06/15/2022
Congratulations to our fantastic beach town!! Ocean Isle is the best!
WE WON!!! 😁ASBPA Announces 2022 Best Restored Beaches Highlighting national projects that provide storm protection, habitat restoration, and recreation
Beaufort, SC, June 10, 2022 – The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association is proud to release our much-anticipated annual list of the nation’s best-restored beaches. The award-winning projects this year are Duxbury Beach Dune Restoration Project, MA; Ocean Isle Beach Shoreline Protection Project, NC; Sodus Point Beach Project, NY; and Waikiki Beach Maintenance Project, HI.
The goal of ASBPA’s annual best restored beaches award is to acknowledge community beach restoration projects around the United States which increase a shoreline’s resiliency, the beach’s ability to mitigate storm damage and flooding from severe storms, and naturally allow the beach to adjust to short-term sea level rise while remaining an important part of the nearshore ecosystem. ASBPA created the annual award list to highlight the value of restored beaches.
Projects are judged on three criteria: the economic and ecological benefits the beach brings to its community; short and long term success of the restoration project; and the challenges each community overcame during the course of the project. “We appreciate each year all those who nominate their worthy projects for consideration. This year’s restored beach award recipients represent a variety of beach types, and I congratulate them for the hard work and beautiful beaches they have protected and enhanced,” said ASBPA President Gary Jones, Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors.
Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina has recognized the value of restoring and protecting their beaches since the creation of a dedicated local funding source in 1989. With long-term planning, continued adaptive management of multiple shore protection projects, Ocean Isle Beach has created improved beach conditions for recreation and habitat for biological resources. The town determined that the construction of a terminal groin located just east of the easternmost development on the island could serve as a feasible solution for chronic erosion leading to the Ocean Isle Beach Shoreline Protection Project. The project involved two major components, the construction of the terminal groin structure, and pre-filling the groin area placing sand along a 3,000 ft stretch of shoreline. In concert with the fifth nourishment of the original project, the groin was constructed in 2021 and has successfully mitigated the chronic erosion on the east end of the project.
Congratulations to the 2022 Best Restored Beach Award Recipients! As climate change triggers both higher sea levels and stronger storms, a wide sandy beach remains the best protection from both encroaching seas and storm driven waves. Beaches help generate $225 billion a year for the national economy, contributing about $25 billion in federal tax revenue, while beach tourism generates $45 billion annually and is the leading U.S. tourist destination.
The Best Restored Beach award project teams will be honored during the spring 2023 ASBPA Coastal Summit in Washington, DC. A complete list of best restored beaches and information on the science and policy of beach restoration are available at https://asbpa.org/about-us/awards-program/.
