Last updated: May 2025
Located southeast of Bayou La Batre, Coffee Island is a barrier island that provides a buffering capacity for shorelines in Mobile County [5]. Since 1950, the shoreline on the island has been eroding. In response, the Nature Conservancy has put in a ‘’living shoreline’’ construction in 2010 to reduce wave energy and decrease erosion the island has been facing [1]. A ‘’living shoreline’’, ‘’refers to the use of nature-based techniques and materials such as oyster shells, reef blocks, bagged shells, live shellfish, and plants to help protect eroding shorelines’’ [2]. While the living shorelines constructed in 2010 still provide habitat benefits, these efforts no longer protect the shoreline from erosion. This in turn threatens not only the island's buffering capacity, but also the integrity of the marsh on the island [5]. Therefore, the Nature Conservancy has secured funding for a second project on the island, the Coffee Island Restoration project (in 2023) that aims to implement a (longer) 5,000-foot living shoreline breakwater, including the use of ‘’super sacks’’ – a specific kind of sediment barriers functioning as dikes – to protect the coastline while enhancing habitat [4, 6]
Coffee Island eroding shoreline before construction (2022)
Source: Baker Lab
Overview
Nature-based solution
- Blue infrastructure
- Deltas
- Coastlines
- Coastal wetland, mangroves and salt marshes
Key challenges
- Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
- Climate change adaptation
- Coastal resilience and marine protection (SDG 14)
- Coastal protection / hazard mitigation
- Marine and coastal biodiversity protection
- Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
- Habitat and biodiversity restoration
- Economic development and employment (SDG 8)
- Employment/job creation
Principal problems in Functional Urban Area (FUA)
- Climate-Related Hazards
- Coastal hazards (e.g. erosion, flooding)
- Sea level rise
- Environmental Degradation
- Biodiversity loss
Key priorities
Climate action (adaptation and/or mitigation), Biodiversity (conservation and/or restoration)
Focus
Coastal landscape management or protection, Coastal ecosystems restoration and maintenance (mangroves, dunes, saltplains, underwater meadows), Improving coastal resilience, Ecological restoration of ecosystems, Restoration of wetlands (other types than peatlands and mangroves, e.g. seagrass), Restoration and protection of ecosystems (including water ecosystems), Protection of natural ecosystems, Protecton and enhancement of wetlands (other types than peatlands and mangroves, e.g. seagrass), Habitat restoration, Monitoring and maintenance of habitats and/or biodiversity, Habitat mapping, restoration and monitoring-focused management
Project objectives
The barrier island protects the coastal community in Mobile Bay from a changing climate, yet the island itself has been facing erosion. The projects (in 2010, 2023) aim to decrease erosion, while creating fishery-related jobs and restoring habitat, including oyster reefs, which in turn could protect 10 acres of seagrass and marsh habitats [1]. In addition to seagrass, marsh and oyster habitat, the island provides a stopping point for birds coming through the Mississippi Flyway [6].
