Beach replenishment in Florida consumes about one-third of what the federal government spends nationally on battling coastal erosion. Recent proposals from Washington are to cut the federal share of hurricane and storm surge protection, inlet maintenance, sand bypassing, beach restoration, and periodic renourishment projects in Florida. Although Florida has more beach erosion control projects than all the other states combined, erosion is still a problem for some 700 km of shore and has reached "critical" levels along 370 km of Florida beachfront where development or recreation are threatened. Of 215 km of erosion that have been studied, 140 km have been restored; the remainder has been abandoned because erosion rates are too high. If the average federal 50% cost-share for coastal protection is eliminated, local governments will have to support future projects at a minimal rate of $20-40 million per year. The annual cost of shore protection is modest compared to income generated by beach-related activities in Florida which overall bring in about $1.5 billion in annual sales. Alternative proposals to forego beach renourishment altogether, because it is "too expensive," suggest that new lines will be drawn in the sand for construction control and erosion setbacks. Due to relative sea-level rise (which includes land subsidence), natural background shoreline recession rates for the Florida Atlantic coast now average between 0.3-0.4 m a super(-1). