Grant: 03-C02C
Project Title: Lighting Modifications and Educational Sea Turtle Walks in Palm Beach County
Project Manager: Paul Davis
Organization: Palm Beach County (Florida Government)
Grant Amount: $12,500.00
Completion Date: 2005-07-10
Summary: This proposal will assist municipalities in Palm Beach County to modify, replace, or retrofit coastal lighting which is detrimental to sea turtles and provide five educational sea turtle walks, targeting coastal communities and property owners. 
Results: The original project anticipated installing shields on up to 54 streetlights and determining success by evaluating beach illumination levels and disorientation events before and after shielding. Since shield installation was not feasible due to problems with Florida Power and Light and Florida Department of Transportation, we proceeded with an alternate plan. The City of Boca Raton accepted a plan that included installing additional embedded studs and performing necessary maintenance and repairs of their highly successful experimental lighting project. The 3 power sources were repaired and 162 embedded light studs were replaced. If these repairs to the embedded lighting project had not be funded, it is likely that streetlights would have been turned back on and disorientation levels would have returned to original pre-project levels. (Author: Paul Davis)