Beach Info

This year’s sea turtle nesting season has come and gone with 84 total nests recorded in Walton County. With the help of 80 or so South Walton Turtle Watch (SWTW) volunteers, thousands of tiny hatchlings crawled out of their cozy dune nests and headed out to sea.

South Walton Sea turtles face long odds for survival. Females that survive will return about 25 years from now to lay their own eggs on the same stretch of beach where they hatched, as they have been doing for 65 million years.

The Walton County Hurricane & Storm Damage Reduction Project, also known as the federal beach nourishment project, is in the third phase- the Preliminary, Engineering, and Design Phase (PED). The PED phase includes the all of the steps necessary to prepare the project for the next phase- Construction. Currently, surveyors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are surveying all five of the project reaches. Almost half of the surveying is complete and we anticipate the final survey work to be completed in October.

Greg Mathews and Chris Officer are wearing out flip flops every day as they walk Florida beaches for Google Maps. They are carrying a bizarre backpack which has a big blue orb overhead. The 40-pound rig contains 15 cameras that each take a picture every 2.5 seconds to later create a Google "street view" panorama. They are trekking about 7.5 miles a day for the project which is a collaboration between Visit Florida and Google.

The duo started in the panhandle and have already walked across South Walton. The project should be completed and accessible on Google maps in 2014.

The Walton County, Florida, Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Project (Beach Nourishment Project) reached another milestone recently with the signing of the project’s Feasibility Study Report by General Thomas Bostick, Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The chief’s favorable report marks the culmination of the Corps of Engineer’s development and review process for the project, and the study will now be submitted to Congress and the Administration. The next step for the project is Congressional approval for construction authorization.

End of July Update: South Walton Turtle Watch (SWTW) is reporting the most current count of sea turtle nests is up to 55. Some of the first nests of the season are approaching 50-60 days and we should start to see hatchlings and/or their tracks to the water any day.

The Walton County, Florida, Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Project (Beach Nourishment Project) reached another milestone Tuesday, July 16 with the signing of the project’s Feasibility Study Report by General Thomas Bostick, Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The chief’s favorable report marks the culmination of the Corps of
Engineer’s development and review process for the project, and the study will now be submitted to Congress and the Administration. The next step for the project is Congressional approval for construction authorization.
 

For the 6th consecutive year the SWFD Junior Lifeguard Program will take place this summer at Ed Walline Park under the supervision of Gary Wise, South Walton Fire District Beach Safety Director assisted by the South Walton Fire District Professional Lifeguards.