It is taking earthmovers, cranes and a barge full of construction crews to form nearly three acres of tidal wetlands at the county's Shady Cove Natural Area in Shady Side.

Joshua McKerrow, The Capital TOP: One of five breakwaters is being built to help preserve the shoreline at Shady Cove Natural Area off the West River in Shady Side. The crane in the background removes sand from a barge. The sand is then used to help create a tidal wetland. BOTTOM: Standing on freshly placed sand at Shady Cove Natural Area in Shady Side, West/Rhode Riverkeeper Chris Trumbauer explains how the nearly three-acre wetland being created will help wildlife and bolster an eroding shoreline at the county park property.

The $800,000 project, originally proposed to shore up the eroding shoreline, will create a wetland to preserve, grow and stabilize the area of the Shady Cove Natural Area's peninsula that includes Parish Creek and the West River. Funded through federal stimulus money, it is one of seven projects included in a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant proposal. Five of the projects are in Anne Arundel County.

Founding West/Rhode Riverkeeper Bob Gallagher originally proposed restoring Shady Cove.

"I pass it every day when I am on the water. It sticks out there like a sore thumb," Gallagher said. "When we started the (Riverkeeper) program it seemed like the sort of thing a Riverkeeper should do."

In 2006, Gallagher applied for a $19,000 grant to get the project designed and permitted. The project was estimated to cost $300,000.

"Remember when the stimulus program came along they wanted shovel-ready projects? Well, there we were with a design and permits, kind of all dressed up and no place to go," Gallagher said.

County Parks Administrator Mark Garrity said the county saw the need to halt continued erosion at the site, but money was an issue.

"We saw the shoreline eroding but were without a funding source to stabilize it. But we were working through the process with the Riverkeeper to secure grants. Then the stimulus came along," Garrity said.

Shoreline Design of Edgewater is the project's designer. Five stone breakwaters are being built off the eroded shore and sand berms will stretch out to each.

Company owner Wes Mattheu is glad to have the work. "I've got five or six guys working out here, plus the other contractors providing sand and materials," he said.

"We'll use 13,300 tons of sand by the time we are done," Mattheu said,

Locally, his company has built living shorelines in Londontowne, along the Severn at Jonas Green Park, and on the St. John's College shoreline with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, among others.

Erosion has been the enemy at Shady Cove. "The erosion is so rapid, they had to re-survey after having it surveyed four years ago for the original design," Riverkeeper Chris Trumbauer said on a boat tour of the project last week.

He beached the Riverkeeper Boston Whaler on the newly planted sand for a closer look. A huge barge sat well offshore loaded with sand. A smaller barge is used to shuttle material to shore.

The point under repair originally was no point at all. It was part of land stretching to Curtis Point at the mouth of West River. Nineteenth century maps show the land mass. In the early 20th century, a storm broke through the shore and formed a tidal pond. Erosion then took over, displacing solid ground with water and eventually forming Hopkins Cove.

Gallagher said he has heard accounts of fisherman using the land. The Hallocks, a long line of watermen in the Shady Side area, used the area for their pound-net fishing operation.

"There are brick hearths up in there that were used to heat up huge drums of copper paint to thin it out. Then they would dip their nets in it, to preserve them," he said. "It is so shallow there they would pull their boats up as close as they could, then use skiffs to ferry the nets to shore."

Construction should be finished by the end of the month, officials say.