The shoreline at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, where Pervious Oyster Shell Habitats units will be installed to combat erosion. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today
Published on December 5, 2024 at 12:37 pm
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The University of North Florida is getting a nearly $800,000 grant from the National Park Service to restore the shoreline at three parks in Florida and Georgia.
Park Service representatives and UNF President Moez Limayem, students and faculty made the announcement Wednesday at Kingsley Plantation at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, one of the project sites.
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The University of North Florida and the National Park Service are combining their expertise to battle shoreline erosion. They’re using manufactured Pervious Oyster Shell Habitats units — or POSH units — to stabilize the sand.
Over the past century, natural oyster reefs have disappeared at an alarming rate due to commercial oyster harvesting and other factors. Oyster reefs are a critical component associated with salt marsh ecosystems.
Steven Kidd, Park Service chief of research at the Timucuan Historic Preserve, says too much of the Fort George River shoreline is routinely lost to storms.
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“This property on the river and the story that it tells is a very important story, an integral part of the story, and if we can stabilize the shoreline to prevent more loss, then we’ll be able to do that job better (to educate the public),” Kidd said.
Researching the shoreline
Graduate student Ally Kasuwi was among the students who worked with coastal engineering professor Raf Crowley and biology associate professor emerita Kelly Smith, who researched the UNF-invented POSH units.
The units are made of concrete and recycled oyster shells. Since 2022, UNF has placed them along two stretches of coastline at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve.
“UNF, with a couple of grad students working with Dr. Crowley, created this unit, as you see it’s a low carbon footprint, and it will attract a lot of oysters and at the same time, protect the coastal area,” Kasuwi said.
POSH units reduce the effects of wave energy under certain conditions, trap sediment and recruit oysters faster than similar structures designed to restore oyster reefs, without the use of plastics that could harm the environment.
The $800,000 grant will be used to purchase a concrete batch plant, a machine available at only a few universities in the world, which will produce more of the POSH modules.
UNF students will assist in the construction and deployment of these new modules, which will be installed at Fort Matanzas National Monument and Cumberland Island National Seashore.
