What is a Bioengineered Shoreline?
- Josh Serpe ~ FNLC Project Manager
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
If you travel along the roads bordering Lake Champlain, or are fortunate enough to explore it by boat, you’ll notice the many homes that line the lake. They vary in shape, size, and color, but a closer look reveals even more differences. How close is each house to the water? Is it visible from the shoreline? Does the property include a seawall, a lawn extending to the water’s edge, gardens, rocks, logs, or easy shoreline access? Or is the home partially hidden behind trees, shrubs, and native habitat?
Traditional shoreline management often involved installing seawalls to protect homes, improve access, or preserve lake views. However, these approaches can be expensive and may negatively impact shoreline habitat and lake health. Today, many of these goals can be achieved through more ecological methods that work with natural systems rather than against them. Let me introduce you to bioengineering.
What Is Bioengineering?
Whether referred to as green engineering, soft engineering, or lake scaping, bioengineered shorelines are designed to mimic natural ecosystems while stabilizing and protecting the shoreline from stormwater runoff, waves, and, therefore, erosion. These approaches use biodegradable materials such as coir logs made from densely packed coconut fiber, along with soil and native vegetation, to stabilize the shore, reduce erosion, and create a resilient shoreline buffer. Together, these elements help slow runoff, hold soil in place, and reduce the amount of nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen entering the lake.
Bioengineered shorelines offer several important benefits: they help protect and improve water quality, create valuable wildlife habitat, and are often more cost-effective than traditional hardscaping methods. They are great alternatives to the large riprap stones along the shoreline and to seawalls by creating a structural shoreline that removes vegetation. Again, and this cannot be stressed enough, the goal over time is for the planted vegetation to establish and hold the soil in place. The coir logs will also decompose as the plants establish and mimic a natural shore-to-lake zone that is critical for natural shoreline landscapes.
Is a Bioengineered Shoreline Right for Me?
It is important to understand that a bioengineered shoreline may not work for every property. While these practices are effective on flatter properties with minimal existing hardscaping, bioengineered shorelines can become more challenging on steep slopes or in areas experiencing severe erosion. It should be noted that any work below your lake’s high-water mark may require permitting. To learn more about the ins and outs of bioengineering, please visit this page for the
Vermont Bioengineering Handbook: Vermont DEC Bioengineering Handbook
It is best to connect with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation lakeshore permitting office to better understand which practices can be installed. Visit the Vermont Lakes and Permitting page for more information here: Vermont DEC Lakes and Ponds Permitting
But if you think a bioengineered shoreline may be right for your property, or you want to learn more about the health of your lakeshore, a great place to start is with a free Lake Wise assessment! Sign up here: FREE Lake Wise Assessments.
What’s on the Horizon?
The Friends of Northern Lake Champlain, in partnership with the project lead, Grand Isle County Natural Resources Conservation District, and the South Hero Land Trust, are currently working with the Town of South Hero on a bioengineered shoreline project at the Town Beach site. This project will provide an opportunity for community members and partner organizations to see firsthand how bioengineered shorelines can serve both public recreation needs and shoreline health. We look forward to sharing more information as the final design is complete and implementation begins! Please view the most recent project update here: April 2026 Project Update.
