Some Atlanta-based developer bought a chunk of land on Dog Island. He's turning it over to an Indiana University so students can figure out how to develop it as a sort of class project.
Look, I've been to Dog Island. I love the place. It's beautiful, it's quiet, and it's isolated. No bridge from the mainland means no big crowds of drunken college kids whooping it up along the beaches. The one thing Dog Island is NOT is stable. Chunks of it wash out to sea all year long. Build your house on the water and eventually the Gulf's going to eat it right up, just a gulp and it's gone.
I don't know what they're teaching in universities these days, but wouldn't "don't build on land that's not going to be there in 10 years" part of the lesson?
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I'm sure part of the deal will include a million dollar "Beach Renourishment" program.
Does that translate to "pouring sand directly into the water while, at the same time, ruining the actual beach"?
This semester I gave my beginning environmental science students a test question related to that - 10 pts. - Why is it a bad idea to build houses on sand? They had to give specific reasons involving beach/dune processes. Unfortunately, I teach college in Maryland, not in Florida anymore. But at least one batch of students has it.
Well, that restores my faith a little bit. Maybe those Indiana kids just don't have any dang clue how beaches work.
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