Free Upham Beach

Target:

State of Florida, Pinellas County and St Pete Beach elected officials

Sponsored by:

Suncoast Chapter of Surfrider Foundation

Over 1.5 million dollars of taxpayers money was spent on a 2004 experimental project to save Upham Beach. Geotextile tubes were placed in an effort to slow the sand erosion process on a wave-breaking beach. Today, and since the middle of 2006, these yellow tubes are exposed and can been seen lining the Gulf shore.
Geo-tube on Upham

Costly repairs are scheduled to begin in May 2008 to include a beach re-nourishment. In addition, a "rock jetty" replacement structure looms on the horizon - currently slated for 2012 (with a re-nourishment to cover the bags scheduled in 2009).

We, the undersigned, are joining one voice to say Upham beach is not a place for experimentation. The Geotextile tubes are a danger to the public, ineffective, and a waste of taxpayer money.

We respectfully ask that no further funding be spent on the structures - except for their removal.

We request the State of Florida, Pinellas County, and City of St Pete Beach to Free Upham Beach of the five (5) man made objects.

We the undersigned request no further public funds be used to repair or replace the Upham Beach Geotextile Tubes located in St. Pete Beach,
Florida. We recommend no similar jetty or rock structure be installed.

We further request no further public funds are used to re-nourish the Upham Beach sand until the Five (5) Geotextile Tubes have been completely removed.

Our united stance: the geotextile tubes are a danger, an eyesore, a hindrance to tourism, and a waste of City, County, and State tax dollars.

Thank you for your time and consideration of our request.

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We signed the "Free Upham Beach" petition!

# 982:

10:00 am PDT, Jul 11, Rosemary Ferraccio, Texas

# 981:

5:42 am PDT, Jul 9, Mike Faulkner, Florida

# 980:

10:59 am PDT, Jul 5, Amy Garcia, Florida
If the tubes are ineffective and a danger to the public, how can you justify keeping them? Not to mention the fact that they are an eye sore.

# 979:

9:11 pm PDT, Jun 22, Greg Campbell, Florida
Get rid of the bags! The beach will only get worse because of your ingeniously ridiculous idea. Take a look at Dana Point California. Sea walls create valleys, valleys create erosion, erosion creates a diminshing coastline, diminishing coastline creates politicians to continue to throw money at frivilous projects. Let the ocean live so your land can.

# 978:

2:03 pm PDT, Jun 1, Susan Brown, Georgia
the beaches are supposed to be natural, that is what tourists pay their money to see, i won't return to this beach, i go to florida for vacatiion several times a year but will not return here. it is not what i pay to see.

# 977:

4:15 pm PDT, Apr 5, Kevin Steckbauer, Florida
I lived immediately behind the condos that caused the problem until the groins were installed. Upham was once the only beach I surfed and visited. I haven't returned for over a year now, and probably will not until the groins are removed.

# 976:

4:26 pm PDT, Apr 1, Ginger Zewadski, Florida

# 975:

7:21 pm PDT, Mar 31, Jay Gallagher, Florida
The geotextile tubes are futile, and are a terrible eyesore. I understand that an attempt to mitigate the erosion was necessary. It has been demonstrated in projects like this everywhere; nature will take its course, and there is little success in stopping it. Read the book "Against the Tide" by Cornelia Dean. Upham is the closest gulf beach to my home and I walk it almost daily, from the pass to the Don and back. Sadly, the big yellow sausages are part of the landscape to me, but when i take visitors to the beach it is all they notice, and all they remember. It spoils an otherwise gorgeous view and a wonderful recreational venue. Consider it a lesson learned, and remove the tubes. St Pete Beach will be a better place with the natural beauty restored. Thank you.

# 974:

1:37 pm PDT, Mar 31, NICOLE VIRGIN, Florida

# 973:

2:51 pm PDT, Mar 20, Michelle Nelson, Florida

# 972:

6:53 am PDT, Mar 16, Mary Gifford, Alabama

# 971:

7:35 am PST, Feb 4, Derek Maycock, United Kingdom

# 970:

2:59 pm PDT, Aug 11, Dan Franklin, Florida

# 969:

10:11 pm PDT, Aug 2, Brian Robinson, Florida
Upham beach will either be blocked in by the hideous bags for the rest of human civilization or we could just let the course of nature take control of everything that it would eventually anyway.

