For more than a hundred years, property owners have seen shoreline erosion as the enemy. They have battled it with startling amounts of concrete and have lashed together so many protective beach structures that about a third of Puget Sound’s shoreline is now classified as armored. It’s a fitting term for this longstanding battle against the elements. But it turns out that in many cases erosion is actually a good thing—crucial, according to scientists— because it provides the sand and gravel needed for healthy beaches. Now environmental agencies are encouraging the removal of bulkheads or their replacement with more natural erosion controls. New maps identify locations where bulkhead removal is likely to provide the greatest ecological benefits.