Implementation activities
On Coffee Island, the living shoreline design constructed in 2010 included 1.5 acres of reef breakwater and living shoreline habitat. These oyster reefs were realised through a special technique – 325 ‘’ReefBLK breakwaters’’ - which are bagged oyster shells, alongside 1968 reef balls and 100,000 bags of shell [1]. These techniques are part of a larger effort in Mobile Bay to experiment and find techniques that can reduce wave energy and protect the shoreline while realising habitat and economic benefits. These cages, sadly, did not attract enough oysters to secure and keep the ReefBLKs in place. Therefore, contractors have removed the Reef BLK breakwaters in 2024 [3]. In 2025, the Nature Conservancy has secured funding for the Coffee Island Restoration project that aims to implement a 5,000-foot living shoreline breakwater, including the use of ‘’super sacks’’ – a specific kind of sediment barriers functioning as dikes – to protect the coastline while enhancing habitat [4, 6]
Climate-focused activities
Climate change adaptation:
- Restore mangroves, marshes, reefs and wetlands to dissipate the effects of storms and floodwaters
- Restore sediment supply to coastal zone
Communities vulnerable to environmental hazards or climate change impacts
Yes
Specification of climate or environmentally vulnerable communities
Low-income neighborhoods, Coastal communities, Communities located in floodplains
Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities
Biodiversity restoration:
- Rehabilitate and restore damaged or destroyed ecosystems
- Restore species (native, endangered, or unspecified)
- Restore valued species
Main beneficiaries
- Coastal-dependent communities (e.g. small-scale fishers, coastal farmers, and indigenous peoples)
Governance
Management set-up
- Led by non-government actors
Type of initiating organisation
- Non-government organisation/civil society
Participatory approaches/ community involvement
- Dissemination of information and education
- Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)
- Joint implementation (e.g. tree planting)
Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project
The NGO the Nature Conservancy has led the Coffee Island Living Shoreline project and now the Coffee Island Restoration project.
With the 2010 project, the Nature Conservancy partnered with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alabama
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources State Lands Division, Mobile County Government, University of South
Alabama, University of North Florida, Center for
Community Initiatives, Dauphin Island Sea Lab
With the 2023 project, Volkert, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the City of Bayou la Batre and Mayor Henry Barnes partnered on the project.
Project implemented in response to ...
... an EU policy or strategy?
No
... a national policy or strategy?
No
... a local policy or strategy?
No
Type of enablers
Unknown
Financing
Total cost
More than €4,000,000
Source(s) of funding
- Public national budget
Type of funding
- Earmarked public budget
Non-financial contribution
Type of non-financial contribution
- Provision of labour
Who provided the non-financial contribution?
- Citizens (e.g. volunteering)
Impacts and Monitoring
Environmental impacts
- Climate change
- Increased protection against sea level rise
- Expected increased protection against sea level rise
- Storm / wave induced erosion and flooding
- Expected storm / wave induced erosion and flooding
- Strengthened capacity to address climate hazards/natural disasters
- Expected strengthened capacity to address climate hazards/natural disasters
- Enhanced protection against extreme weather events (e.g. storms, cyclones, tidal surges, coastal erosion)
- Expected enhanced protection against extreme weather events (e.g. storms, cyclones, tidal surges, coastal erosion)
- Water management and blue areas
- Enhanced protection and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems
- Expected enhanced protection and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems
- Green space and habitat
- Increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
- Expected increased conservation or restoration of ecosystems
Economic impacts
- Increase of green jobs (e.g. paid employment positions)
- Achieved increase of green jobs (e.g. paid employment positions)
- Generation of other type of work opportunities (e.g. voluntary, work for rehabilitation)
- Achieved generation of other type of work opportunities (e.g. voluntary, work for rehabilitation)
Socio-cultural impacts
- Safety
- Improved community safety to climate-related hazards
- Expected improved community safety to climate-related hazards
Type of reported impacts
Presence of formal monitoring system
Yes
Presence of indicators used in reporting
Yes
Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports
No
Availability of a web-based monitoring tool
No
Potential risks of implementation and trade-offs
Other
References
1.
(n.d.). 1. Living Shorelines Coffee Island.;
2.
(n.d.). 2. Our Living Shorelines.;
3.
(2024). 3. Breakwater debris removed from Coffee Island, oysters relocated to Lightning Point Living Shoreline. Accessed on May 21, 2025, [Source link];
4.
(2023). 4. Coffee Island in Mobile gets award of $14.6M from NOAA for shoreline implementation by the Nature Conservancy. Accessed on May 21, 2025, [Source link];
5.
(n.d.). 5. Living Shorelines. Accessed on May 21, 2025, [Source link];
6.
(n.d.). 6. Milestone (M4.1) Naturescapes Case study report Mobile (confidential).;
Information about this nature-based solution was collected as part of the Naturescapes project funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No 101084341.