The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced a $9 million grant in support of a shoreline restoration project in Florida.

Awarded through the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, the funds will be used by the Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project – White Island Habitat Restoration to construct emergent and submerged offshore breakwaters leading to the eventual creation of forty-five acres of marsh, fifteen acres of beach habitat, and ten acres of suitable habitat for natural recruitment of submerged aquatic vegetation. The resulting "living" shoreline will protect habitat used by fish, shellfish, shorebirds, and seabirds while increasing the abundance of native vegetation. Additional funding through NFWF's National Coastal Resilience Fund will support a second project near the Pensacola Naval Air Station to help protect the adjacent shoreline from erosion.

"Investments in living shoreline projects are essential to our nation’s continuing efforts to restore and maintain coastal habitats and ensure their resilience against existing and future threats, such as storm events," said Jeff Trandahl, executive director, and CEO of NFWF. "I have no doubt that the Pensacola Bay Living Shoreline Project will provide lasting benefits to this crucial coastal ecosystem and to the local communities that depend on it for protection."