Sea oats planting project advances

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL — The Bay County Tourist Development Council is moving forward with a dune enhancement project that will seed 17 miles of sand with 1.7 million plants.

The plants, which include sea oats, will help build up sand dunes along the beach in a $1.5 million to $2 million project meant to anchor the white sands that bring in millions of tourist dollars each year.

The project, expected to transform the architecture of the shoreline, has been in the works since beach management consultant and erosion expert Lisa Armbruster briefed TDC members late last year of the plans, which call for an average planting width of 10 to 40 feet seaward from existing vegetation or buildings.

Original proposals also called for 10,000 linear feet of fencing to shield the sand from historical wind patterns, but that erosion strategy has been shelved, Armbruster told the TDC on Tuesday.

"We actually removed the sand fencing portion of the project," Armbruster said, because of concerns that a major storm event with high water might wash the fencing away.

"The fencing was never really a main component of this," she said, noting that only about 5 percent of the planting area would have included fencing.

Armbruster anticipates bids will go out this month and the contract will be awarded in September. The project could be completed by March, she said.

"We might need a little more time because they have to grow that many plants," she said.

The blueprint calls for mostly sea oats, but other plants native to the area and the existing dune ecological system might be added, she said.

The project includes the installation of posts and rope fencing parallel to the seaward edge of the planting and along beach access gaps to protect the sea oats from beach-goers.

The beach-access gaps will include 3- to 5-foot-wide paths for private access, 5- to 10-foot-wide paths for major pedestrian accesses and up to 20-foot-wide paths for vehicle access points.

"It actually works very well," Armbruster said.

The posts and roping would be installed at about 100 major access points, but all access point will include gaps in the planting effort, Armbruster said.

TDC executive director Dan Rowe said the Tourist Development Council will provide public relations support for the project to forewarn beach visitors not to disturb the project.

The sea oats not only help anchor the beach from wind and storm erosion, but also protect roads and buildings from the effects of high tides, which literally can wash the beach back into the gulf.

"This is a big deal," Rowe said.

The project is being funded by cost-sharing between the state, at about a third, and the beach restoration portion of the TDC’s bed tax collections on short term rentals.