What a great question! I'm always happy when people care about my home as well as their own. Just to bring all my non-waterfront inhabiting friends up to speed, rip-rap bulkheads are a form of "hard" bulkheading using large jagged rocks and boulders along a shoreline to protect against erosion. Soft shores are made of indigenous materials such as sand, logs, and native plants, and mimic the natural beach type of an area.

Bulkheads have been the norm for a long time, but new studies are showing the benefits of soft shore protection instead. Creating a soft shore is a great idea, since bulkheads alter sediment transport, causing problems for forage fish who use the nearshore habitat for spawning and rearing. Creating a soft shore is a good economic choice as well, since many options are a self-sustaining solution to erosion problems while also restoring or retaining nearshore habitats.

Now that we are all on the same wave, I can give you a few suggestions. Creating a soft shore is not easy to do yourself; it requires assessment of your coast type, as well as factors like which habitats were originally part of the area. A good friend of mine you might want to contact is Jim Johannessen, a scientist at Coastal Geologic Services (www.coastalgeo.com), where they do consulting for just this type of project. His paper "Soft Shore Protection as an Alternative to Bulkheads - Projects and Monitoring" describes recent soft shore projects on Washington beaches. Jim is also a teacher at Costal Training Program (www.costaltraining-wa.com), which provides courses on this topic. Another group that has worked with soft shore restoration is the FRIENDS of the San Juans. You can read about their efforts at  www.sanjuans.org/ShorelineRestoration. A good online resource on this topic is "Controlling Erosion Using Vegetation" on the Department of Ecology site, www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/pubs/93-30/intro. 

Now, how about that eelgrass? You are right in wanting to replenish this disappearing plant. It is a necessary habitat for many sea creatures, and will also help keep erosion at bay due to its rhizomatic root structure. Unfortunately, planting eelgrass is not like planting a lawn — if there never was eelgrass in a location, chances are it's not a good site for it. However, if there once was eelgrass in a location and it's no longer there, it will probably be a good place to plant, once the conditions that caused its disappearance, such as salinity and turbidity, are fixed. If you are unsure, feel free to plant it and see if it establishes itself and grows — you may get lucky! A good source for information about eelgrass is www.psat.wa.gov/Publications/Fact_sheets/eelgrass.pdf.

Good luck, and thanks for being such a responsible shoreline-keeper!