Dune Restoration Continues on IOP as Nesting Season Begins

It's the day before loggerhead nesting season officially begins in South Carolina. The Island Turtle Team begins patrol tomorrow morning after Folly Beach had the first nest in SC on April 29th. So we anticipate our first one before very long.

Fortunately the two sand renourishment projects are just about to the point where they will either be finished or paused for a while. So our loggerheads might have some new dunes instead of the badly damaged ones that reduced their nesting places for the last couple of years.

At the south end from Breach Inlet to 10th Avenue the US Army Corps of Engineers has dumped sand brought it from the dredge spoils area in the Intracoastal Waterway behind the island, pumped it onto the beach, then placed it into trucks that dump it up near the dune line creating a new berm. Then the City is having the piles shaped into a suitable and natural shape where dune grasses will be added.

In Wild Dunes toward the northeast end of the island, there is a separate project where a shoal or sandbar is attaching near Beachwood East. The City is paying a contractor there to use this sand to rebuild the dunes in that area that have washed away as the shoal got closer causing scouring of the beach damaging not only nesting dunes but also houses.

We are glad that that this work is scheduled to be complete by mid May when our first loggerhead is likely to come ashore to nest. Thank you to those Turtle Team members who are helping with morning surveys of the beach before the work begins to make sure any nests laid during the night are safely protected.