No Littering, Vehicles, Glass, Fires, or Animals ON THE BEACH.

Okaloosa County values and protects its coastal dunes. Erosion is a serious problem along the 30 miles of coastal areas in the county. The dunes are fragile, easily damaged and require special safeguards to ensure their continued protection of inland areas. Coastal dunes range from seemingly insignificant sand hills to formations more than 50 feet high. Unvegetated dunes are vulnerable to destruction by the same forces that form them – waves and wind. These dunes are built by sand that blows into vegetated areas on the beach. They act as dikes against flooding and as reservoirs of sand to replenish the beach. During storms and hurricanes, dune sand washes into the sea and reduces the energy of storm waves.

The dune restoration project at Beasley Park began in 1991 as an Outdoor Classroom Demonstration project between the Yellow River Soil & Water Conservation District, the NRCS Plant Materials Center, the Three River Resources Conservation, Tourist Development Council and Okaloosa County. Essential to the project’s success are the hundreds of volunteers who have planted and helped maintain dune vegetation at Beasley Park. What works at Beasley Park has served as a model to conserve, protect and restore dune areas in Okaloosa, Walton, Santa Rosa, and Escambia counties. An educational display at the park helps visitors to identify the plants used in restoration and shows how Beasley Park looked before and after Hurricane Opal.

Sea Turtles Are Protected By Law
Sea turtles come ashore to nest on the gulf beaches of Okaloosa County usually between April and November. Due to human exploitation and habitat destruction, sea turtles are threatened with extinction. The female turtle usually comes shore at night to lay her eggs in the sand. She will lay about 100 eggs in a process that takes from 2 to 3 hours to complete. You can help protect these remarkable animals. Avoid disturbing a turtle that is crawling to or from the water. Avoid crowding around a nesting turtle and do not shine lights in her eyes or take flash pictures.

All sea turtles are protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act and State Law. It is illegal to kill or harm sea turtles. It is also illegal to disturb the nest of a sea turtle. Heavy fines and possible imprisonment may result.

Truly worth a thousand words, the photographs below speak volumes. These pictures from the Captiva and Sanibel Islands Beach Renourishment Project provide a testament to the simple but dramatic impact of beach nourishment projects.


The shoreline along Captiva Drive, the island's main road, in 1988 (left), prior to (middle) and after the current project (right)
(Courtesy FSBPA, Shoreline, December, 2005)

In general, beaches are either accreting (accumulation of sand or other beach material due to the natural action of waves, currents and wind; a build-up of sand.) or eroding. Weather events such as winter storms or hurricanes can have a dramatic impact on our shorelines, potentially removing hundreds of feet of shoreline. What options are there to prevent, mitigate and reverse these impacts?

To read further on Beach Nourishment, please click here.

Hard armoring of beaches is discouraged as this often leads to accelerated beach erosion by preventing the natural process of inland sand migration.

One "soft" alternative to armoring is beach nourishment, which represents the deposition of massive amounts of sand, similar in grain size and often in color to the original sand it replaces. Although the benefits may outweigh the cost, beach nourishment is a very expensive proposition, especially since its results may very well last only until the next storm. Clearly, this alternative is feasible only for a few, highly developed beaches.



Beach nourishment does not prevent a beach from changing over time.



"Beach width increases as sand is added to the shoreline. As time passes, waves and currents shift some of the newly-added sand from the extra-wide beach to sand bars in the surf zone. This process is known as "equilibration." Eventually, about 2/3 of the new material will be underwater, supporting the wider dry beach much as a foundation supports a house. Sand bars migrate onto the beach during the summer, increasing beach width, only to return offshore as a result of winter storm erosion. This fluctuation is a natural beach process restored by the renourishment project." (Brevard County, Environmental Management website) It should be noted, however, that this equilibration does not guarantee a stable beach in perpetuity. Regular maintenance and nourishment will still be required to keep the beach as desired.

A less expensive, long-term solution includes the adoption of wise policies of retreat, which dictate that new buildings be set back at a healthy distance from the ocean, that no new sea walls be constructed, and that old sea walls not be repaired. In the state of South Carolina, USA, this very policy was established as part of the Beachfront Management Act in 1988. Ten years later, it is being attacked in the courts, as wealthy coastal property owners pressure legislators to change the law. If they do succumb to the pressure, the general public will lose. For the protection of a few buildings will jeopardize the life of nearby public beaches." (Sea Grant in the Caribbean January - March 1998)

Presently, the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council is providing approximately $4,100,000 to fund the Okaloosa County portion of the Destin/Walton County Beach Restoration Project. This project will add approximately 80 to 100 feet of width to the beaches from the Okaloosa/Walton County line to the eastern boundary of Henderson Beach State Park.

Additionally, Okaloosa County is in the process of replacing the Federal Emergency Management Agency emergency berm, destroyed by hurricanes, along the length of Okaloosa Island. This berm will be supplemented with additional sand under funding from Okaloosa County and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Funding has also been secured for a Beach Restoration Feasibility Study and beach and dune restoration for the entire public portion of Okaloosa Island. The goal for this project is to secure an "improved beach" as defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This status will allow FEMA to provide funds for restoration of the beach. A beach is considered eligible for permanent repair if it is an improved beach and has been routinely maintained prior to the disaster. For these projects to be successful in the long term, funding must also be secured to provide for this routine maintenance.

We will update this page as needed, so please check back often. In the mean time if you have any questions concerning the information presented here, please contact:

Jim Trifilio
Beach Projects Manager
Emerald Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.
1540 Miracle Strip Parkway SE
Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548
(850) 651-7131