Glossary: Definitions of Shoreline Restoration Terms
We try to avoid jargon, but you’ll need to know a few shoreline-related terms and concepts, and many others are nice to know. Below are definitions. Please send us an email if you’ve heard of a shoreline restoration term that we have not covered here.
Of course, once you’ve read enough, contact Lakeshore Guys® for a tough and beautiful shoreline.
Quick links (jump down to a definition)
Ice heaving, ice shoves, ice jacking, ice ratcheting, ice pressure, ice pushing, and pressure ridges
Hydroseeding (aka hydro-mulching)
OHWL (Ordinary High Water Level)
HP-FGM (High Performance-Flexible Growth Medium)
Riprap
Riprap stones (typically 6-18 inches in diameter) are used to construct a shoreline meant to prevent erosion or minimize ice damage (or both). “Riprap” can both refer to the kind of stones used, or to refer to the riprapped section of a shoreline as a whole (as in, “Hey, that riprap looks sharp”). Some near-synonyms for riprap include riprap wall, seawall, revetment, and hard stabilization.
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Lakeshore
A lakeshore is a colloquial term for a shoreline property that is on a lake (rather than on the sea or a river). When we say “Your lakeshore,” usually we refer to the section of land that meets the water, rather than to the general shoreline area.
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Ice damage
A shoreline is on a body of water in the warmer months, but in the colder months it’s on a body of ice. That ice can destroy a shoreline in a variety of ways, all of which involve expansion, contraction, or other movement of ice. In addition to being erosion-resistant, we build our shorelines to resist ice damage in all its forms.
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Ice heaving, ice shoves, ice jacking, ice ratcheting, ice pressure, ice pushing, and pressure ridges
Each of those terms refers to a distinct kind of ice damage. This article outlines each kind of ice damage.
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Windblown ice
Windblown ice is a giant mass of ice that floats on a thawing lake and often crashes into shorelines. It tends to form early in the spring, during a thaw. It results from a frozen lake melting at the edges, near the land. Even slight winds can propel the ice sheet across a lake, sometimes damaging the shorelines it runs into along the way (much like a game of air hockey, only the puck is the ice mass, and the bumper is your shoreline).
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Erosion (of shorelines)
In the context of shoreline restoration, erosion refers to the way a shoreline gets washed away over time when soil, sand, turf, or similar soft terrain is exposed to moving water. Often the repeated force of waves cause a shoreline to erode (over days, months, or years), but rainwater also has a role in causing erosion, especially on hillsides. Typically, only a properly engineered riprap shoreline can prevent or minimize erosion.
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Native shoreline
A native shoreline is one without riprap or similar manmade protective measures. Some native shorelines are well-maintained, attractive, and do not erode quickly. But many more are marred by overgrowth, pests, winter-kill, erosion, and overall lack of maintenance. Some jurisdictions impair or do not allow the construction of riprap shorelines. In those cases lakefront property owners must have a native shoreline and are limited in how they can protect and beautify their shorelines.
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DNR
Refers to the Department of Natural Resources. Because we’re based in Minnesota, usually we refer to the Minnesota DNR, but other states also have departments of natural resources. Not only do we build Minnesota DNR-approved shorelines, but we also far exceed MN DNR guidelines, as well as other states’ DNR guidelines.
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Fieldstone
The right type of stone for riprap shorelines. Fieldstone is ideal because of how well it holds up against erosion. Fieldstone is somewhat round, smooth, comes in a variety of colors, and ranges in size from pea-size to car-size in diameter.
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Quarry rock
The rock landscapers and other non-specialists use to try and build riprap shorelines. It’s analogous to the kind of meat used to make hot dogs. A durable shoreline is made of fieldstone (and a lot of engineering). The typical “landscaper shoreline” is made of whatever rock the quarry had a hard time selling. Its jagged edges can puncture filter fabric. Its coating of dirt invites weeds to grow. If it happens to be limestone (or a type of limestone) in it can raise the pH of your water and may hurt fish and plants, in part because limestone is notorious for crumbling to dust, especially in our cold Midwestern winters.
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Buffer area (AKA buffer zone)
A section of land immediately adjacent to a shoreline, wetland or other protected area that filters runoff prior to it entering the lake or wetland. The powers-that-be may require you to maintain a buffer area, but that doesn’t mean your buffer-zone shoreline must be ugly and unusable. If you’ve got a shoreline that requires a buffer area, we can help. Or perhaps you just want a buffer zone, because they’re great for the body of water they’re buffering and can be easy on the eyes.
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Frost-Break™
A thin strip of smaller rock that we place under the water, right before the riprap stones in a shoreline. Frost-Break™ creates a strategic fault-line in the giant sheet of ice that tends to form on most of our customers’ lakes during the winter. See our page on Frost-Break™.