# 968:

10:20 pm PDT, Jul 30, Andi Alnwick, New York

# 967:

7:06 pm PDT, Jul 28, Rhonda Davis, Georgia
It is a shame to see something natural taken away from local people that have always been there just for the sake of making money off high rises. Realtors already take too much farm land and turn it into subdivisions and now the natural beautiful beaches are taken away for tourism. I dont know this beach but I feel for its people that do.

# 966:

8:49 am PDT, Jul 25, Melyssa Roberts, Florida
It's a travesty to know that a beach is being used for any kind of experimental use. Stop wasting tax payers HARD EARNED MONEY (do you remember what that's like?????)and do what's right to save the beach, save the marine ife that live in and around the water and protect public safety. Not to mention, IT'S UNSIGHTLY!!! Do what needs to be done-you know what that is.

# 965:

12:48 pm PDT, Jul 23, Austin Upham, Kansas
This beach is important to me because it belongs to my relatives in some way and I want to help save it. If my relatives didn't own the beach then I would still love to help out the people that do.

# 964:

11:32 am PDT, Jul 19, Sharon Pelaccio, Illinois
What a mess, I would not take a vacation here. We vacation once a year in Florida, and this is one beach we will stay away from.

# 963:

2:27 pm PDT, Jul 15, Patrick Anderson, Florida
I feel that we are wasting a lot of my tax dollars on a failed effort. The sea will always claim what it wants to. We are just delaying the inevitable for one condo building.

# 962:

10:14 am PDT, Jul 14, Shawn Atanasoff, Maryland
My dad and I used to surf Upham regularly... I remember the last time I was in FL, took a drive down there & didn't recognize the place. Shame, really. Free Upham Beach so future generations can enjoy what were are given so freely.

# 961:

11:25 am PDT, Jul 10, Patricia Lipe, Florida

# 960:

9:26 am PDT, Jul 10, David Perry, Florida
It seems ridiculous to me that something like these t-groins were even considered to stem erosion from the beach. Please remove them from the beach immediately and let the ocean deal with the condominium!

# 959:

7:18 pm PDT, Jul 9, Colin Belcher, Florida

# 958:

11:47 am PDT, Jul 9, Jennifer Jordan, Florida
Thank you for your time and consideration to our voices on this very imporatant issue. I feel strongly that the geotextile tubes where not the right choice for Upham Beach and the only safe option is to ride our beach of them. Please look at the date seriously before making any more dangerous choices for our beaches and blindly using our tax paying dollars. These tubes should be taken off the beach and let nature restore itself. Sincerely, Jennifer Jordan

# 957:

10:06 am PDT, Jul 8, Heather Wilson, Florida

# 956:

4:53 am PDT, Jul 8, Corina Literski, Florida
We live in Florida for a reason. Give us back our beaches.

# 955:

9:44 pm PDT, Jul 7, Matthew Sexton, Florida
I am an avid kitesurfer, fisherman, and surfer, these tubes make my time at the beach less attractive less, athletically stimulating, and generally uncomfortable. This used to be a wonderful place for waves and the extremely prevalent surf culture in st. pete beach, but these tubes have killed the surf and challenging the people. Nature should take its course and our beaches should as well, human altered erosion and water flow are the largest impacts on marine life and aggresive/abnormal behaviors found in them. Make things better, get ride of the tubes.

# 954:

8:30 pm PDT, Jul 7, Steve Sadler, Florida

# 953:

8:29 pm PDT, Jul 7, George Lowry, Florida
The latest experiment in safeguarding the Upham beach from erosion has proven that those who denounced this project in the first place were correct. Remove the Tee groins now and restore the beach to it's natural form. The unfortunate condo which is the cause of all the problems will just have to be allowed to crumble. It was a mistake to build it there in the first place and there is no way to change that. The tax payers should not invest one more cent in the interest of this private condominium.

# 952:

8:11 am PDT, Jul 7, Barbara Brox, Florida
It is a much better idea to put in a jetty system- it looks much nicer, it works better, it lasts longer and it is not expensive to put large rocks in place. Jetties at regular intervals is what I have seen at many, many beaches over the years. Those t-groins are so ugly and they block the water access - I would never go to that beach until they are removed.

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