TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (WMBB) – Tyndall Air Force Base is undertaking a new coastal restoration project. This is an important part of Tyndall’s total rebuild after Hurricane Michael in 2018. It is an artificial reef that could help rebuild oyster beds, reduce wave action and prevent flooding, erosion and storm damage.

The Air Force Civil Engineering Center’s Natural Disaster Recovery Division began its latest coastal restoration project more than a week ago. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is leading construction of the oyster reef through its “Reefense” program.

Tyndall Reef is the first of three reefs developed under a $67.6 million DARPA program. Artificial reefs are models that test their ability to reduce the impact of storm waves and slow erosion.

“Every time the waves hit the shore, they take a little sand with them. And over days, weeks, months, years, you end up seeing significant erosion and by putting these oyster reefs and these salt marsh improvements behind the oyster reef, you then break up that wave energy , making it less devastating to the coastline,” said Garey Payne, acquisition program manager at the Air Force Civil Engineering Center’s Natural Disaster Recovery Division.

The model will be monitored for five years. Authorities believe the reefs could potentially protect our coasts against hurricanes.

As it continues to recover from Hurricane Michael, Tyndall is taking advantage of these nature-based solutions as part of its “Facility of the Future” initiative.

“The idea is that what we have built, which is a hard structure, like a concrete sea wall or something like that, is not actually fully functioning. So storms come in and become more intense or as sea levels rise, they don’t grow with it. But something like a reef will grow over time. Something like a marsh will grow over time, so you don’t need to perpetually rebuild the structure,” said David Busheck, a professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers University.

However, this project could do more than protect our coastline.

“In addition to structures that will attenuate wave energy, we hope that they will become self-sustaining and actually provide a healthy ecosystem.” So the other idea is that when you call the water behind here, you allow the marsh to grow back, and you allow other habitats for mussels and fish and other habitats to come back here and be more like to what they once were,” program manager for DARPA Biological Technology Catherine Campbell said.

Officials have high hopes for the future of Reefense and nature-based solutions.

“So we have 40 miles of coastline, and this project is about 300 feet, which is a grain of sand in terms of a big coastline, right? We have projects underway around installing additional oyster reefs and other coastal resilience projects. Once each of these projects has been successful, we can begin to expand them,” Payne said.

Officials hope to see their coastal resilience projects overlap and protect the entire coastline.

Officials say it’s the start of a decades-long effort to protect Tyndall’s 40 miles of shoreline from the effects of climate change and sea level rise. If successful, it could lead to a lower CO2 footprint and a faster return on investment for the surrounding ecosystem.

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