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Filter fabric
A synthetic, non-woven, calendered, needle-punch filter fabric that functions as the backbone of our riprap shorelines. We use an ultra-specialized type of filter fabric that stretches (rather than breaks) and that allows water to pass through it strategically. Read more about our fabric here and here.
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Hydroseeding (aka hydro-mulching)
The well-known practice of spraying wet grass seed, in a slurry that also contains fertilizer, tackifier, and fiber mesh. In shoreline restoration, we hydroseed some steep slopes where broadcast seeing would be hard , impossible, or would quickly wash away after the first rainfall. Hydro-mulch sticks to anything it touches, and dries like glue (forming a semi-erosion-proof layer). The resulting grass helps deter erosion on higher-up land that doesn’t come into contact with a body of water.
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Shoreline restoration
The process of strengthening, cleaning up, and beautifying a shoreline. That’s our specialty, and we haven’t yet met a shoreline that we couldn’t protect and improve.
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Slope or grading
An improperly built riprap shoreline is shaped like a stone wall. A durable, erosion-resistant, ice-damage-resistant shoreline is shaped like a ramp of riprap stones. The slope or grading of the shoreline refers to the angle or pitch of that ramp – how steep the ramp is. The ideal slope is 3:1, meaning it has 1 foot of vertical climb for every 3 feet it travels landward. In some cases a 2:1 slope is the next-best option.
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Compaction
Soil must be pressed into shape (compacted) before you put heavy weight on it, or the ground will shift under the weight and whatever you build will tumble down. Rather than build a solid riprap shoreline on light, fluffy, unshaped soil, we take pains to compact the ground into the proper shape (usually a 3:1 slope) before we install the filter fabric and riprap stone on top.
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Wave action
The repeated force of waves on a body of water. Wave action is particularly a problem on large bodies of water (like Lake Superior), but it’s also a concern on smaller lakes and even on rivers. Storm-season waves and other large waves are the most destructive, of course, but even gentle wave action eventually can erode a shoreline. A 3:1 slope is ideal for dispersing wave energy across the face of the shoreline.
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Calendered fabric
A variation on the super-tough synthetic filter fabric we’ve always used, calendered fabric is heat-treated in a special way that makes it slick, and flexible, and finely porous. Our manufacturer makes it exclusively for us (after years of our R&D), though NASA uses a similar technology in astronauts’ suits. Read more about our calendered fabric here.
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Splash apron
A strip of smaller rock on the landward side of your riprap shoreline. It rests on the same seamless piece of filter-fabric that runs under the riprap. A splash apron provides an additional layer of protection from high water levels and heavy wave activity. Plus, a splash apron looks sharp. More info here.
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Interlocking™ riprap
Most landscapers and other non-specialists simply dump the riprap stones and hope they stay put. Just as a bricklayer takes the time to put the bricks and mortar in the right place, we take the time to hand-place each stone. Then we “interlock” the riprap, by adding smaller stones into the gap. (The smaller stones match the color and type of larger riprap in the shoreline.) interlocking™ stones can range in size from 1/4″ to 4″ in diameter. That reduces the wiggle room between the larger stones, resulting in a stronger shoreline.
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Muskrat Mesh™
PVC-coated steel mesh, which we place strategically in our shorelines to prevent muskrats and other vermin from burrowing into our customers’ shorelines and into their land. A family of muskrats can destroy a shoreline in a weekend, so although Muskrat Mesh™ is optional, in many cases we strongly recommend it.
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Breakwall or bulkhead
A strip of rock (sometimes riprap) that juts out into a body of water, acting as a peninsula to absorb the force of waves, rather than allow the shoreline to take the brunt of the force. The main problems with breakwalls or bulkheads are that (1) they often don’t work, (2) permits to build them usually aren’t granted, and (3) they are extremely expensive to build. It’s probably no surprise that we recommend a riprap shoreline as an alternative.
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OHWL (Ordinary High Water Level)
Refers to how high the water usually rises on your shoreline during periods of high water – often a result of heavy rainfall or a snowy winter, or both. The OHWL determines (among other things) exactly where we should lay down the filter fabric and riprap stone in relation to where the water’s edge is on any given day.
The ordinary high water level shows where the high water level has been. Often it is the point where the natural vegetation changes from mainly aquatic to mainly terrestrial.
For watercourses the ordinary high water level is the elevation of the top of the bank of the channel. For reservoirs and flowages, the ordinary high water level is the operating elevation of the normal summer pool.
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Sand blanket (AKA sand beach)
Exactly what it sounds like: a sandy stretch of your shoreline, preferably protected by riprap at the water’s edge. Some customers opt for grass, or a patio, or only edging, though many customers want a combination of surfaces.
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HP-FGM (High Performance-Flexible Growth Medium)
No, it’s not a type of steroid used in early-2000s professional baseball. Rather, HP-FGM is a type of hydroseeding mixture. We use it to plant grass as an erosion deterrent on steep slopes.
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Landscaper
Decent people who can’t seem to build shorelines.