A new beach enrichment project on Okaloosa Island began this week. It involves a non-traditional method of restoring the beach and is happening between Beach Access 3 & 4.
It’s called the NuShore system, and it’s essentially a number of porous groins, or nets, that extend from the shoreline out into the water.
“This system actually slows down the sand that may be suspended in the water column and allows it to accumulate within the system,” said Alex Fogg, Coastal Resource Manager for Okaloosa County. “It’s a more cost-effective method of building back the beaches here in destination.”
- According to Fogg, offshore-traditional dredge projects that restore beaches are very expensive.
The system involves driving poles into the ground on the upland side, along with poles that will emerge out of the water. That’s where the nets will be placed.
- This project was approved a few months ago and is being funded with tourism development dollars.
- It will be in place until early March, before Spring Break season and before sea turtle season kicks off.
“We hope to see quite a bit of sand accumulation during that time,” said Fogg. “It’s best to actually have this system installed during the winter because the seas are generally rougher, suspending a lot more sand into the column and allow a lot more to settle out and accumulate on our beach.”
Fogg says that his team will be constantly monitoring the project, not only to see how much sand is accumulating, but to make sure that the system is still intact and nothing is getting tangled or breaking within the system.
“The last thing that we want is for us to be negatively impacting the environment that we’ve installed it in,” he said.
For more information about this project you can go to Destinfwb.com.
