Attachment_1_-_PDEP_-_PK_State_Park_Restoration_Plan_-_May2024.pdf

Perdido Key State Park – Perdido Key

Dune Restoration & Enhancement

1. INTRODUCTION

The coastal dune ecosystem exists in dynamic environments where disturbances, whether natural or human-caused, can create significant, long-term changes to the system. Many parts of the coastal dune ecosystem across the Florida Panhandle have been severely damaged by tropical storms over the past 25 years. Human-caused disturbance exacerbates those issues at many of the same sites. Restoring vegetation is critical for the long-term resilience of the coastal dune system and to ensure those systems regain their natural biodiversity and ecological functions.

This restoration plan is part of a larger multi-year project to implement tightly focused restoration activities to improve habitat quality, connectivity, and resilience in the coastal dune ecosystem throughout its historical distribution in the Florida Panhandle. The project is a joint effort between the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Gulf Restoration Office and University of Florida (UF IFAS). All partners work collaboratively to ensure that project activities are strategic and focused on locations that will maximize plant diversity and dune resiliency, while minimizing potential conflicts with other coastal species.

Project objectives include:

• Restoring the historical heterogeneity of landscape features within the dune ecosystem

• Re-establishing connectivity of dunes in degraded areas where disturbance has created gaps or openings that severely affect vegetation, wildlife, or humans.

• Restoring or enhancing the natural diversity and richness of native dune vegetation

• Increasing the diversity and resilience of the coastal dune ecosystem to enhance various wildlife and vegetation populations that are dependent on them.

The success of site-specific restoration activities will be measured by assessing changes in the dune community relative to control sites (i.e., non-restored) and high-quality reference sites, both pre- and post- restoration. Other factors can be observed during vegetation monitoring as well to determine certain success of these projects such as wildlife movement/use or decreased erosion/increased resiliency.

2. FOCUS AREA DESCRIPTION

2.1 Setting

Perdido Key is a 15-mile barrier island in the western Panhandle of Florida, stretching from Pensacola Bay to Perdido Pass. Perdido Key State Park is managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s state parks division which includes approximately two miles of beach along the Gulf of Mexico as well as about two miles of back dune area with interdunal swale and scrub habitat.

The state park is situated in between county owned and managed land whether that be public or privately owned parcels. The entirety of Perdido Key has experienced rapid development over the last 15 years and continues to do so today. Even though development is not directly inside the boundaries of the state park, the impacts can be seen from the surrounding areas. Perdido Key State Park also provides viable habitat for some federally or state listed species including the Perdido Key beach mouse, nesting shorebirds, and nesting sea turtles.

Figure 1. Perdido Key State Park Location

2.2 Impacts

The State Park’s long-established dunes have been heavily impacted by tropical storms in recent history, including Hurricanes Opal (1994, Cat. 3), Ivan (2004, Cat. 4), and Dennis (2005, Cat. 4). Increased storm activity has shortened the duration of recovery windows for dune vegetation and subsequent sand accretion, resulting in more extensive damage from smaller storms like recent Hurricane Sally (2020, Cat. 2). Hurricane Sally, even though a category two storm, heavily damaged the state park, believed to be due to the lack of stable dunes at the time. As of early 2024, the park is still in the process of recovery from Hurricane Sally and struggles with impacts from minor storms.

In addition, the state park has two major boardwalk areas that provide access to the beach as well as facilities for visitors. The impacts of the access points are primarily seen where the boardwalks end as dune vegetation has been cut off from further growth due to visitors walking through or right along the vegetation line. Perdido Key state park is heavily visited during the summer months by the public which has caused revegetation at these areas to be scarce.

Another major impact observed by the state park is the recurring wash over from the Gulf extending over the foredunes and even across the road to the back dunes on the west end of the park.

Park staff have repeatedly voiced their concern over the issue and that it is a common occurrence during even minor storms. The addition of vegetation in front of the foredunes would help solidify the barrier and mitigate this issue as well as block water and salt spray from entering the back dunes, thus allowing vegetation to grow and stabilize those areas.

2.3 Specific Needs

Figure 2. The exit of the boardwalk to the beach and where visitors walk along the dune face.

