We’ve got new places to relax and fish. The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Florida Inland Navigation District celebrated the completion of the Peanut Island Park Environmental Enhancement Project recently. Located just inside Lake Worth Inlet, between Singer Island and Palm Beach, Peanut Island has been a familiar sight for both fishermen and boaters in the Palm Beach area since most can remember.

The 79-acre island was created in 1918 as a result of the placement of spoil material from numerous dredging projects including the construction and maintenance of Lake Worth Inlet, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and the Port of Palm Beach turning basin. Dredged material that had made up a large hill in the center of the island was removed and transported south to create the Snook Islands Natural Area, which has not yet been completed.

Work teams removed Peanut Island’s exotic vegetation and replaced it with native plants. A shallow-water reef and lagoon were created on the southeast corner, which includes a swimming lagoon and rock-lined snorkeling area with observation walkways and floating platforms to observe the reef habitat. The existing mangrove stand on the island’s west side was restored. The project also created flushing channels, a tidal pond, maritime hammock, beach dune, boat basin and coastal strand habitats, a mangrove area boardwalk and protected floating dock facilities.

The Peanut Island Environmental Enhancement Project relocated 1.2 million cubic yards of sand stored on Peanut Island to create the Snook Islands Natural Areas project located in the Lake Worth Lagoon adjacent to the Lake Worth Municipal golf course, about 11 miles south. The Snook Islands project will contribute to the enhanced restoration of the environmentally sensitive Lake Worth Lagoon. It will include 100 acres of mangroves, seagrasses, oyster reefs and deepwater habitat with flushing channel. There are no recreational amenities planned for the much smaller Snook Islands.

FS