Escambia County receives $10.9 million for living shoreline project at NAS Pensacola

Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal
·2 min read

Escambia County has won another grant to advance the living shoreline project at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Escambia County announced this week that it had won a $10.93 million grant award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coast Resiliency Fund for the Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project.

The grant will go toward constructing 33 acres of marsh, five acres of oyster reef breakwater and improving conditions for 25 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation along Magazine Point on NAS Pensacola.

A personal watercraft rides past White Island in Bayou Davenport off Navy Point in Pensacola. A new $10.93 million grant award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coast Resiliency Fund has given Escambia County approximately $29 million to fund living shoreline projects in the area around Naval Air Station Pensacola.
A personal watercraft rides past White Island in Bayou Davenport off Navy Point in Pensacola. A new $10.93 million grant award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coast Resiliency Fund has given Escambia County approximately $29 million to fund living shoreline projects in the area around Naval Air Station Pensacola.

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The project at Magazine Point is expected to protect 6,200 linear feet of exposed shoreline at the base.

In addition to the environmental benefits, the project will also protect the U.S. Navy's 500-foot vessel exclusion zone and training facilities at NAS Pensacola, according to a county press release.

"This natural living shoreline infrastructure solution will help protect Naval Air Station Pensacola from future storm events while also establishing new fishery habitat with oyster reefs and submerged aquatic vegetation," Escambia County Natural Resources Director Chips Kirschenfeld said.

The award comes after the county received a $7.9 million grant for another phase of the Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project at White Island, which lies across the mouth of Bayou Grande from Magazine Point.

The county is also working on a third part of the project at Sherman Inlet on NAS Pensacola, where it will build similar living shoreline features to protect the shore from erosion.

White Island in Bayou Davenport off Navy Point in Pensacola on Friday, March 19, 2021. The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation announced a new Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund project to construct a large-scale living shoreline at White Island.
White Island in Bayou Davenport off Navy Point in Pensacola on Friday, March 19, 2021. The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation announced a new Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund project to construct a large-scale living shoreline at White Island.

Construction on the project could begin as soon as next summer.

With this latest grant, the county has received approximately $29 million to pay for the project, according to Kirschenfeld.

"This will hopefully be the final piece of funding needed for all three sites of the Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project," Kirschenfeld said. "Of course, we will have to see how the bids come in when we go through solicitation. "

Once all three phases are built, the area will have 20,000 linear feet of emergent and submerged reef breakwaters and 200 acres of emergent marsh and submerged aquatic vegetation habitat, according to the county's website.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Living shoreline project near NAS Pensacola at $29 million in funding