Franklin County moving into final year of 4 year turtle lighting program

 Franklin County will continue a grant program next year to help protect nesting sea turtles from man-made lights.

Franklin County has one of the larger sea turtle nesting populations on the Gulf Coast.

Sea turtles can be disoriented by house lights and the county has a rule requiring turtle safe lighting on homes along the beach and in other areas that might impact sea turtle nests.

The county ordinance requires sea turtle safe lights and in some cases window tinting on homes near the beach.

County Extension Director Erik Lovestrand said Franklin County is in the final year of a 4 year project to help bring homes near sea turtle nesting areas into compliance with the lighting ordinance.

Its scheduled to end on June 5^th, 2018.

It total the program will bring over 200 thousand dollars to Franklin County which has allowed the county to hire part-time staff to visit homes and businesses that are not currently in compliance and offer assistance in bringing their outdoor lighting into compliance with county rules.

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