The development of Perdido Key has exasperated issues with dune erosion that increased frequency and intensity of major tropical storms has caused. This development is not directly inside of the park boundaries; however, development lies on each outside end of the park as well as right in the middle of the state park. Impacts of this outside development can be observed inside of the park boundaries with factors including runoff, erosion, and human disturbance. The state park hosts many visitors a year who may unknowingly be trampling dune vegetation when exiting the park’s boardwalk access points. The addition of new plants at and around these access points as well as adding plants to extend the dune face seaward will help prevent erosion by human disturbance as well as help grow and stabilize the frontline barrier that the park needs to protect infrastructure from wash over and wind damage.

Since Hurricane Sally in September 2020, foredune recovery has been promising, with most of Perdido Key exhibiting re-vegetation. The state park is an area that seems to have had vegetation recover naturally since the storm. However, there are areas within the park that have had a harder time recovering after Hurricane Sally. The two boardwalks and facilities areas faced a lot of damage after the storm and some of their public pavilions were even destroyed. The reconstruction of those boardwalks and facilities was completed in Winter 2023. Another major issue from Hurricane Sally was the wash over observed on the west end of the park. Park staff have explained that this is their top priority spot due to that issue and during a major storm like Sally, their road was out of service for days due to water and wind-blown sand. The addition of vegetation in front of and in the foredunes can assist in the growth and stabilization of a barrier where the water is entering during a storm.

Figures 2 and 4. Revegetation after Hurricane Sally is promising but there is still wash over occurring on the west side of the park (left - west pavilions, right - east pavilions)

3. RESTORATION AND ENHANCEMENT ACTIVITIES

The plans detailed below address restoration needs that have been identified for two sites within Perdido Key State Park and take into consideration the needs of multiple other species that utilize beach and dune habitats, such as shorebirds and marine turtles. Prior to the initiation of these restoration activities, FWC and/or UF project team members will demarcate restoration plots, control plots, and reference sites with flagging, as well access paths that contractors shall use to enter and exit work areas.

3.1 Overview

All the planting work at Perdido Key State Park will be completed seaward of the primary dune line and outline the proper access trails for visitors to the beach. The state park’s priority with this restoration project is resiliency of the system and protection of park infrastructure. Following Hurricane Sally in 2020, the park pavilions and boardwalks at their beach access points were heavily damaged and, in some cases, destroyed. With the devastating loss of those official access paths and a lot of the park’s vegetation, the remaining dune habitat was trampled from visitors creating paths where they saw fit.

State Park staff want to add these plantings to promote dune growth and stabilization that was lost in Hurricane Sally and has not yet recovered. These plantings will also promote beach mouse habitat for the federally listed Perdido Key Beach mouse while also considering current nesting sites of shorebirds at the state park. As mentioned before, the area surrounding the state park is heavily dominated by tourism, so having these planting projects visible in this protected area displays a more natural, accurate image of the dune ecosystem while protecting the park’s infrastructure from future major storms.

Figure 5. All plots at Perdido Key State Park

3.2 West Pavilions/ Access

3.2.1 Plots 1 and 2

Figure 6. Plots at the western access / pavilions at Perdido Key State Park.

For plot 1, starting from the rows closest to the water going landward, plant four rows of bitter panicum, four rows of beach elder, four rows of sea oats, and four rows of gulf bluestem. A 1.8-meter (6 foot) gap will then separate that block of rows from another block where this pattern will be repeated for a total of 32 rows of plantings. All plants will be planted at 18 inches on center with an 18-inch spacing between rows of plants. The very back row of gulf bluestem is approximately 56 meters from the west pavilion/boardwalk. Plot 1 is about 282.5 meters in length from west to east. Along the east side of the plot, the last column of plantings should be all bitter panicum to better outline a pathway for visitors to use. Plot 1 extends from the access path to the western park boundary and should be against current vegetation.

For plot 2, a slightly different pattern is used for part of the plot. For the west side of the plot, plantings starting from the row closest to the Gulf moving landward should be four rows of bitter panicum, four rows of beach elder, four rows of sea oats, four rows of bitter panicum, four rows of sea oats, and four rows of gulf bluestem. The last column of the western side of the plot along the access path will also be all bitter panicum (mirroring plot 1) to better outline the access way for visitors. For the east side of the plot, the pattern is the same as plot 1 with four rows of bitter panicum, four rows of beach elder, four rows of sea oats, and four rows of gulf bluestem but this is not repeated (only 16 rows). All plants will be planted at 18 inches on center with an 18-inch spacing between rows of plants.

