Green Shores® is a program of the Stewardship Centre for British Columbia and provides a solution for shoreline property owners and managers to address issues like shoreline erosion, sea level rise and climate change adaptation.
Green Shores for Homes and Green Shores for Shoreline Development projects provide long-term environmental and societal benefits and promote more sustainable and resilient shoreline management in BC and the Maritimes through nature-based solutions.
Green Shores Principles
- Preserve and restore physical processes such as the natural actions of water and sediment movement that maintain healthy shorelines
- Maintain or enhance habitat function and diversity along the shoreline · Prevent or reduce pollutants entering the aquatic environments
- Avoid or reduce cumulative impacts. Small individual effects add up to large impacts on shoreline environments.
Green Shores Program
Green Shores offers a variety of free, science-based resources for homeowners, commercial developers, and local government.
Visit the Stewardship Centre for BC Green Shores website for case studies, training, publications, and more resources.
The Capital Regional District is an active member of the Green Shores Local Government Working group coordinated by the Stewardship Centre for BC.
Case Studies in the CRD
Esquimalt Gorge Park
Stewardship Centre for BC and Pacific Salmon Foundation partnered with Esquimalt Parks and Recreation, the Capital Regional District, the Gorge Waterway Initiative, World Fisheries Trust, Gorge Waterway Action Society and the Songhees Nation and Esquimalt Nation to develop a Green Shores demonstration site along a section of the Esquimalt Gorge Park shoreline.
This innovative, collaborative shoreline restoration project demonstrates nature-based solutions on the shoreline through implementation of the Green Shores® framework. The Gorge Park Green Shores for Shoreline Development (GSSD) Demonstration project will help to address the impacts of climate change such as erosion and flooding, while also improving the health of the local ecosystems.
Stewardship Centre for BC project website
Township of Esquimalt project website
Colquitz Park
The Stewardship Centre for BC in partnership with the District of Saanich is in the planning phase of a Green Shores demonstration project for Colquitz Park. Using Green Shores nature-based techniques, this project will restore natural shoreline processes, improve water quality, revitalize critical habitat for birds, fish, and other wildlife, and stabilize this small portion of the estuary, enhancing the community’s resilience to the detrimental effects of climate change, such as flooding and erosion.
