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In: Adam Bechle, bluff erosion, coastal erosion, Coastal Hazards of Superior, Hannah Paulson, Keillor Fellow, Lake Superior

On Oct. 4, members of the Coastal Hazards of Superior (CHAOS) community of practice gathered atop a bluff overlooking Lake Superior to discuss the stability of the ground beneath their feet.

Coastal engineering specialist Adam Bechle discusses erosion with workshop participants on a cloudy day along Schafer Beach in Superior, WI.

Adam Bechle, center, discusses shoreline erosion with workshop participants along Schafer Beach. Photo: Cait Dettmann, Minnesota Sea Grant

The group brought together planners, zoning officials and individuals from local, state and federal government in both Minnesota and Wisconsin to share ideas and resources about coastal issues facing western Lake Superior. October’s meeting at Schafer Beach in Superior, Wisconsin, featured the debut of a new tool designed to document shoreline erosion, which threatens homes and other structures built atop bluffs.

Adam Bechle, coastal engineering outreach specialist with Wisconsin Sea Grant, and Hannah Paulson, the 2022–2023 J. Philip Keillor Coastal Management Fellow, developed the tool, which is a checklist that helps coastal property owners spot signs of erosion. It describes visual indicators like tilted trees and ground cracks and provides photos of each.

Said Bechle, “[It’s] a way to document what you see at the site. And if you’re a property owner, [it’s] something to refer back to and maybe do annually to look for signs of change.”

And atop a Great Lakes bluff, change is constant. Storms, wind, ice and wave action all impact how fast land erodes. High water levels, like the ones both Lake Superior and Lake Michigan have experienced in the past five years, exacerbate erosion and flooding.

Hannah Paulson holds up the erosion checklist and explains it to participants.

Hannah Paulson explains the erosion checklist. Photo: Cait Dettmann, Minnesota Sea Grant

Taking a longer look through history, lake levels have fluctuated even more drastically. Andy Breckenridge, a geology and environmental science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior who presented at the workshop, revealed that where participants stood atop the bluff used to be at the bottom of Lake Superior.

“Lake levels have been much higher than today, and they’ve been much lower than they’ve been today,” said Breckenridge. “And for that reason, this coastline has gone through dramatic changes. It has not looked like this for most of the last 12,000 years.”

With the long view in mind, CHAOS members snapped the erosion checklists to their clipboards and maneuvered down the bluff to give the tool a test run. Bechle and Paulson were joined by Todd Breiby and Lydia Salus of the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, current Keillor Fellow Helena Tiedmann, Karina Heim of the Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve and Madison Rodman of Minnesota Sea Grant in engaging CHAOS members about what they saw.

Tilted trees, a ground crack, lack of vegetation and a spot where groundwater was seeping through the bluff were some of the signs participants spotted. The activity sparked conversation about the importance of photos to explain erosion to property owners, with one participant noting the need for images of erosion after strong storm events.

A group of people in jackets and vests maneuver down a bluff along Lake Superior with clipboards in hand.

Workshop participants assess the bluff for signs of erosion. Photo credit: Wisconsin Sea Grant

Said Paulson, “I think we got some good suggestions for refining the tool even more.”

Returning to the top of the bluff, participants then cycled through three stations showcasing additional tools to assess bluff stability. One station showed how topography maps can be used to estimate slope—a helpful method if not physically on the property—and another demonstrated how to use an inclinometer to gather exact slope measurements on site. Participants also tried their hand at measuring the high point of the bluff using a reel tape.

While it may be tempting to frame erosion as the antagonist in this story, Bechle is careful to point out that without it, we wouldn’t have beautiful sand beaches, as much of that sand comes from eroded bluff soils. That’s why it’s important to make careful, informed decisions about if and where to build structures on bluffs and shorelines.

“Erosion is a natural process, and if we weren’t here, it would just be occurring,” said Bechle. “It’s not a bad thing; it’s just a bad thing because we have things we care about that might get impacted by it.”

Bechle and Paulson plan to include the checklist in an updated version of the “Coastal Processes Manual,” which is under development. In the meantime, coastal residents interested in maintaining and improving the stability of their bluff can refer to Wisconsin Sea Grant’s “A Property Owner’s Guide to Protecting Your Bluff.”

The post Convening CHAOS to spot signs of shoreline erosion   first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/convening-chaos-to-spot-signs-of-shoreline-erosion/

Jenna Mertz

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In: coastal resilience, Hannah Paulson, Keillor Fellows, WCMP, Wisconsin Coastal Management Program

Equity is top of mind for the newest J. Philip Keillor Wisconsin Coastal Management-Sea Grant Fellow, Hannah Paulson. Over the next year, she’ll bring that lens to bear in her efforts at the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Coastal Management Program (WCMP), where she’s helping communities build their resilience to coastal hazards like bluff erosion and flooding.

Hannah Paulson (submitted photo)

For Paulson, a native of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, thinking about equity and vulnerable populations encompasses many factors. “While there are many ways to define social equity and social vulnerability, for me, it incorporates everything: socioeconomic status, age, accessibility to public areas, historical redlining and exclusionary practices… I want to be as inclusive as possible as we look ahead toward what resilience will mean in Wisconsin.”

During graduate studies at the University of Michigan, Paulson came to see how vulnerable people were sometimes not factored into community planning. Working with five other students in her program, she helped conduct over 50 interviews with coastal leaders in the Great Lakes region on both the U.S. and Canada sides.

Some of those leaders were disconnected from changing demographics in their communities. As a result, said Paulson, underserved populations are “not really incorporated into planning, and it just leads to more issues down the road.”

In many cases, it was limited capacity that hindered local leaders’ ability to factor equity issues into planning. “These are huge issues that require a significant amount of money to address the root cause, and sometimes local leaders don’t have the money or the staff capacity to get grants (to address these problems),” Paulson acknowledged. “Some communities are working with very little resources.”

During her time with WCMP, Paulson’s main project is contributing to the ongoing work on the Coastal Processes Manual. Her mentors there are Kate Angel, Todd Breiby and Lauren Leckwee. She’s also working with Sea Grant Coastal Engineering Specialist Adam Bechle, with whom she’s collaborating on a chapter about erosion and shoreline recession, which covers topics like the physics of bluff erosion.

Although she is interested in potentially working on marine issues someday, an affinity for Great Lakes coastal communities comes naturally to Paulson, who grew up near Lake Michigan. In college, she “came to appreciate how unique the freshwater resources we have here are.”

In addition to equity concerns, Paulson also has a strong interest in nature-based solutions for stabilizing shorelines, such as restoring wetlands and incorporating natural structures to absorb wind and wave action.

Paulson is eager to make the most of the professional development opportunities offered by her Keillor Fellowship year, such as learning more about how state governments and the federal government interact. “I’m seeking out every webinar, every conference and every field experience,” she said, as well as lining up informational interviews to learn more about coastal career paths.

Having started in late August, Paulson is already a couple of months into her fellowship experience. She’s finding it a rewarding way to continue her career development after earning her bachelor’s degree in conservation biology at the University of Wisconsin and master’s in ecosystem science and management at Michigan.

As Paulson summed it up, “Like Emily (Rau, her predecessor in the fellowship), I looked at other fellowship programs and ended up here since the staff is so supportive and so fantastic. They are committed to making sure this is a mutually beneficial experience. I’m already very happy with my choice.”

The post For new Keillor Fellow, social equity is an important element of coastal community resilience first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/for-new-keillor-fellow-social-equity-is-an-important-element/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=for-new-keillor-fellow-social-equity-is-an-important-element

Jennifer Smith