Sand Becoming A Big Problem For One Gulf Coast County

Plant vegetation is one of the most effective ways to stop beach erosion

The pristine beaches of Harrison County on the Mississippi Gulf Coast are one of the greatest draws for the millions who visit the Coast each year. But as MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports keeping those beaches clear is beginning to become a costly problem.

Harrison County on the Coast has 26 miles of sand beach. That beach for the most part stretches from the shoreline to Highway 90 unobstructed with little in the way of trees or dunes which results in a beautiful view, but this spring that unobstructed beach started causing problems. Bobby Weaver is director of Harrison County’s Sand Beach Authority,

“You know you may get two wind events it might last a day or two we had eight to ten weeks out of the south east southwest that just was relentless it kept pushing and pushing and pushing the sand on the highway’s.”

Pete Melby is a professor of landscape architecture at Mississippi State. He has been studying the beaches in Harrison County for 13 years. Melby says the best way to protect the beach is to forgo the notion of having a groomed, unobstructed expanse and allow the beach to return to a natural state with vegetation and dunes,

“A dune is a sacrificial structure; it’s to take the energy out of the wave when there is a tropical storm.”

And those dunes will also benefit during the high winds.

“As soon as wind starts blowing and hits an obstruction like a dune or even grasses, the wind velocity slows and when the speed of the wind slows the sand drops out.”

Returning the beaches to a more natural state is also a cost effective measure, eight million dollars was spent in 2008 re-nourishing the beach from the loss of sand. Harrison County will begin working with the Army Corps of Engineers this fall to start plant dune vegetation along most of the 26 miles of beach.