinates volunteer monitoring at select shoreline restoration sites.  Shoreline monitoring provides a baseline for erosion and vegetation that can be used to inform restoration projects and shoreline management decisions in the near-term and provide a long-term reference as climate change and sea level rise influence conditions in the nearshore.