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So you think you have the best beach in the United States! You think that your beach is the widest, has the best sand, and provides the absolutely best place to throw down your beach towel and spend a glorious day underneath a picture-perfect blue sky?
Well, then you should submit your beach for the Best Restored Beach award so that, when you win you will have unquestionable bragging rights for years to come.
The Best Restored Beach award has recognized restored beaches around the country annually since 2002. The American Shore & Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) invites communities around the country to submit their coasts for consideration for a Best Restored Beach award as a way both to honor local projects and remind beach users that their favorite shoreline has been restored to maintain its recreational and protective value.
The impetus for the award was to help communities avoid having their restored beachfronts being taken for granted by residents and visitors who were unaware of the many nourishment efforts that have helped keep beaches around the country wide and healthy. The award has been given to an array of beaches from pristine protected coastlines to wide tourist-centric beaches, from urban beach parks to rejuvenated protective barrier beaches. (A full list of past winners is online at asbpa.org/about-us/awards-program/best-restored-beaches-past-winners/.)
The three important reasons for restoring beaches are:
- Storm protection — A wide sandy beach and high dunes help separate storm waves from upland structures and infrastructure thus reducing the impacts of erosion and flooding.
- Habitat restoration — Numerous species rely on wide, healthy beaches as a place to live, feed, and nest.
- Recreation — America’s beaches have twice as many visitors annually (more than 2 billion) as all of America’s national parks combined. The combined revenue from beaches and beach-related U.S. tourism is $1.3 trillion, with $124 billion in in annual taxes going to all levels of government.
So how do you get these bragging rights? Click here.
In general, the review committee is looking for the following:
1. Nominator’s contact information.
2. The name and contact information for the nominee’s public relations specialist who will be coordinating with the media for press releases, etc.
3. The name of the project manager, design engineer, and the dredge contractor who constructed the project.
4. Project description (whether or not it is a federal project, sponsors, designers, engineers, location, length, dates and volumes of nourishment material for each nourishment episode and dates of nourishments, obstacles overcome, success of project).
5. At least one professional quality color photograph of the restored beach with release for use (tourist development councils and local resorts are good sources for photos of this quality).
6. Project locator map.
7. Before and after restoration photographs.
8. A statement about why you consider this beach a best restored beach in the United States. (It is important to let the award reviewers know how the restoration project was a benefit to the community, storm damage protection, habitat restoration, recreation, or other.)
9. If available, include beach nourishment data for your current project, and historic beach nourishments, to include volume (cubic yards), cost, and length of shoreline restored. Your project will be added to our online geodatabase (https://gim2.aptim.com/ASBPANationwideRenourishment/) which tracks restored beaches and their history from around the U.S.
To meet submission deadlines, all nominations must be sent electronically to Bestrestoredbeach@asbpa.org by April 6, 2018. Winners will be notified by early May prior to the Memorial Day announcement of this year’s winners.
Show ASBPA your beach through your eyes to see the pride you have in your coastline. It just might make you and your beach a winner.
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ABOUT ASBPA: Founded in 1926, the ASBPA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that advocates for healthy coastlines by promoting the integration of science, policies and actions that maintain, protect and enhance the coasts of America. For more information on ASBPA, go to www.asbpa.org, Facebook or www.twitter.com/asbpa. This information is provided by the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association. For information, to change your email address or to unsubscribe from this list, contact us at managing@asbpa.org. A complete collection of Beach News Service articles is available for media access online at https://asbpa.org/news/newsroom_beachnews.htm.