Neighbors concerned about changes to Marco Island beach

Some residents on Marco Island are upset over changes at their beloved beach.

Shifting sands and moving tides at Tigertail Lagoon are bringing along new worries that they’ll lose a “jewel” of the island.

Linda Colombo with Friends of Tigertail has dedicated much of her life to preserving the special area.

“Residents of Collier County and visitors are not going to want to revisit this area if it’s not kept beautiful,” she said.

The worry is that the lagoon will become stagnant and locked in by sand, worsening water quality, trapping swimmers, kayakers and manatees.

Friends of Tigertail and others gathered Thursday to talk about possible solutions, including dredging projects.

“We need to help Mother Nature,” Colombo said.

Brad Cornell, an environmental policy associate with Audubon Florida, argues that while something should be done to preserve the lagoon, dredging won’t fix everything.

“We’re playing a little bit of God and we are not very good at being God … barrier islands and these kinds of beaches are always changing, they’re always in dynamic shifting and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Cornell said yes, Tigertail has changed, but it’s not necessarily for the worse.

So while work is needed to bridge the gap, Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro called it a positive first step.

“We are going to take action on Tigertail Beach and finally do it with expertise, knowledge, smarts…”

While there is no formal next step in the process, both sides say they’ll continue the conversation.