Entangled Shorelines: Braiding Found Materials to Protect the Saltmarsh proposes a living shoreline using found materials typically considered bad—phragmites and plastic waste—to protect against storm surge and erosion, expand the wetland edge by growing cordgrass, and accumulate materials including macro and microplastics.
Cordgrass, a salt marsh grass, acts as an edge condition to New York wetlands and creates a condition of material accumulation. The ocean currents bring all types of materials to the shore, which the cordgrass endlessly embraces as its architecture traps floating debris.
The shoreline gathers an eclectic mix of materials: sediment, ribbed mussels, gender reveal party balloons, snails, heavy metals, single use plastic utensils, Hindu flower garlands, fish bait containers, seaweed, commercial fishing nets, fiddler crabs, phragmites, hot cheeto bags, nitrogen, diamondback terrapins, and more. While channelization and the hardening of Jamaica Bay shorelines have reduced the sediment supply necessary for wetland expansion, the cordgrass collects a new assortment of materials, blurring the boundary between the natural and human landscapes.
Overtime, the cordgrass roots grows, weaving the assemblage in place as the organic matter decomposes and turns into peat. The collected debris and entangled materials are buried—returning to the Earth from which they came from—and the salt marsh grows, slowly.
