“Just as the sound of jazz flows and adapts, so too does the landscape of Duck, where the rhythm of the music harmonizes with the natural beauty of the water and the surrounding environment.”
Those words from the Town of Duck’s website are especially fitting this year. While Duck is known for its walkable, picturesque town center, complete with inviting restaurants, shops and a boardwalk that takes visitors along the Currituck Sound, it also faces the ever-changing environmental impacts that affect coastal towns. Over recent decades, coastal wetlands along the adjoining shoreline of Highway 12 have substantially eroded, resulting in a loss of marsh habitat and shoreline.
The Town of Duck has not only adapted to those changes but has also recently completed the Living Shoreline and Resiliency Project, pioneering natural solutions for storm damage mitigation. The project uses vinyl sills designed to dissipate wave energy while allowing water and sediment to move naturally, helping preserve the surrounding shoreline and habitat. According to Kay Nickens, public information and events director for the Town of Duck, this has become a model for projects in other coastal towns.
The project also includes replanting native plants along the shoreline after installing the vinyl sills.
“And those have self-propagated and germinated into different species of plants that we didn’t even plant, but they’ve taken root within that area, so it’s nothing but native plants,” Nickens says.
The project features the elevation of N.C. Highway 12 (Duck Road) to reduce flooding, restoration of the native marsh to protect the shoreline and improve natural habitat, the addition of a bicycle and pedestrian connection on the west side of the project area and stormwater management improvements to reduce flooding and enhance water quality.
In the same vein, Duck also completed the Town Park Shoreline Protection Project, designed to enhance the resilience of the 11-acre Duck Town Hall and Town Park property along the Currituck Sound.
Nickens says if you go there this summer, be sure to look for the wildflowers.
“They had to temporarily remove the wildflower garden, so they’re in the process of putting it back with new pavers,” she says. “And they’re going to be making an interactive butterfly mural.”
They had us at jazz, but wildflowers and butterfly murals? Sign us up.
(252) 255-1234
ducknc.gov
About the Author Maggie Miles
Maggie Miles is originally from the Outer Banks. She moved to Palm Springs in 2023 to work as an on-call reporter for the New York Times. Her portfolio includes contributions to The Times, BBC, MSN and many other media outlets. During her career, she has focused on a wide range of topics, including workplace corruption, gun violence, social justice, the environment, arts, health and wellness, travel and in-depth profiles of notable people and businesses.
