Posted on October 1, 2025
Orange Beach visitors and locals will now be able to enjoy more beaches with the restoration of three barrier islands. That is, if they don’t mind sharing with migratory birds and other native species.
“If you want to come to a place where life thrives, you come to Alabama,” said Mitchell Reid, Alabama state director for The Nature Conservancy. “We are the heart of biodiversity in north America… this is going to be a place that allows nature to thrive with humans.”
On Friday, the city of Orange Beach and environmental advocacy group The Nature Conservancy unveiled the newly restored Lower Perdido Islands near Perdido Pass. Around 30 acres of habitat were restored through this project, after years of erosion caused in part by their increasing popularity.
The Lower Perdido Islands (Robinson, Bird, and Walker islands) have become increasingly popular with visitors, who park their boats and enjoy the beach. During peak tourism season, as many as 500 boats are docked at the islands at one time, according to a news release from The Nature Conservancy.
But the islands also play host to dozens of migratory bird species, who rely on the marsh habitat to rest during their journey. As many as 30 million birds may migrate through the area around the Perdido Islands in one night, the news release said.
The restoration project aims to balance those two needs, creating beach areas for humans and marsh habitat for birds and other native species. More than 216,000 cubic yards of sediment were used to stabilize the islands’ shorelines, which had eroded over the years from storm damage, boat wakes, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, according to The Nature Conservancy.
The sediment was sourced from around the islands in Cotton Bayou and Perdido Pass, said Judy Haner, one of the project’s managers, and it was strategically dredged from areas that were difficult to navigate by boat due to the depth.
In addition, more than 200,000 native plants were planted on the islands, to create habitat for native species who utilize the islands. Sea grasses that would have been damaged by the newly added sediment were relocated, in order to preserve the sea grass habitat around the islands, Haner said.
“We have one shot at getting this right, because these sources of money that funded this, they’re not infinite,” Haner said. “When we design, we really look with an eye for how long, how sustainable is this project going to be? And how can we make it more sustainable?”
Human visitors to the islands will only be permitted to access certain areas, in order to preserve wildlife habitat. Walker Island will remain completely off-limits to visitors. Signs will be posted to remind visitors about the rules around using the island, according to The Nature Conservancy. The environmental group will monitor the islands for the next three to five years.
The islands also serve as storm protection. When hurricanes pass, the islands calm wave energy, mitigating storm surge and protecting the inland communities, said Matt Posner, who leads the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, an environmental group based in Florida.
“We are working across the Gulf Coast to promote these nature-based solutions, to stabilize the shorelines, try to limit the amount of hardening, so we both get that infrastructure protection but also the ecosystem services they provide,” Posner said.
In total, the project cost around $12.8 million, according to the news release. Part of those funds came from settlements related to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also provided infrastructure funding for the project, Haner said.
Even though the city of Orange Beach did not contribute any public funds to the project, Councilman Jerry Johnson said, the city will take over maintenance of the islands. The city’s police department also recently purchased a fleet of boats and will patrol the channel to enforce conservation rules.
The city hopes that not only will the restoration benefit the birds, fish and other species that visit, but will also draw more visitors to the area, who want not just a beach to visit but also want to experience the native wildlife in the area.
“To have over seven, almost 8 million people coming here every year,” Johnson said. “They bring to the table well over $4 or $5 billion in retail sales, in lodging, every one of our revenue categories, we get during the summer.”
