The Surfrider Foundation in December released the 2018 State of the Beach Report Card

 The Surfrider Foundation in December released the 2018 State of the Beach Report Card, which evaluates U.S. states and territories on their policies to protect our nation’s beaches from coastal erosion, haphazard development, and sea level rise.

Florida did not score well.

Overall the state received a “D” Grade in its efforts to protect beaches from current and future threats.

The report found that Florida does OK with sediment management, including beach rebuilding, but fails when it comes to coastal armoring – which the report found Florida does far too often.

Florida also got low grades for allowing haphazard development along the coast and did especially poorly in our planning for sea level rise.

That's not surprising since state officials do not recognize the reality of climate change, despite much of Florida's coast being threatened by sea level rise and some areas already facing the realities of higher water.

On the plus side, some local governments have taken matters into their own hands and are working to build resilient coastal communities despite the lack of state leadership.

Florida is not alone in its failure to protect its beaches.

The study found that the majority of coastal states need to make improvements, and also require continued support at the federal level for the Coastal Zone Management Act and funding for agencies such as NOAA, to protect our coastlines for the future.

If you would like to see a copy of the 2018 State of the Beach Report Card for yourself, just follow the link we've posted with this story at oysterradio.com.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/publicfiles.surfrider.org/Surfrider-Foundation-State-Of-The-Beach-Report-2018.pdf

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