TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (WMBB) – Tyndall Air Force Base is taking on a new coastal restoration project. It is an important part of Tyndall’s total rebuilding 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 Engineer Center’s Disaster Recovery Division is more than a week into its latest coastal restoration project. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is leading the construction of the oyster reef through its “Reefense” program.

Tyndall’s reef is the first of three to be developed under a $67.6 million DARPA program. Artificial reefs are models, testing the ability to reduce the impact of storm surges and slow erosion.

“Every time the waves hit the shore, they take some of that sand with them. And over days, weeks, months, years, you end up seeing significant amounts of erosion and by putting in these oyster reefs and these salt marsh enhancements behind the oyster reef, then you break down that wave energy, making it less devastating for shore,” said Garey Payne, acquisition program manager for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center’s Disaster Recovery Division.

The model will be monitored for five years. Officials believe reefs could protect our shores from hurricanes.

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

“The idea is that what we’ve built, which is a hard structure like a concrete pier or something, doesn’t actually work fully. So the storms come and they get more intense or as the sea level rises, they’re not, 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 have to permanently rebuild the structure,” said David Busheck, a professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers University.

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

“In addition to the structures that will mitigate the energy of the waves, we hope that they will become self-sustaining and really provide a healthy ecosystem. So the other idea is that when you call the backwater here, you allow the marsh to grow back and you allow other mussel and fish habitat and other habitat to come back here and be more like it once was,” Manager of program for DARPA Biological Technology said Catherine Campbell.

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 great coastline, right? We have ongoing projects around the installation of additional oyster reefs and other coastal resilience projects. Once each of these projects independently shows success, we can begin to expand those projects,” Payne said.

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

Officials say this is 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 carbon footprint and a faster return on investment for the surrounding ecosystem.

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