Multi-phase project rebuilds North Myrtle Beach living shoreline

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Another part of a multi-phase project to help rebuild a North Myrtle Beach living shoreline was completed on Monday.

The city’s intentions are to build a sea wall to stop erosion at the Heritage Shores Nature Preserve. The preserve was built in 2007 and acts as a conservation area.

North Myrtle Beach Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Jim Grainger said in the last 17 years, their shoreline of 50 feet in length has been lost.

More than 180 manufactured wired reefs were constructed at the beginning of the year by volunteers from around the community. However, Grainger said that only completed phase one of the project.

“The purpose serves to attract the oysters, and they help hold the sediment in place,” he said.

Last month, the wired oyster baskets were placed at the low tide line — in two rows and staggered.

Grainger said the project was a partnership with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

“The intent was to build that living shoreline, but we didn’t know how to do it. So, DNR came in and gave us the advice and demonstrated and helped us build these boxes,” he said. “They’re essentially a 4 foot long, 2-foot-wide box, that’s 10 inches deep. They have about a layer of oyster shells that are about an inch and a half deep on the top and then they have a layer of coconut husk on the backside, that’s a filter.”

Grainger said the shoreline creates two channels, causing the tides to constantly lap both sides when there’s any kind of wave action.

“Just last week, we came back out and planted the natural plant materials, 6 different varieties of native plants, some down here on the low end, a lot on the high end,” he said. “The intent is again to re-naturalize this area and put it back the way God left it to us.”

He said almost 5,400 native plants have been planted around the wired reefs to re-establish the grass along the shoreline.

“The very short-term goal and we got some folks doing it right now, but you put a little bit of water on these things so that they can establish. They’re very, very dry tolerate and they are native, and they will establish very quickly,” Grainger said. “But when you grow something in a nursey, a little small cup that has very little roots and you put it out here, you do have to maintain it for a short period of time.”

Grainger said in the next three weeks, once the plants root, very little maintenance will be required because it’ll grow naturally.

He said he wants to remind people to be cautious when passing through because constant wave action won’t help the reefs and plants stay secure.

Grainger said they take their responsibilities seriously and they’ve been fortunate to preserve this area for the generations to come.

He encourages those who haven’t seen the project to check it out.

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Jackie LiBrizzi is a multimedia journalist at News13. Jackie is originally from Hamilton, New Jersey, and was raised in Piedmont, South Carolina. Jackie joined the News13 team in June 2023 after she graduated as a student-athlete from the University of South Carolina in May 2023. Follow Jackie on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook , or Instagram , and read more of her work he r e .

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