In 2013, Florida’s Tortuga Music Festival began restoring dunes with sea oats; 13 years later...

Music fans and environmental volunteers have planted more than 33,000 sea oats along Fort Lauderdale Beach over the past 13 years, turning an annual music festival into one of South Florida’s longest-running coastal restoration projects. The dune restoration effort began in 2013 alongside the first Tortuga Music Festival, an event created in partnership with the Rock The Ocean Foundation to raise money and awareness for marine conservation. Information published on the organisation’s official website confirms that volunteer groups and festivalgoers have planted native vegetation along the shoreline every year since the festival began. What started as a small local environmental project has grown into a long-term effort to strengthen sand dunes along busy parts of Fort Lauderdale’s barrier island.Rebuilding coastal defences with sea oatsSea oats, scientifically known as Uniola paniculata, are one of the main plants that help form sand dunes along the south-eastern coast of the United States. These tough perennial grasses have large underground root and rhizome systems that extend deep into the sand, helping hold loose grains in place and preventing them from being carried away by wi...