New photos: beach restoration progress

[Miss Kitty]

Not everyone. See link to Walton Sun cover story.

...saw a mountain of dirt near the Andalusia boardwalk yesterday....close to Seagrove Villas. And I mean a ^ mountain of dark top soil. whitey thinks it is fill for a tube. There is nothing more disheartening than feeling that white sand between your toes and then looking to your right and seeing that mess. I cannot be empathetic with the gulf front owners, since I am not one. I do feel for them and understand their desire to save property. IMHO, I think the dredging process was the best possible answer. But, I understand those wheels turn very slowly. I applaud the property owners that have brought in white sand, sea oats and fencing to the bluffs...of course, these owners homes weren't being compromised by erosion. As a property owner here in WC, I question the decision to add a protectube system next fall. They are starting the process of bringing in sand for the dune system next week. Baring any storms, my hope is that will be helpful enough to eliminate the tube. SJ...I'll let you know when the conveyor belts start churning....you can come over and get some pics.

Can someone tell me again why there was no standards for dune/property restoration here in Walton County?

 

[Mermaid]

...saw a mountain of dirt near the Andalusia boardwalk yesterday....close to Seagrove Villas. And I mean a ^ mountain of dark top soil. whitey thinks it is fill for a tube. There is nothing more disheartening than feeling that white sand between your toes and then looking to your right and seeing that mess. I cannot be empathetic with the gulf front owners, since I am not one. I do feel for them and understand their desire to save property. IMHO, I think the dredging process was the best possible answer. But, I understand those wheels turn very slowly. I applaud the property owners that have brought in white sand, sea oats and fencing to the bluffs...of course, these owners homes weren't being compromised by erosion. As a property owner here in WC, I question the decision to add a protectube system next fall. They are starting the process of bringing in sand for the dune system next week. Baring any storms, my hope is that will be helpful enough to eliminate the tube. SJ...I'll let you know when the conveyor belts start churning....you can come over and get some pics.

Can someone tell me again why there was no standards for dune/property restoration here in Walton County?

Oh Miss Kitty, I didn't tell you about that mountain of dirt because I knew it would get you all upset. Isn't that the most disgusting pile of brown **** you ever saw? What it's doing on our beaches I don't know.

 

[ecopal]

Thanks for the pics SJ.
Looks nice.

I am not that familiar with the area of Sandestin to old 98.
I don't see any high ground in the pics. Is it all that low there?
We are really lucky to be on 30A!

However, I would think that a few areas along 30A could be considered emergency situations in need of immediate beach re-nourishment.

 

[TooFarTampa]

Oh Miss Kitty, I didn't tell you about that mountain of dirt because I knew it would get you all upset. Isn't that the most disgusting pile of brown **** you ever saw? What it's doing on our beaches I don't know.

I saw that today and was dismayed. The access at Dothan Ave. was closed for some reason . We walked down to Andalusia to get to the beach and saw the pile. I hear the pile was a lot higher a couple of days ago but I don't know what happened to the dirt. But make no mistake it is dirt. I applaud the other homeowners who have added sand and planted sea oats, and the one homeowner I saw who put up some really nice lines of sand fencing that I hope will one day build him or her a beautiful dune. There was lots of beautiful white squeaky sand on the beach though, and if you didn't look back it was a lovely experience.

I have a question: How exactly will dredging/dune restoration help the gulf front owners? I understand that it will add lots of white sand and some height to the horizontal surface. But how would that help the dunes/bluffs?

 

[Smiling JOe]

Thanks for the pics SJ.
Looks nice.

I am not that familiar with the area of Sandestin to old 98.
I don't see any high ground in the pics. Is it all that low there?
We are really lucky to be on 30A!

However, I would think that a few areas along 30A could be considered emergency situations in need of immediate beach re-nourishment.

You can thank Unplugged for the photos. I was not the photographer, he was.

The ground is low in that area of Sandestin. The first line of defense for much of that area are the homes. Some of those homes may be only 10 ft above sea level at best.

 

[yippie]

Here are some photos I took yesterday afternoon from the beach access at the Mediterrian (sp). LOOK at the difference from looking east at the new beach and looking west at the old beach!!!

 

[beacheart]

In answer to the question about how dredging/beach renourishment will help the gulf front property owners. The big thing for us will be the increased depth of the beach. That will mean the water will be farther away from the houses. My house is on the very western end of 30-a. I watched high tide one day when the gulf was a little stirred and the water was coming up half way on the beach. As far as dunes are concerned - it takes many years for them to rebuild. Unless there is beach renourishment there will be no chance for them to rebuild.

 

[Jdarg]

We'll be in Gulf Trace mid-May. How are the beaches there? From pictures right after the hurricanes it looked like not only the beaches, but the homes, took a real beating.

Love your board name! Fantastic!

 

[Cheering472]

10ec

 

[katie blue]

Those pix look amazing! There is hope after all! I was interested to see the walton sun article last week indicating that "the chances are very good" for getting the green light for nourishment on the rest of the beach to the east. That's a more promising answer than I've heard yet. Granted, they're talking autumn of 2008 at a minimum, but that's the foreseeable future, and that makes me happy.