Okaloosa County BOCC — December 15, 2015 — Letter of Support Nature Conservatory

TheNature £ W Tallahassee Office Conservancy -~ nature.org 236 East 5™ Avenue Tel (850) 222-0199 Protecting nature. Preserving life. Tallahassee, Florida 32303 February 5, 2015 Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners 1804 Lewis Turner Boulevard, Suite 400 Fort Walton Beach, Florida 32547 Re: Okaloosa County Living Shorelines Project Dear Commissioners: The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is pleased to provide this letter of support for your proposed concept to design and implement a living shoreline project to help protect the eroding northern shore of Okaloosa Island. Protecting and restoring natural habitats such as oyster reefs, and salt marsh is a priority for TNC. These habitats can be considered integral features of a living shoreline. When properly designed and applied in appropriate places to accomplish carefully constructed objectives living shorelines can effectively protect eroding shorelines and provide numerous other benefits such as bird and fish habitat, water quality improvements and recreational opportunities. in addition, these systems typically have a much better return on investment as once they are constructed they usually require little to no maintenance. Adding to the knowledge of how living shorelines improve resilience to coastal areas is important and, therefore, we urge the county to develop science-based project objectives and pre- and post-monitoring protocols for the project. An excellent resource is the Oyster Habitat Restoration Monitoring and Assessment Handbook (a pdf file can be downloaded at http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/pdf/Oyster Habitat Restoration Monitoring and Assessment Handboo k.pdf) which provides excellent science-based guidance for projects that include oyster reef restoration, enhancement or creation. It is encouraging to see that Okaloosa County has recognized this value and is pursuing funding to begin implementation of living shorelines. Not only will this benefit the property in question, but it will provide an example for others to visit and emulate. TNC supports investments in these types of projects and we hope you are successful in your pursuit. Sincerely, 3y Darryl Boudreau