Adjust font size: Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Okaloosa Island are home to some of the best beaches in the world. It’s important to us that future generations are able to experience the same great fishing, sugar-white sand and crystal blue water that we do. That’s why the Emerald Coast manages the following conservation projects – to ensure a cleaner, more beautiful future.

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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?

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.



The Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council has provided approximately $4,100,000 to fund the Okaloosa County portion of the Destin/Walton County Beach Restoration Project. This project, completed in the summer of 2007, added 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.

The next phase of beach restoration will include all of Okaloosa Island and the western portion of Destin’s beaches from Henderson Beach State Park to East Pass. This will be a cooperative effort among Okaloosa County, the City of Destin and Elgin AFB. Beach quality sand has been found in large enough quantities for all three projects and we are presently in the permitting phase. We hope that construction will begin in late 2008 or early 2009.

Funding for the Okaloosa Island and Destin projects will be provided by a “blended” funding stream from the Tourist Development Council, State funding and a Municipal Services Benefit Unit consisting of those properties that will uniquely benefit from the restoration project.

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