Okaloosa County eyes ‘Living Shoreline Project’ to combat coastal erosion on Highway 98

The Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners Approves Collaborative Living Shoreline Project to Address Coastal Erosion

• The project aims to protect the vulnerable stretch of shoreline, support military readiness, and restore coastal habitats.

Introduction

The Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to address coastal erosion alongside Highway 98 on Okaloosa Island through a collaborative living shoreline project.

Background

U.S. Highway 98, a critical east-west corridor in northwest Florida, is the sole vehicle route connecting Fort Walton Beach to Destin along the southernmost portion of Okaloosa County. The 4.5-mile stretch crossing Okaloosa Island serves an average of 43,301 vehicles daily, ranking it among the busiest roads in the county.

Mike Norberg, Coastal Resource Coordinator for Okaloosa County, explained that the north side of Okaloosa Island faces significant wind and waves from Choctawhatchee Bay, resulting in an estimated 4.48 acres of shoreline erosion since 2010.

• “The living shoreline project is a proactive approach to address the coastal erosion issue while simultaneously providing multiple benefits to the ecosystem, community, and military,” Norberg explained. “By stabilizing the shoreline, we not only help protect the adjacent roadway but also create valuable habitat for a variety of species, enhance coastal resilience, and offer new recreational opportunities for residents and visitors alike.”

Collaboration and Goals

The approved MOU recognizes the value of a strategic coalition between Okaloosa County, Eglin Air Force Base, and The Nature Conservancy to address this issue. The collaboration aims to improve community resilience, support military mission readiness, reduce potential impacts to commerce and transportation routes, and restore coastal fish and wildlife habitat.

Living Shoreline Project Details

“The project will be a 4,500-foot-long living shoreline that would include a nearshore intertidal limestone breakwater,” explained Norberg. “We would then come back to the landward side and plant native vegetation, including sea oats or various types of grasses that are found in that area.

• Norberg says the idea is to help stabilize that shoreline along Okaloosa Island, and reduce a lot of the wind and wave energy that occurs, especially during the winter. “In the long run, hopefully, we will be able to see some shoreline actually recover and re-expand itself,” he noted. This project also potentially creates more than 1.5 acres of intertidal reef habitat and more than 6.2 acres of protected seagrass recruitment area.

Support and Stakeholders

The project has garnered support from key stakeholders, including Eglin Air Force Base, whose concern is mission readiness and the road’s importance for their operations. The Nature Conservancy, with extensive experience in creating similar living shorelines, will be a key collaborator. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has also been engaged in conversations and is supportive of the project.

The project team anticipates working alongside the community and local organizations including the Choctawhatchee Bay Estuary Program and Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance.

• “This would be the largest inshore coastal restoration project to date in Okaloosa County and highlights the value of collaborating across local, state, and federal organizations to achieve common goals,” Norberg said.

Funding and Grants

Funding for the project is being sought through various grant opportunities, with a number of applications currently being reviewed, according to Norberg. One application is for the NOAA Transformational Habitat grant, which Norberg says he should hear back on in July. He’s also looking at submitting to the National Coastal Resiliency Fund grant opportunity coming up in April.

• The county is also working with the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program, which allows for off-installation related community resilience funding opportunities.

Living Shoreline Design

There are several different levels of a living shoreline, Norberg explained. Essentially, it’s combining a nature-based solution to address coastal erosion. While there are several design approaches used to create living shorelines, in the situation along Highway 98 on Okaloosa Island, it would be combining a green-gray solution to maximize its potential.

• The gray part would be the limestone breakwater off into the water.
• The green component would be the planting of vegetation.

“The value of combining those two [limestone breakwater and native vegetation] is the breakwater will reduce the wind and wave energy causing the erosion and help further protect the plants that we then would install, but it also provides a ton of habitat for a variety of different species,” he said. “So from an ecosystem perspective, it’s much more beneficial as opposed to something like a regular sea wall that has little to no natural benefit or no support towards ecosystem components.”

Benefits of Living Shorelines

One of the values of a living shoreline is that it naturally expands itself. From the plants continuing to grow and create more shoreline stabilization and accretion, or providing a foundation for oysters beginning to grow and build.

• “From a resiliency perspective, living shorelines are actually pretty resilient to nature’s impacts,” he said. “Ultimately, that also reduces maintenance costs down the road.”

Conclusion

For Norberg, the approval of the MOU for the living shoreline project on Okaloosa Island signifies a crucial step towards combating coastal erosion and safeguarding the vital Highway 98 corridor. And even though the project won’t happen overnight, it’s an exciting step forward.

“This has been on my wishlist for years: the visibility of having something nature-based on Okaloosa Island that also has resiliency components,” he said. “As the Coastal Resource Team adds more focus into the Choctawhatchee Bay, this is a really good opportunity to combine the experiences we have with our various coastal resource programs and implement them on a Bay project.”

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 14: Life Below Water
• SDG 15: Life on Land

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 11.5: By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.
• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
• SDG 14.2: By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans.
• SDG 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity, and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, there are indicators mentioned in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets:

• Number of deaths, number of people affected, and economic losses caused by water-related disasters.
• Resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.
• Management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems.
• Reduction of degradation of natural habitats and prevention of species extinction.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Table

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Source: getthecoast.com

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