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County Conducts Effort To Shore Up Shorelines

KATHY MOORE / The Tampa Tribune

A man enjoys an early morning walk at the nature preserve in August 2006.

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By SUSAN GREEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2007

APOLLO BEACH - An erosion-control project at Apollo Beach Nature Preserve may set the pace for environmentally friendly methods of shoring up shorelines in Florida.

Hillsborough County workers and contractors completed the work last week, transforming small cliffs formed by tidal erosion into a gradual slope of sand and native coastal grass. The problem was confined to the south corner of the beach at the 58-acre, county-owned site on Surfside Boulevard.

Workers from Seagrass Recovery, an environmental restoration business based in Ruskin and Indian Rocks Beach, followed a design pioneered by Agrecol Corp. of Madison, Wis. The design intersperses sandbags filled with a mixture of beach sand and inland soil with the plants, which help anchor the new fill in place. The sandbags don't break down in the glaring sun, but they will be covered in a year or so with vegetation, said Richard Sullivan, project manager for Hillsborough's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department.

"It's a living sea wall," Sullivan said.

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