Page 59 - Panama City Living Magazine September-October 2019

that you do it in a fairly random organic pattern. Typically on the dune, so it gathers more sand and helps to rebuild the dune itself. You plant it at a medium depth but not too deep.”
With so many helpers, by the end of the day, rows of young plants covered a stretch of Mexico Beach, giving hope that in a few months, the landscape will be transformed again to the coastal dune landscape locals and visitors came to know and love.
But it takes months of planning and permitting to get to the point of hands-on work, Joe Taylor explains. All restoration efforts need previous approval by the environmental protection agency (EPA), and by the time the field work takes place, all logistics and re- sources have to be in place for the project.
Compared to other challenges Mexico Beach is facing, the volunteer-driven sea oat restoration project back in May was small, but very impactful. Dina Bautis- ta, an engineer with Dewberry engineering firm, has been contracted with the City of Mexico Beach as consulting engineer. She oversees the assessment, planning, and rebuilding of critical infrastructure and utilities for the City of Mexico Beach. “The response to the sea oat replanting event showed that the community will rally to restore their home,” she says. “We were positively surprised with how many people
wanted to come and help us with the planting. We received 5,000 more plants for that day and were able to plant 20,000 sea oats in total, which covered an area of approximately 800 linear feet of public beach.”
As a resident of Mexico Beach, Dina Bautista and her family, like so many others, have faced destruction and challenges. Her house was uninhabitable after the storm. When it came to planting and
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