Photo: Sarah Trent | High Country News
A few years ago, North Cove, Washington, had the fastest-eroding shoreline on the US Pacific Coast. The community lost more than four square miles of land plus a lighthouse, a cannery, and 160 structures. Now, a berm that began with $400 of rock dropped by cranberry farmer David Cottrell in 2016 has already influenced projects nearby and in California, Europe and Guam. It has since grown into a more than 2-kilometer-long berm of rocks and stumps that shift with the waves and collect sand, rebuilding the beach, and putting North Cove at the forefront of a global shift in how communities protect their coastlines as sea levels rise. In 2016, a group led by Charlene Nelson, chairwoman of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe, used a $600,000 state grant to make a long cobble berm along the top of the beach. The first year both were in place, the beach grew by about 50 feet.
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