Boothbay Region Clean Drinking Water Initiative’s second From Forests to Faucets Lecture, Tuesday, April 8 at 5:30 p.m., at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden’s Bosarge Education Center.

Over the last few years, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Maine Climate and Science Information Exchange at the University of Maine have been partnering with natural resource agency staff, university faculty, municipal officials, and design professionals to develop “O.U.R.  S.H.O.R.E”. OUR SHORE is intended to provide guidance and training for using nature-based tools to protect against shoreline erosion, while preserving and restoring natural functions to these important areas. OUR SHORE is a method of comparing options for shoreline stabilization so landowners, contractors, designers, and others can customize solutions for shoreline erosion in a manner that preserves or improves shoreline habitat, functions, and long-term resilience. The OUR SHORE approach relies on targeting the contributing sources of erosion and instability to select and combine tools that will address these causes using the least intervention necessary while using natural, biodegradable or living materials. The guidance provides techniques and considerations to include habitat and shoreline functions into the design of any project, even when riprap is used, so the outcome over time is a naturalized and more resilient shoreline.