Living Shoreline at Bryant Park

Karla Engel, Secretary of Bryant Park Neighborhood Association sent 4 aerials...here is one. She says, "Attached are fantastic aerial photos of the Living Shoreline installation in progress. It is always fun to get a bird-eye's-view of what is happening in our neck of the woods."

Project Overview • Create 575 feet of living shoreline along a barren seawall. • Construct a 125-foot wetland planter using a prototype design created by a team of biologists, engineers and artists to retain soils for intertidal plants, promote oyster growth and offer passages for fish. • Install 445 feet of riprap rock to provide oyster reef habitat and protect the shoreline. • Improve seawall protection by installing living shoreline which will attenuate waves and boat wakes. • Estimated completion in July 2015.

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Attend the ribbon cutting at Bryant Park on Tuesday, July 14, 10am

Living Shoreline

The 1995 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act changed Florida’s mangrove protection statutes. The act repealed existing statutes that regulated the trimming of mangroves and replaced them with several new statutes that reduce the amount of permitting and paperwork required for that activity. Distinguishing between “trimming” and “altering” mangroves, the act allows trimming activity with or without a permit, depending on the location of the mangrove. On the other hand, altering a mangrove (removing or cutting the plant so much that it dies or is defoliated) is a prohibited activity, unless a permit was issued. The act does not require a permit for trimming on private lands. Similarly, certain public lands not set aside for preservation or conservation purposes do not need a trimming permit. Riparian property owners may trim mangroves on public lands fronting their property to a depth of 75 feet, measured waterward from the trunk of the most landward mangrove tree and in a direction perpendicular to the shoreline. Click here.

Commissioner McVoy as well as Lantana mayor, Dave Stewart, told our commission to be careful about cutting down mangroves.

Dave Stewart grew his beard back!

Living Shoreline to be constructed in Lake Worth

Tonight, the city is going to grant a temporary Construction Easement Agreement with Palm Beach County's Department of Environmental Resource Management for "Living Shoreline" improvements at Bryant Park along 90 feet of the seawall north of the boat ramps. The remaining 400 feet of shoreline will include approximately 1,000 tons of rock rip-rap, filter fabric, and bedding stone to be used as a base.

According to NOAA, living shoreline projects utilize a variety of structural and organic materials, such as wetland plants, submerged aquatic vegetation, oyster reefs, coir fiber logs, sand fill, and stone. The benefits of living shorelines include:

• Stabilization of the shoreline.
• Protection of surrounding riparian and intertidal environment.
• Improvement of water quality via filtration of upland run-off.
• Creation of habitat for aquatic and terrestrial species.

The construction and maintenance of the project has no impact on the City’s capital or operating budgets and is
fully funded through PBC ERM funds. The project budget is $150,000.