Conservation Clinic
Project Spotlight
Protecting Florida’s Beaches: Caveat Emptor, Coastal Armoring and Protected Species
Beginning in the Fall of 2003 the Conservation Clinic began working with the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), Florida’s largest and most active sea turtle advocacy organization, on a variety of matters addressing Florida’s coastline. Clinic students Ryan Osborne and Heather Brown collaborated with the CCC to develop draft legislation and an accompanying legal analysis that would require homeowners or their real estate agents to notify purchasers of beachfront property when they are buying property designated as “critically eroding,” and that beachfront property is subject to special environmental restrictions to protect sea turtles and other endangered and threatened species. The draft legislation was introduced in the 2005 legislative session and approved by the Florida Senate but not considered by the House of Representatives. CCC will promote the bill again in the 2006 Session.
In the Summer of 2004, four hurricanes struck the Florida coastline and wreaked havoc on Florida’s beaches and adjacent beachfront homes. As a result, there has been renewed pressure for coastal armoring – hardening the Florida shoreline - including new geotextile tube technology. In the Spring of 2005 Clinic graduate students Christa Zweig (Ph.D. Wildlife Ecology) and Aubree Gallaher (Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Ecology) and law student West Gregory assisted the CCC in the development of general comments on pending and future geotextile armoring permits and have been participating in a proposed Florida Department of Environmental Protection rulemaking effort to regulate geotextile armoring. The Clinic concluded that there is little quantitative data on the impact of geotextile tubes on sea turtles and coastal processes, that their footprint extends much further onto the active nesting beach than seawalls, replacing natural sea turtle habitat with a plastic-lined surrogate beach, and that, as a result, geotextile armoring will require continuing maintenance that permit conditions and the proposed rule do not adequately address.
Ryan Osborne (J.D. 2005)
Heather Brown (J.D. 2005)
Aubree Gallaher (Ph.D. Interdisciplinary Ecology)
Christa Zweig (Ph.D. Wildlife Conservation & Ecology)
West Gregory (J.D. Candidate)Resources:
- Amending Fl. Stat. 161.57: Requiring Mandatory Disclosure Of Coastal Hazards By Real Property Sellers In Florida (681 kb PDF)
- Sand filled Geotextile Tubes as Coastal Armoring in Florida: Panacea for Coastal Armoring or Danger to our Coastal Habitat (ppt)
- General Comments on Coastal Armoring Using Geotextile Tube Technology and Its Impact on Sea Turtles and Their Habitat