Savary Island residents are in the middle of a tug of war over sand, although some might not even know they have a hand on the rope.
Erosion and accretion have plagued the island’s steep bluffs and sandy beaches since deglaciation began over 10,000 years ago. As sea level rises, sand moves. When sand moves, property is lost. When property is lost, owners react. The biggest challenge lies in fixing one area without inadvertently cannibalizing another, but all the while nature continues to do precisely that at its own speed.
This is why nearly 20 residents gathered at Indian Point for a workshop on Thursday, August 13, to learn more about Savary’s dynamic shoreline and how it is affected by coastal processes.
The majority of erosion at Indian Point is believed to take place over the winter. Some of that sand is carried back and redistributed on shore by lighter conditions during the summer, but it isn’t always enough.
“When storms are clustered together or occur for extended periods of time, there is a tremendous amount of sand being moved,” said John Readshaw, a coastal engineer. “It’s what we call a dynamic equilibrium. It moves around episodically, so you have to be really careful about reacting to something that happens.”
The workshop was organized by Bud Graham, a property owner and chairman of the Association of Savary Island Committee (ASIC). Readshaw and DG Blair, executive director of the Stewardship Centre for British Columbia, were flown in as guest speakers and spent much of the day exploring the solutions outlined in the Green Shores for Homes program.
“Green Shores for Homes is a voluntary, incentive-based program that helps waterfront homeowners restore natural shorelines and enjoy many recreational, scenic, environmental and shoreline-protection benefits they bring,” explained a brochure offered to those in attendance.
As one of four pilot communities selected for Green Shores, Powell River Regional District sent its own contingent to the island as well. Board chair and Electoral Area A Director Patrick Brabazon made the trip, along with Laura Roddan, manager of planning, Jason Gow, planner, and Mike Wall, manager of community services. Together with residents and property owners, they walked along Savary’s northwest shoreline and discussed individual concerns as they went.
Currently, the Indian Point area is fronted by a hodgepodge of attempted solutions for erosion — a wooden seawall, anchored logs, rock berms and unaltered sand. Among them were plenty of reflective surfaces that caught Blair and Readshaw’s attention.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s concrete or rock or stacked stone or log, it’s probably 95 to 98 per cent reflective,” said Readshaw. “The only energy absorption is actually what passes beyond it if there’s a high tide and some spray.”
“Instead of hitting a soft shoreline where we can have some of that energy absorbed, a wave hits a wall and what does it do? It goes straight up in the air,” explained Blair. “[Hard walls] alter wave dynamics and they increase wave energy, wave reflection and resonance, sometimes up to 10 times the height of normal waves.”
Around five years ago, several residents constructed a log seawall in front of where the Royal Savary Hotel once stood. It drew particular discussion from the experts.
“I suspect that some of this erosion is the end-wall effect from that seawall,” said Readshaw. “Usually, anybody who puts in a wall like that is responsible for the end-wall consequences and the typical response is that people start building more walls and eventually the whole shoreline gets eroded.”
Near the tip of the point, resident Steve Lackey has lost six feet of land. “I had gained eight feet over the 25 years that we’ve been here, so our net loss is six feet, but we’ve lost 14 feet over the last two or three years,” he said.
Around the corner, another resident reinforced his property with large boulders after losing his deck and half of a chimney to erosion several winters ago.
Readshaw wasn’t surprised. “Most shore protection in British Columbia has been built in response to an episodic event,” he said. “They did what they had to do to change the coastal processes.”
The Green Shores program offers soft and hybrid solutions that are site-specific to each problem area. It offers credits to homeowners in the areas of shoreline processes, shoreline habitat, water quality and shoreline stewardship. A plaque is awarded if enough credits are attained.
“We are working with local governments to see what other kinds of awards that can be given for Green Shores projects,” said Blair. “For example, fast-tracking permits…However, I know the permitting process here in the regional district is not applicable.”
Brabazon suggested Green Shores may want to approach the province regarding tax bills instead. “We can’t give out permits that we don’t have in the first place,” he said.
Blair said Green Shores is working with the ministry of environment to promote adoption of these practices and see what kinds of incentives it can offer. “To be honest, we need political will to do it,” she said.
In the meantime, Green Shores has been offering sustainability training for construction workers. A course will be available in Powell River in early 2016 through a grant from Natural Resources Canada.
“One would always hope that there would be some kind of financial assistance to undertake this kind of work, but obviously it’s an issue that property owners have to bear themselves,” said Graham. “We’ve already seen significant work being done along the beach by property owners with no incentives to defray the costs.”
Readshaw highlighted two solutions in particular for the land owners at Indian Point—an engineered berm system and a series of control structures.
The berm system would stockpile sand on their property lines, according to precise calculations of how much would be displaced each winter. Where that sand will come from has not been determined.
The control structures would be assembled from rock and gravel, angling out into the foreshore and serving as “massive energy absorbers” that would reduce the movement of sand, said Readshaw. These kinds of encroachments, he said, are becoming more widely accepted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and are typically subject to a nominal lease fee.
Readshaw’s biggest suggestion, however, was teamwork. “Talk with your neighbours, because I think it’s fair to say that the soft solutions are very difficult to do on a narrow lot,” he said. “If you got the whole point together then it’s much easier.”
