American Beach residents say beach driving could harm loggerhead and green sea turtles. Residents plan to sue to block driving on the beach. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 1, 2025 at 4:32 pm
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American Beach homeowners will file suit against Nassau County this month in an attempt to eliminate beach driving on the sands between the enclave’s famous dunes and the Atlantic Ocean.
Earlier this year, a group of residents banded together to create Save American Beach, a nonprofit that aimed to protect dunes, protect wildlife and eliminate beach driving. In February, the nonprofit sent a notice of intent to sue Nassau County for violating the Endangered Species Act.
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Mark Dawkins, president of Save American Beach, says the organization fully intends to sue once the 60-day warning expires April 11.
What’s at stake on the beach
Residents claim that allowing beach driving means the loggerhead and green sea turtles that hatch along American Beach may be harassed, wounded or killed in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Nassau County retained a Tallahassee-based law firm, Gardner Bist, to respond to the pending litigation. In its response to Save American Beach on March 14, attorney John T. LaVia III noted the county’s expense of extending wastewater into American Beach as well as roadway pavement, which he said indicate Nassau County’s investment in the community.
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LaVia’s response noted that beach driving at American Beach dates back to the 1930s.
This year is the 90th anniversary of the Afro-American Life Insurance Co. purchasing more than 200 acres of property and creating American Beach as a respite from the racism that was on virulent display at other beaches in Nassau and Duval counties. Today, it is a hamlet where Black families, and people of all hues, live and recreate.
Descendants of Afro-American Life Insurance Co. co-founder Abraham Lincoln Lewis continue to live on American Beach.
The history of American Beach, and the threat of future litigation, will not change how the government perceives the community. LaVia wrote that the county intends to continue its collaboration with American Beach residents.
“Nassau County strongly disagrees with the baseless allegation that the County is violating Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act by failing to adequately protect sea turtles from automobile collisions,” LaVia wrote.
What residents want
Pam McCorkle Buncum and her family bought property in American Beach more than a decade before moving to the predominantly Black community in 2020. In her half-decade at American Beach, she says there were two occasions where she observed sea turtles on the beach, while people drove.
Buncum did not witness a sea turtle killed by a driver. Nevertheless, the close calls have raised concern.
Buncum says warming temperatures will draw more people to the beach amid the wildlife. She would prefer that no one drive on Nassau County’s beaches. If that is not possible, she hopes the county will consider allowing beach driving access points only at public parks, not at the end of a residential street.
When the Florida Legislature passed SB1577 in 1989, it outlined the specific places where beach driving was allowed in Nassau County. Beach driving along a “developed resort area” was prohibited.
It allowed beach driving in three places: at Peters Point Park; from “the Nassau Sound side to the developed resort area parcel”; and Lewis Street in the heart of American Beach.
The resort in question became The Ritz-Carlton.
Dawkins and Buncum say it was hypocritical for Nassau County to prohibit beach driving at a resort but allow it in a place that was created as a beachside resort community.
“We are not saying you can’t come to American Beach,” Buncum said. “There is Burney Park. That parking lot is mostly underutilized. We are saying come to the beach. Enjoy what Nassau County offers. But you don’t have to drive on the beach, cause safety issues, damage the dunes and marine life. It can be a win-win for humans and everyone else.”
Turtle power
Sea turtle nesting season on the peninsula begins as early as March. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission states that loggerhead turtle season runs from April until September, while green sea turtle season is from June until September.
Data from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Institute indicates that loggerhead, green and leatherback turtle nests have been observed on Amelia Island. Its data does not specify whether the nests were spotted at places with beach driving access like American Beach, Seaside Park, Peter’s Point or elsewhere.
In 2024, only one green sea turtle nest was spotted in the county — out of the 14,308 in Florida. Last year, there were 222 loggerhead turtle nests spotted in Nassau County, which is 0.2% of the 110,228 logged statewide.
Environmental impact
Last year, Save American Beach hired Christy Swann to study the effect driving has along American Beach.
Swann, the founder and CEO of environmental technology firm RCOAST, has studied beach renourishment and dune replenishment in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. She found the dunes that protect American Beach residents from the Atlantic Ocean are losing their ability to recover.
“There is a substantial amount of recovery potential if beach driving is prohibited, or beach driving posts are moved seaward to their pre-Nicole placement,” Swann wrote in a report shared with Nassau County commissioners last fall. “The obstructions that are preventing the dunes from recovering as they naturally would are both beach driving and the landward march of the beach driving post.”
When the National Hurricane Center produced a tropical cyclone report about Hurricane Nicole in March 2023, it found that while it was unlikely hurricane-force activity impacted any part of the Florida coast, the coast was vulnerable to damage because Hurricane Ian blew through the state less than two months prior.
Nassau County, and American Beach, have not been impacted by storms during the last two hurricane seasons.
However, it only takes one tropical event to alter decades of plans.
Dawkins is hopeful American Beach residents and Nassau County can find a solution — either though conversation or litigation — before the next storm blows ashore.
“We have our arms open and say we welcome everyone, regardless of race, gender or any physical characteristic,” Dawkins said. “It is a beautiful beach. We want people to enjoy it. When we say people, we mean everyone.”
