Bronson Field

The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in partnership with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, and the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, initiated a large-scale effort to restore eroding shorelines and habitat within the Perdido Bay estuarine system.

Following funding through the NOAA Transformational Habitat Grant, the project focused on two areas of the bay: Lillian Swamp (Alabama) and Bronson Field (Florida).

At Bronson Field — a former seaplane facility now used for military recreation — the project expanded beyond shoreline stabilization to include restoring hydrologic connections to Tarkiln Bayou and rethinking recreational access along the bayfront.

TNC assembled an interdisciplinary team led by Moffatt & Nichol to conduct field investigations, hydrodynamic and sediment modeling, permitting, and engineering. Waggonner & Ball led the design charrette process, facilitating workshops that aligned agency partners, scientists, and designers around a shared understanding of the site’s ecological, cultural, and operational dynamics.

These collaborative sessions reframed the site’s challenges — hardened embankments, degraded concrete tarmac, riprap shorelines, and abandoned seaplane ramps — as opportunities for integrated design.

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The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in partnership with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, and the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, initiated a large-scale effort to restore eroding shorelines and habitat within the Perdido Bay estuarine system.

Following funding through the NOAA Transformational Habitat Grant, the project focused on two areas of the bay: Lillian Swamp (Alabama) and Bronson Field (Florida).

At Bronson Field — a former seaplane facility now used for military recreation — the project expanded beyond shoreline stabilization to include restoring hydrologic connections to Tarkiln Bayou and rethinking recreational access along the bayfront.

TNC assembled an interdisciplinary team led by Moffatt & Nichol to conduct field investigations, hydrodynamic and sediment modeling, permitting, and engineering. Waggonner & Ball led the design charrette process, facilitating workshops that aligned agency partners, scientists, and designers around a shared understanding of the site’s ecological, cultural, and operational dynamics.

These collaborative sessions reframed the site’s challenges — hardened embankments, degraded concrete tarmac, riprap shorelines, and abandoned seaplane ramps — as opportunities for integrated design.