If tourism is the heart of the Florida economy, then beaches are the bloodlines.
“I love it,” said Mike Wadsley, visiting Sanibel from Nebraska. “I could live down here in a heartbeat.”
USING OUR APP? WATCH VIDEO HERE.
Not everyone on Sanibel’s Bowman’s Beach is here to play.
“What was the distance, Tyler?” asked a worker with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Land surveyors start in the water.
“Then they’re moving up the beach so we can build a profile of the way the beach looks right along that line,” said surveyor Kevin Smith.
They use survey-grade GPS technology to take cross sections of the beach. Through storms and the natural shifting of sand, beaches look different from one visit to the next.
“This is our first time in 20 years,” added Kathy Branch from North Carolina.
Lee County has nearly 50 miles of beaches.
The survey on Sanibel is part of a larger effort.
All state beaches are surveyed every four years. The state Department of Environmental Protection is now focused on Southwest Florida. Surveys started in Pinellas County in July and in late October will finish in Collier County, on the southern end of Marco Island.
The DEP makes findings available to local governments, which make decisions about where more sand is needed.
“We use this data to track long-term trends in shoreline position or erosion so that informed decisions can be made about beach management activities,” said Jennifer Carpenter, assistant director of DEP’s South District.
Managing erosion is expensive, so having the right information is critical.
“On to the next one,” said a DEP worker after measuring a section of Bowman’s Beach.
It’s work that involves many days at the beach.
Leave a Reply