Jessica Garland, the county’s coastal program manager in the Public Works Environmental Resources Division, described the county’s coastal projects and operations during a recorded county meeting interview.

"I am the coastal program manager for public works in the environmental resources division," Garland said, adding that she and one coordinator manage the county’s 21 miles of Atlantic‑facing beach parks.

Garland described several ongoing and planned projects. The 4‑Mile Beach renourishment project is a permitted, four‑mile‑long beach project that is scheduled roughly every eight years (weather and storms can shorten the interval). Garland said the last full project work took place in 2018; an earlier project was in 2013 but storms reduced the interval between projects. She said the county schedules pre‑storm and seasonal surveys and conducts annual summer surveys per permit requirements to measure sand volumes and to inform emergency truck‑hauls or larger renourishments.

Garland discussed Bathtub Beach, which she called "stable at this moment." She said recent king tides and wave action stripped some dune vegetation but also deposited suspended sand that raised the beach elevation in places. The county installed a seawall two years ago, and Garland said the structure has performed as intended. She described the seawall as about 9 feet tall, with roughly five more feet of sand covering the wall in places; she said the visible parking‑lot gravity wall protects the dune backside rather than serving as the main seawall visible from the beach.

On biological monitoring, Garland said county biologists survey reefs, turtles and shorebirds regularly; the reef at Bathtub has been monitored since the 2010 dune project and more intensively since 2014. She said the reef is healthy and that a long‑term biologist has studied it since a college thesis.

Garland also described the county’s artificial‑reef program. She said the county has more than 120 reef structures offshore, many built from cleaned, recycled concrete that contractors may deliver to the county transfer station without tipping fees. Three mitigation reefs are reachable from shore at Tiger Shores, Stewart Beach and Beachwalk; most other reef sites sit three to nine miles offshore.

"In coordination with FWC's derelict vessel program, we will be deploying a 200‑foot long cargo ship in one of our artificial reef sites," Garland said. She said the vessel, removed from the Miami River, is being cleaned of fuels, asbestos and other materials, will be towed north and sunk about nine miles offshore once prepared, and — if schedules hold — could be sunk before the end of the year. The county previously sank a ship in 2014 and a tugboat in 2018, she said.

Garland described living shoreline projects (one completed and one under construction), ongoing inlet and sand‑management responsibilities and the county’s need to match sand grain characteristics for reef‑dependent organisms when renourishing beaches. She said inlet maintenance and sand placement are performed under state statute and a state‑mandated inlet‑management plan.

Garland emphasized monitoring as the basis for responses: pre‑storm surveys, regular biological monitoring (twice a year for some elements) and photographic documentation to measure sand loss or gain and to assess whether emergency truck‑hauls or larger renourishment projects are needed. She said the 4‑Mile Beach renourishment work is expected to begin in January or February, and that the county will post project timing and updates to official channels.

Garland also noted the county’s small coastal staff — herself and a coastal program coordinator — and invited the public to follow county social media and notices for project dates and opportunities to observe reef or ship deployments.