The back row of gulf bluestem on the west side of plot 2 is approximately 60.8 meters from the east side pavilion. The back row of gulf bluestem on the east side of the plot is about 70 meters from that same pavilion. The west end of the plot is about 26 meters in length while the east side of the plot is about 30 meters in length from west to east.

The access path between plots 1 and 2 should be kept at approximately 7-8 meters wide and align to their current vegetation on the sides of their boardwalk.

Figure 7. Planting diagrams for plots 1 and 2 at Perdido Key State Park.

3.3 East Pavilions/ Access

3.3.1 Plots 3a, 3b, and 4

Figure 8. Plots at the eastern access/ pavilions at Perdido Key State Park.

For plots 3a and 3b, the pattern is four rows of bitter panicum, four rows of beach elder, four rows of sea oats, and four rows of gulf bluestem going landward. This block of 16 rows is then repeated after a 1.8-meter (6 foot) gap between the two blocks. After the second block of 16 rows, there is another 1.8-meter (6 foot) gap followed by four rows of bitter panicum and five rows of beach elder. All plants will be planted at 18 inches on center and 18-inch spacing between rows of plants. The back row of gulf bluestem directly south of the west pavilion is about 22.5 meters away. There will be a 3- meter (or 10-foot) gap maintained between current vegetation and the back row of our plantings for a travel corridor for nesting and brood-rearing shorebirds parallel to the shoreline. There will also be a 3–4-meter perpendicular gap maintained between plots 3a and 3b to allow access for shorebirds. Plot 3a is approximately 50 meters in length and plot 3b is 156.5 meters from west to east. On the far east side of plot 3b, the full column is bitter panicum to better outline an access path for visitors.

For plot 4, the same pattern as plots 3a and 3b is followed. Starting from the row closest to the Gulf moving landward, plant four rows of bitter panicum, four rows of beach elder, four rows of sea oats, and four rows of gulf bluestem. This pattern is repeated once more after a 1.8-meter (6 foot) gap and then followed by four rows of bitter panicum and five rows of beach elder. Just like plots 3a and 3b, there will be a 3- meter (or 10-foot) gap maintained between current vegetation and the back row of our plantings for a travel corridor for nesting and brood-rearing shorebirds parallel to the shoreline. Plot 4 is approximately 170 meters in length from east to west. The back row of gulf bluestem is about 20 meters directly south of the east pavilion. The far west column of plot 4 is entirely bitter panicum to better outline a pathway for visitors.

The access path between plot 3b and plot 4 should be kept at approximately 5.5 meters wide and align to their current vegetation on the sides of their boardwalk.

Figure 9. Planting diagrams for plots 3a, 3b, and 4 at Perdido Key State Park.

4. FENCING

This section will outline the plans for adding temporary symbolic fencing along with the restoration plantings. Symbolic fencing will be installed in areas to combat human disturbance while these plants get established. Post and rope will be installed in areas at a later time once everything has become established to protect the vegetation for a longer period.

4.1 West Perdido Key State Park

Figure 10. Symbolic fencing at the west access of Perdido Key State Park

4.1.1 Symbolic Fencing

Temporary symbolic fencing should be installed along the access between plots 1 and 2, then parallel to the shoreline to the opposite ends of the plots, and then along the outer sides and extend into the dunes up to the current vegetation. There will be a total of 1,318.29 linear feet installed around these two plots. Symbolic fencing will be installed around the new plantings with approximately two feet between plantings and posts. Symbolic fencing should not interfere with existing vegetation, restoration plots, or park infrastructure. Technical specifications will be outlined for contractors and specify the materials needed. Permanent post and rope will be installed in place of some of this fencing later.

4.2 East Perdido Key State Park

Figure 11. Symbolic fencing at the east access of Perdido Key State Park

4.2.1 Symbolic Fencing

Temporary symbolic fencing should be installed along the access path between plots 3b and 4, then parallel to the shoreline to the opposite ends of the plots, and then along the outer sides of these plots and extend into the dunes up to the current vegetation. There will be a total of 1,395.47 linear feet of post and rope to be installed around these plots. Symbolic fencing will be installed around the new plantings with approximately two feet between plantings and posts. Symbolic fencing should not interfere with existing vegetation, restoration plots, or park infrastructure. Technical specifications will be outlined for contractors and specify the materials needed. Permanent post and rope will be installed in place of some of this fencing later.