About this book:

"Coastal Dune and Saltmarsh Natives" serves as a comprehensive guide for restoring and protecting fragile coastal ecosystems through the strategic use of native plants and nature-based solutions. The book emphasizes understanding the intricate interplay between dunes and saltmarshes, highlighting their roles as biological infrastructure that captures sand, attenuates waves, stores carbon, and provides vital habitat. It systematically details the abiotic drivers shaping these environments—wind, waves, salt, and tides—and categorizes native plants into functional groups based on their ecological roles, such as pioneers, stabilizers, and soil engineers.

The text delves into practical techniques for site assessment, emphasizing the critical importance of evaluating elevation, inundation regimes, soil characteristics, and salinity gradients to inform successful plant selection and placement. It offers detailed guidance on dune stabilization through methods like sand fencing and brush bundles, followed by instruction on planting dunes effectively, including considerations for layouts, spacing, seasonality, and aftercare. Similarly, for saltmarshes, the book covers revegetation strategies tailored to tidal windows, creek edges, and panne recovery, ensuring plants are matched to their specific hydrological needs.

A significant portion of the book is dedicated to "living shorelines," presenting various typologies from vegetated-only approaches to hybrid designs incorporating low-profile structures like rock sills, coir logs, and biogenic breakwaters such as oyster reefs. It explores the suitability and siting of these solutions, linking them to wave climate, sediment supply, and regional plant palettes across Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, and island coasts. Crucially, the book also addresses the restoration of hydrology and sediment pathways, the challenges of invasive species management and nuisance wildlife, and the importance of seed sourcing, genetic diversity, and climate-smart provenancing for long-term resilience.

Beyond the ecological and technical aspects, the book underscores the human dimensions of coastal restoration. It provides practical advice on construction logistics, safety protocols, permitting, policy navigation, and the vital role of interagency coordination. It champions community science, volunteer engagement, and stewardship models as essential for project success and long-term sustainability. The text concludes by discussing monitoring and adaptive management strategies, leveraging tools like drones and GIS, and exploring funding, costs, and the scalability of nature-based solutions through diverse case studies from urban, rural, and tribal shorelines.