IT’ S LOW TIDE ON A SULTRY SUMMER DAY AT MINGO POINT. SOME FIFTY VOLUNTEERS FAN OUT IN LONG LINES, BENT OVER THE MUD, PRESSING SMALL PLUGS OF SPARTINA INTO THE SEDIMENT THAT HAS COLLECTED BEHIND THE MANUFACTURED WIRE REEFS( MWRS) INSTALLED THERE TEN MONTHS EARLIER.
The air is thick. Rubber boots sink into pluff mud, and sweat rolls freely. But the mood is buoyant. Each green sprig planted into the newly accreted mud represents the realization of a successful shoreline restoration underway.
This planting was only possible due to the remarkable success of the living shoreline installed here in August of 2024. Following several volunteer build events, 127 MWRs had been anchored in checkerboard rows along the eroded edge of the point. Within months, oysters began to colonize the wire, wave energy softened, and pluff mud collected landward of the structures. By the following summer, the shoreline had lifted just enough to hold new grass.
“ The restoration is beyond SCDNR’ s expectations,” says Buddy Franklin, Conservancy board member and veteran volunteer.“ They use what is happening at Mingo Point as an example elsewhere! It’ s a picture-book example of how this restoration process is supposed to work.” The Conservancy’ s Restoration and Enhancement Specialist, Sean Cannon, echoes Buddy ' s excitement.“ We are extremely happy with the success of the living shoreline. The MWRs are recruiting oysters, we’ re gaining elevation from the pluff mud, and the spartina is growing back. It’ s doing exactly what we hoped it would do— at a quicker rate than we were expecting.”
This past December, volunteers returned to Mingo Point on foot to collect seeds from the existing spartina grass. Having waited until the spartina went to seed, volunteers ran their hands along individual blades of grass, collecting seeds in containers. Those seeds were then transported to Charleston Aquatic and Environmental Inc., where they were grown over the winter in greenhouses. By June, 1,625 young plants were ready to be returned to the marsh. For Buddy, the seed harvesting was a big part of the magic.“ We collected the seed from the site where we were replanting,” he says.“ That means we are using the local ecotype of spartina to replant the marsh.”
Lee Bundrick, the Conservancy’ s Senior Ecological Health and Conservation Coordinator, and Autum Blanchard, Research and Engagement
ROOTS 2025 • 17