Greenwood Beach Restoration Project
About
Greenwood Beach is the beach shoreline area along a public park in Tiburon. The project site was historically a larger, wider barrier beach that sheltered a non-tidal salt marsh with shallow seasonal ponds. Today, the shoreline includes:
- Broad intertidal mudflats
- A flood channel delta
- A small salt marsh patch
- Two small pocket beaches, surrounded by old bay fill and shoreline armoring
Over the years, additional fill materials including asphalt, concrete rubble, and sand were placed to combat wave erosion of the park's shoreline. However, the shoreline has continued to erode, as waves scatter fill materials away from the shoreline and onto adjacent mudflats. Given this, the Greenwood Beach Restoration project is working to develop a more sustainable, nature-based "living shoreline" approach to managing the beach shoreline.
Living shoreline techniques reinforce the shoreline and minimize coastal erosion, while restoring natural habitats for native plants and animals. Through strategic placement of native vegetation and natural materials such as sand, gravel, and cobble, bay beaches can protect shoreline systems and the tidal marshes behind them from further erosion.
Project Goals
- Demonstrate bay beaches as a living shoreline design approach and a viable alternative to riprap and seawalls.
- Provide habitat benefits through enhancements to the beach system and marsh area behind the beach.
- Provide a publicly accessible design-with-nature model for similar locations around San Francisco Bay.
Funding
Preliminary designs were funded through a partnership between the Marin Community Foundation and the California State Coastal Conservancy.
The current design phase is funded by a $380,000 grant from the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority. Future phases will be led by the Town of Tiburon.
Zone
This project is not associated with a Flood Control Zone.
Agencies and partners
- Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District
- San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority
- Marin Community Foundation
- California State Coastal Conservancy
- Town of Tiburon