FIELD TRIP #1 - Visit to Urban Coastal Parks

Kennedy Park, Alice Wainwright Park and North Point Coastal Restoration Project on Virginia Key

12 February 2019

Departed 0730 and returned 1220
 

This field trip was designed to illustrate the common “Best Practices” put into place around Miami Dade County to protect coastal public areas.  The “Best Practices” include planting mangroves or other coastal native plants, placement of large rip-rap boulders or landscaping along seawalls for spectacular coastal views across Biscayne Bay. 

 

The management of coastal public spaces in Miami Dade County considers the dual purposes of first, coastal stabilization (stopping or preventing erosion) and second, coastal access for the public. More recently, management decisions have responded to the growing demand to limit stormwater run-off and other land–based sources of pollution entering Biscayne Bay.  Biscayne Bay is an intensively used/ intensively managed system.  Multiple legal jurisdictions mandate controls on nutrient loading, stormwater discharge or other pollutant inputs to the Bay. The water quality in Biscayne Bay improves, and then degrades with both natural and anthropogenic events, from severe hurricanes to failing sewage infrastructure. Visiting Biscayne Bay is like seeing an old friend in a cancer ward; one can grieve over past health and beauty, but be content to just be with that friend one more time. 

 

I am entering the field trip with some history; I am driving to familiar territory, I have been to these very parks tens if not hundreds of times over the past 30 years.  I have traveled to these areas as a visitor, an adviser, an observer and as an instructor.  Especially at the North Point Restoration Project, I have walked this area slowly, and over time, to plant new plants, and see changes over seasons and years. This trip today is different.  I want to sit back and listen to the opinions of the team.  What do they see?

 

Overall, the comments were a bit surprising. First, team members are not impressed with the engineering of the coastal riprap and mangroves of Kennedy Park.  Their observations include comments on the “incomplete” look of the restoration. My first thought is, “They don’t realize what this was before!”. Mangroves are particularly difficult in parks –these trees look unkept, they grow in mud, and they block the view of the water.  The boardwalk at Kennedy Park is under repair from Hurricane Irma. Unfortunately, the team missed out on the boardwalk experience and perspectiveBoardwalks can make mangroves magical: you can walk through the tangle of trees to the water, and walk out over the coast.  But boardwalks are expensive to maintain.

 

I am also not seeing the value of coastal real estate.  I see the waterfront houses, and think of the maintenance, the dampness, and the smell of being along a fetid canal.  Who would want to live there?  I recognize that there is a certain glamour to waterfront living that is not real.  I want to be warm, dry and protected up and away from the ocean when I sleep.  Why do people want this closeness to the ocean?  Somehow I feel I am not communicating the value and beauty of ecosystem function to my team members, and I am failing to appreciate the potential beauty and function of a built environment.  I have to admit my secret goal is to remove buildings and replant wetlands. I am not impressed with the high-rise apartments along Brickell Avenue. The whole area lacks trees and green spaces; I wish these buildings to be gone.  I have to break out of this thinking, listen more, and allow myself to see the potential of an integration of built and natural elements.  What will that look like?