RENOURISHMENT

by

By Janet Nummi

Tis the season for lending a hand. When hurricanes rip through Florida, they don’t just kick over some deck chairs and mess up your margarita – these storms pound the beaches like a piña colada in a blender, leaving behind a mess that could make a pelican blush. But while cleanup crews can do some of the heavy lifting, Florida’s beaches need a helping hand, and it’s not the kind that comes with a selfie stick.

First, leave the junk behind but take the trash. After a hurricane, the sand is littered with everything from driftwood to detergent bottles. If it’s natural, let it stay. If it’s plastic, glass, or otherwise hazardous, toss it – your seagull neighbors don’t need a diet of soda cans. Local groups are hosting cleanups – bring gloves and don’t ask what that smell is.

Then, there’s the dunes. Those piles of sand may look like nature’s sandbox, but they’re the first line of defense when the next storm comes calling. Rebuilding dunes means replacing sand and replanting them with tough-as-nails grasses. So, resist the urge to take a stroll on them – think of them like grandma’s good china, but with more bird poop.

If you’re not one for sand in your shoes, open your wallet instead. Donations to groups like those listed below and more found online help fund projects to patch up these battered shorelines. They’ll even bring in the big guns with sand nourishment projects, trucking in sand to refill the gaps where beaches used to be.

And don’t forget the critters. Turtles, shorebirds, and shell-shocked fish don’t just bounce back on their own. Donate to wildlife rescue groups or volunteer to help relocate hatchlings and lost seabirds, who didn’t sign up for this storm surge.

Helping Florida’s beaches recover isn’t glamorous, but someone’s got to do it. Because once the storms are gone, all that’s left is us – and we’d better have more to show for it than broken flip-flops and washed-up cocktail straws.

Leave a Comment