National Recycle Day: Building the South Cove Natural Area #AmericaRecyclesDay

Happy Friday & Happy National Recycle Day!

I figured that since I’m getting a late start today, I would honor the National Recycle Day by recycling one of my old posts! This one covers about 3 years of work that went into building a new “Natural Area” in the West Palm Beach intracoastal Waterway!

This project has been in the works for many years, and came with plenty of controversy as well as a lot of hard work. But the completed project speaks for itself. It’s beautiful!

The South Cove Natural Area

The West Palm Beach South Cove Natural Area is a project by the Palm Beach County to provide habitat and improve water quality of the intracoastal between Flagler Bridge and Royal Park Bridge.

20121005_074623 — Looking North with the Trump Towers in the Background

At the end of the boardwalk looking north-west

Looking south-west at the end of the boardwalk

The 3-year project has multiple focuses

The South Cove Natural Area is designated as a high-priority restoration project in the Lake Worth Lagoon Management Plan.
This project will create critical shallow water habitat important to local fisheries, wading and shorebirds, manatees, and sea turtles.
Fill anoxic (lacking-oxygen) dredged hole with approximately 100,000 cubic yards of fill to create three intertidal mangrove/spartina islands.
Improve water qualityand water clarity by capping muck sediments.
Create 2 acres of mangrove and spartina habitat, 3.5 acres of potential seagrass habitat, and 0.9 acres of rock revetment/oyster reef. These habitats provides filtration capabilities and improve water quality through stabilization of the sediments.
Construct a 556-foot elevated boardwalk, 16’ x 16’ observation deck and educational kiosk for public use.

Watch a video from the end of the boardwalk.

Building the West Palm Beach South Cove Natural Area

During the planning phase, the islands were outlined with markers. This is how the intracoastal looked from 2009 – 2010.

In July of 2010 work started in earnest to build up the South Cove Natural Area. The dredged hole required approximately 100,000 cubic yards of soil to fill.

IMG00166-20101011-1807 — The dredging starts

After a year of filling up the dredged holes, in July of 2011 the islands popped up above the waterline

Due to the intratidal nature of the islands they were constructed so that the highest point was just below the high-tide line. During low tides most of the island is visible.