Highlighting national projects that provide storm protection, habitat restoration, and recreation
The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association is proud to release our much-anticipated annual list of the nation’s best restored beaches. The award-winning projects this year are all within the state of Florida and include Lido Key, Sarasota; St. Joseph Peninsula, Gulf County; and Upham Beach, Pinellas County.
The goal of ASBPA’s annual best restored beaches award is to acknowledge community beach restoration projects around the United States which increase a shoreline’s resiliency, the beach’s ability to mitigate storm damage and flooding from severe storms, and naturally allow the beach to adjust to short-term sea level rise while remaining an important part of the nearshore ecosystem. ASBPA created the annual award list as a way of highlighting the value of restored beaches as national polls show beach erosion is the number one concern of beach tourists.
“This year’s restored beach award winners represent a variety of beach types, and I congratulate them for the hard work and beautiful beaches they have protected and enhanced,” said ASBPA President Tony Pratt. “For more than 50 years, beach restoration- the process of placing beach-quality sand on dwindling beaches to reverse or offset the effects of sand loss- has been the preferred method of shore protection in coastal communities, and the original living shoreline approach to addressing coastal erosion.”
Projects are judged on three criteria: the economic and ecological benefits the beach brings to its community; short and long term success of the restoration project; and the challenges each community overcame during the course of the project. “After unprecedented shutdowns and many Americans choosing to forgo vacations in 2020, we are excited to see the large numbers of people returning to enjoy our nation’s largest recreational area - the beach! While we joyfully celebrate beaches by visiting them, few understand what it takes to keep that beach so special, ” says Lee Weishar, ASBPA vice president for external communications.
Since the initial, locally funded beach nourishment in 1998, the City of Sarasota has maintained the beaches of Lido Key while the processing, design, and permitting of the federally authorized Lido Key Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction (HSDR) Project was completed. Originally a manmade island, Lido Key has been maintained by the city through six previous nourishment projects. In 2020-21, the initial construction of the Lido Key HSDR project was conducted and included the placement of 700,000 cubic yards of sand and construction of two rock groins. With the completion of the Lido Key HSDR project, continued storm protection for the upland roads and buildings, recreational beach areas for both residents and tourists, and environmental habitat for nesting sea turtles and shorebirds will be provided through the federally authorized design for the next 50 years.
Located in one of the most critically eroded areas in Florida, the St. Joseph Peninsula beach renourishment project provides protection for more than three miles of northwest Florida beaches. Constructed using a combination of funding sources, this non-federal project overcame numerous obstacles related to project cost, community support, and hurricane impacts and delays and was completed in 2019. The project included the placement of over 700,000 cubic yards of sand. It was the second time the area had been nourished following an initial nourishment project approximately ten years prior.
The Upham Beach Stabilization Project in Pinellas County, Florida was completed in October 2018 and included the construction of four t-head groins through the placement of approximately 25,000 tons of limestone boulders ranging from two to seven tons. The project was over 25 years in the making, starting with the 1992 Inlet Management Plan for Blind Pass and included test configurations with geotextile tubes, advanced numerical modeling, stakeholder meetings, and use of monitoring data to identify structural alternatives to install a permanent solution for the stabilization of Upham Beach. Following the installation of the permanent rock groins, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracted dredging of Blind Pass with placement of 151,000 cubic yards of sand on Upham Beach as part of the Pinellas County Shore Protection Project renourishment in 2019. The reduction in sand placement volume needs exceeds the $7.1 million cost to install the structures and will continue to provide significant cost savings well into the future.
As climate change triggers both higher sea levels and stronger storm events, a wide sandy beach remains the best protection from both encroaching seas and storm driven waves. Beaches help generate $225 billion a year for the national economy, contributing about $25 billion in federal tax revenue. Beach tourism generates $45 billion annually in taxes and returns $570 in federal taxes for each federal dollar spent and beaches are the leading U.S. tourist destination for both national and international visitors.
The award-winning project teams will be honored during the spring 2022 ASBPA Coastal Summit. A complete list of best restored beaches awards and information on the science and policy of beach restoration are available here.
