Okaloosa County is looking to build a 1,500 foot “living shoreline” along Okaloosa Island pending grant application approval from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

• Funds for the grant were made available for communities or locations that were impacted by hurricanes and wildfires.
• In this case, it was due to Okaloosa’s impacts from Hurricane Sally that made the county eligible for these funds.

Highway 98 spans 4.5 miles across Okaloosa Island and is the only method of vehicle access, east and west, on the southern end of Okaloosa County. This strip of the highway is in very close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico to the south and Choctawhatchee Bay to the north.

In the past, strong hurricanes have damaged the island and washed out sections of the road. Significant infrastructure improvements have been made in an effort to prevent or reduce future impacts.

In 2020, Hurricane Sally significantly eroded beaches and bayside shorelines and even damaged sections of the engineered sea wall that was designed to protect the shoreline north of Highway 98, according to Coastal Resource Manager Alex Fogg.

• Choctawhatchee Bay is now only feet from Highway 98, and without some form of shoreline stabilization, the road may be significantly impacted by a future storm.

According to Fogg, this location is a perfect candidate for this project as it is not accessible to visitors by car and it is too shallow for motorized vessel access.

What is a living shoreline?

A living shoreline is a less hard option for fortifying a shoreline, as opposed to building a seawall or putting in riprap, that can actually increase erosion in a lot of cases.

Fogg says that living shorelines, which uses vegetation and other natural supplies, can be built in a certain way that helps minimize erosion and actually encourages the shoreline to be built back up.

“In the case of the living shorelines that we do in Okaloosa County, we put down rocks, or oyster shells, a little bit offshore that help beat down the waves,” said Fogg. “Then you can plant vegetation on the backside, where it’s calm. So the vegetation helps stabilize the shoreline and actually helps build the shoreline back to what it was.”

Living shorelines have not only proven to be a robust option for shoreline stabilization but they also provide essential habitat for numerous marine and estuarine species that are vital for ecosystem health and even provide human use benefits.

“In addition to strengthening the shoreline, it actually provides a central habitat for a lot of the fish, and provides substrate for oysters which helps with water quality,” explained Fogg. “This particular area of Highway 98 is also a nesting area for a lot of shorebirds.”

While this won’t be the first living shoreline in Okaloosa County, it will be the first living shoreline project for the county.

“The Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance is the expert for our area and they’ve completed dozens of living shoreline projects throughout Okaloosa and Walton county,” said Fogg. “You’ve probably seen these shorelines but just didn’t know it was a living shoreline. This will be the first one that the county will be involved with.”

• The County will collaborate with the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance on this project as well.

For Okaloosa Island, the County proposes to install a 1,500-foot living shoreline consisting of limestone rock breakwaters backfilled with native vegetation. The total cost of the project is $200,000.

• On Tuesday, the Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners approved matching $100,000 toward the project.

The grant is due by February 3, 2022, and the county hopes to hear back on the project within a couple of months.