Navarre Beach, Florida

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

Navarre Beach, Florida, is an unincorporated community in Santa Rosa County in the U.S. state of Florida. It is on Santa Rosa Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico.

Immediately to its east is Navarre Beach State Park, one of Florida's state parks. Immediately to its west is a portion of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and further west is the city of Pensacola Beach. To the north, across Santa Rosa Sound and on the mainland, is the community of Navarre.

Navarre Beach experiences hurricanes, and severe damage was done by several. Erin and Opal in 1995, Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, and Hurricane Dennis in July 2005 each had significant impacts on the community. Landfalling hurricanes cause significant damage to Navarre Beach due to its position on a low-lying barrier island.

Much of the 1978 film Jaws 2 was filmed at Navarre Beach.^[1]

[edit] Beach Renourishment activity

On March 26, 2006 a "Beach Renourishment" project got underway to restore sand lost due to the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005. This project eventually added approximately 200 feet of sand and a 14 foot high berm to the Gulf side of Santa Rosa Island for the entire length of Navarre Beach. The project was expected to be complete by mid July 2006. However the project was interrupted several times by the Army Corps of Engineers due to 3 accidental turtle kills. Then in late July the Corps decided to terminate the project entirely until October 1 so the remainder of the approximately 40 turtle kills allowed in the Gulf could be allocated to the Corps own dredging operations.

As of August 18, 2006, according to an article in the Northwest Florida Daily News, The Army Corps of Engineers decided "that hopper dredging could resume immediately since the project would not jeopardize the current sea turtle take allotment". In early October the dredge, pipes and bulldozers returned to complete the beach restoration.

On December 3, 2006 the last remaining pipe for the sand restoration project was removed from the beach. Except for some remaining vegetation to be planted, and some dune walkovers to be built, the Navarre Beach Renourishment Project seems to be complete.