Over the past year, the city of Sanibel placed more than 400,000 tons of sand to restore beaches devastated by recent hurricanes.
With that phase complete, the focus shifted to replanting the beaches to reinforce the natural dune structure.
Over 32,000 plants of a variety of species were placed, strengthening the beach with their root systems.
Joel Caouette, an environmental biologist with the city's Natural Resources Department, explained the program.
“At Lighthouse Beach Park, we've planted around 32,000 native dune plants to help retain the sand," he said. "It takes years to re-establish a dune. So it's very important for us to replant this and get some sort of dune established, because, again, the dune is what protects the upland areas of the islands.”
Caouette said the appearance of the plants could be deceiving as some look brown and dried up but are actually thriving in drought-like conditions.
"Some of these plants ... may look brown, but really, what our goal is obviously for the above ground, but also to get the roots established below ground," he said. "So, you know, a lot of these plants are drought tolerant. So they're used to our dry and our rainy season."
Caouette pointed to several plant varieties that were planted as actually loving dry conditions.
"So these are perfect conditions for these plants," he said of the beach area.
Eric Jackson, public information officer for the city, also provided a caveat for those visiting the beach:
“You're going to notice that the areas that the plants are in are staked off. Please avoid walking in those areas. Give those plants a chance to grow," Jackson said. "Dune plantings will continue throughout the island as we work to make our beaches more resilient.”
He added that all of the native plants installed via the state-funded program were sourced from a local grower and are 100% beach compatible.
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