Coastal town erosion (cost of, beaches, gas)

[Curmudgeon]

The good news is that Califrornia doesn't have to break off and fall into the ocean.

The bad news is that the ocean is tired of waiting and it's coming to get you.

Stay or go? Some towns eyeing retreat from sea | Springfield News-Leader | News-Leader.com

[nullgeo]

Interesting to read that some folks are finally coming to the realization that: "there is growing acknowledgment that the sea is relentless". I shoulda been a consultant ... coulda made a fortune dispensing ancient wisdom

I have saltwaterfront up here in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound -- on a bluff with a goat trail down to rocky beach. There is erosion and collapse all up and down my section of the island. Even though we do not face open ocean breakers vicious winter storms do the nasty. Neighbors a couple properties north of me, maybe about 1/2 mile, just won a case with the state to allow them to put in a rip-rap seawall at a cost of about $300,000$ for about 300' of shoreline ... ka-ching! ... which results in 'scouring' wave action adjacent on other properties.

I solved my erosion problem by rolling a bunch of huge root-ball stumps down against the base of my bluff into a natural-looking tangle on my 200' of beach. It is massive enough collectively that the waves can't wash it away. I have no 'scouring' effect as the waves are buffered through the root tangles, rather than smashing into hard rock wall. As each wave recedes it also filters through the tangle allowing buffered flow that does not pull away the natural rock and gravel of the beach.

I paid a friend some money for backhoe gas -- and won the great appreciation of a few folks who didn't know what to do with their stumps

[Curmudgeon]

You and me both, Nullgeo, in the consultant business.

When my wife and I married 16 years ago she wanted to see where I was raised so we had a SoCal honeymoon and I showed her my childhood, island home. It was the first time I'd been back in a good 20+ years. The first thing I noticed was that the beaches, whick used to extend 30 or 40 feet, were now down to about 10-15. It was a marked difference and do ya think it might have had sumpin' ta do with higher sea levels?

[Fontucky]

Water always wins. We are nothing more than a flea on its butt.