Image of rocks placed on North Cove beach.

Success Story

Mimicking Nature to Slow Erosion in North Cove

North Cove,
Washington

The North Cove efforts to slow erosion began years ago with small grassroots initiatives that have since been scaled up into a multimillion-dollar project.

Once the fastest-eroding shoreline on the West Coast, the beaches of North Cove, Washington are growing back thanks to nature-based erosion solutions and the tireless collaboration of community members, local cranberry farmers, Tribal representatives, and government agencies. Over the years, these efforts have resulted in significant sand accumulation and increase in the dune area, earning North Cove recognition as one of the nation’s best restored beaches in 2024.

Since 2025, work has been ongoing in North Cove with the award of a $13 million dollar NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge pass-through grant from the Washington Department of Ecology. With this funding, a dynamic revetment and other nature-based solutions will be placed on the last piece of unrestored beach and stabilize the rapidly eroding shoreline along State Route 105, a vital road through the community.

The Problem: Erosion Threatens Homes and Livelihoods

The community of North Cove perches at the very edge of Washington’s pacific coast, a place carved and scoured by tides and storms. Since the 1930’s, the community has gone to bed at night to an unsettling question: “will our houses still be standing when we wake up?” In the last hundred years, 160 structures and four square miles of land have been swallowed up by the ocean that continuously encroached at a rate of 50-100 feet per year. For years the community tried everything to stop the erosion, including dumping a wall of old cars on the shore. But nothing was a long-term fix and the erosion continued largely unchecked. Not only were structures in North Cove at risk, but so were the area’s cranberry bogs, the source of many community members’ livelihoods.

Washington’s Cranberry Coast

North Cove cranberry bogs produce two thirds of the cranberries grown in Washington. Cranberries thrive in low-lying areas, where marshy lands provide the acidic conditions for these unique berries to grow. North Cove has been characterized by cranberries since they were first planted in the 1800s, earning the nickname “Cranberry Coast”. Many families have cranberries in their blood, passing their farming legacy from generation to generation. However, due to the constant erosion, cranberry fields were in peril of becoming infused with salt water, a death sentence for the plants and many livelihoods.

The Project:
Mimicking Nature to Slow Erosion

Early Grassroots Action: From independent efforts to collaboration

David Cottrell, a third generation Washington cranberry farmer, after observing the way that naturally rocky beaches of the Pacific Northwest absorb wave energy, slowing the rate of erosion, had a breakthrough idea. Mimicking nature, he dumped a $400 truckload of rocks on the beach. David and his partner, Connie, watched with cautious excitement as the erosion slowed in that site. Connie, recognizing the need for funding, took to the community. She formed the organization WashAway No More, selling up-cycled t-shirts and baked goods at craft fairs to fundraise and bring awareness.

David and Connie weren’t the only people working on the erosion issue in North Cove. Since 2013, the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Coastal Zone Management Program had been conducting a coastal monitoring and analysis project in the area with hopes of learning about historical erosion and plans to create projections for future rates. The Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe had also been maintaining a dune to protect the reservation from coastal erosion for years.

In 2016 Charlene Nelson, chairwoman of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe saw the need for further collaboration across these grassroots efforts. Together, this initiative was powerful enough to obtain grants from the Pacific County Conservation District and the Pacific County Drainage District for an official pilot dynamic revetment in 2016 and 2017.

Scaling Up: Investing in effective solutions

With the success of the pilot, the WA Coastal Zone Management Program confirmed that dynamic revetments were the most effective solution to the North Cove erosion problem in terms of both cost and ecological benefit, leading the way to further funding. With $600,000 of funding from the state, 2018 saw construction of a 2 km segment of dynamic revetment. As the project grew, community members continued to be involved. They showed up to help protect their beaches, assisting to drill holes in revetment rocks and install trackers to learn more about wave dynamics.

Coastal Resilience Regional Challenge: Protecting the last segment of the shoreline

Although significant progress had been made, there was still a gap in the shoreline along State Route 105 that needed to be addressed. In 2025, a landmark coastal resilience grant was awarded to the Department of Ecology by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A passthrough grant of $13 million will allow the last segment of beach will be protected with a dynamic revetment.

Combining knowledge from the lived experience of local farmers and Tribes, scientific information, and state and federal resources, helped save North Cove when all seemed lost.

By 2024, less than a decade after David’s breakthrough idea, approximately 46,500 cubic yards of cobble had been placed on the beach. In one 3,000-foot section of the beach, 232,000 cubic yards of sand accumulated and the dune area increased fivefold. The benefits of the project have extended far beyond the protection of structures, cultural traditions and livelihoods. Today, community members are observing snowy plovers, eagles, razor clams, and crabs thriving as their habitat continues to grow.

By working with nature instead of fighting it, the residents of North Cove, the cranberry farms, and the critical State Route 105 will be protected for future generations. This project serves as an example of the transformational potential of nature-based solutions and exemplifies how powerful collaboration between community members, Tribal members, and government agencies can be.

“You can do something, or you can do nothing. If you do nothing, you get nothing.”
David Cottrell
Third generation Washington cranberry farmer, Vice Chair of the Grayland Cranberry Association, and chairman of Pacific County Drainage Ditch #1,

Mimicking Nature to Slow Erosion in North Cove

North Cove, Washington