March 1, 2021
Plans are being readied for the March 20th vegetation planting. Picture below from the 2002 dune planting effort on Ocean Avenue.
February 11, 2021
Yesterday, the Fernandina Beach Ocean Avenue volunteer “Marines” landed at Accesses 8N and 9N to install the sand fences to help start of dune restoration at the end of those access walkovers. The last two accesses fenced at 10N and 11 N will be installed by volunteers on February 18 (Thursday) at 9AM and 9:30AM respectively. Additional volunteers are welcome to join us.
Actual plants to be installed are being held in reserve at the Green Season Nursery in Parrish, Florida for installation by volunteers at a date yet to be determined in mid to late March. Anyone interested in helping with the fence installation or the planting should contact either Kathy Russell at krussell@fbfl.org or Gail Hopf at ghopf@eco-pathways.com for more information.
The Dune Science Group want to express its appreciation to the Fernandina Beach Parks and Rec Department’s Kathy Russell and maintenance crews crew lead by Joe Pitcheralle: Keep Nassau Beautiful and the Amelia Island Beach and Marine Life Conservancy for their support; Ms. Bryn Bryon for funding the project, and the wonderful volunteers who have helped, some of whom are pictured below from the February 10th effort (thanks also to Christine Harmon for sharing the photos.
The 1700 plants to be planted include some of the following:
- Panic Grass
- Sea Oats
- Beach elder
- Beach Morning Glory
- Railroad Vine
- Sea Purslane
- Sea Oxeye Daisy
- Blanket Flower
- Beach Dune Sunflower
- Prickly Pear
- Tough Buckhorn
- Tropical sage
January 17, 2021
Volunteer work to help install sand fencing at Fernandina Beach city accesses at 8N, 9N, 10N and 11N, originally scheduled for January 5, 2021 at 9 am had to be postponed due to extreme COVID concerns. We are watching the Nassau County transmission number, following the vaccination progress of our volunteers and checking for weather forecast potential of Nor-easters that could lead to significant dune building events to reschedule the remaining sand fence construction work.
The actual vegetation planting session is tentatively scheduled for mid to late March. If you want to stay abreast of the schedule for these events and are not on our e-mail list, please contact Frank at fhopf@dunesciencegroup.com
October 13, 2020
Frank Hopf PhD, presented at the online October 13, 2020 American Shore and Beach Protective Association National Coastal Conference themed “2020 Vision for our Coasts – Navigating Stormy Times”. Dr. Hopf’s paper was entitled “Analysis of alternatives to pressure treated wood for Dune walkovers”
The powerpoint presentation is attached and the actual presentation is available through the ASBPA 2020 conference website
Click Here for the Presentation
September 1, 2020
Frank Hopf and Our Team proposed a series of seven steps to the City of Fernandina Beach City Commissioners to help to begin to find solutions to the conflict between need to improve a severally weakened and undersized protective dune along Ocean Avenue and the need to provide convenient access to the beach along the 4000’ long dune/beach section. Aware that the City lacked funding to begin to address the concerns, the proposal included volunteering to help organize and train other community members to plant 1711 native plants and install about 360’ of sand fencing at the beach ends of the eight City accesses along Ocean Avenue. The offer included obtaining the vegetation at DSG’s wholesale cost and securing materials at the lowest cost, either from DSG or City sources.
At the Commissioners meeting, Ms. Bryn Byron, volunteered to pay all the cost for materials and plants to accomplish the first three steps of the proposal. By November the details of the two offers were finalized with the City. Kathy Russell of the Parks and Recreation Department was assigned as the city coordinator for the project. DSG secured the required Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) field permit on November 19, 2020 (click here to see complete permit and plans) and the Parks Department obtained the City Building permits on December 13, 2020.
Volunteers quickly recruited by the City Parks Department and our partners at Amelia Island Beach and Marine Life Conservancy (www.aibmlc.com) and Keep Nassau Beautiful( www.keepnassaubeautiful.org to install the planned fencing was installed at 4N, 5N, 6N,and 7N on December 14 and 19, with logistic support provided by the City Parks Department maintenance staff.
The other four accesses will be sand fenced as soon as possible. The 1711 dune plants will be planted sometime in mid-March at date yet to be scheduled. Anyone interested in potentially volunteering for either activity should contact Kathy at krussell@fbfl.org or Frank at fhopf@dunesciencegroup.com for more information.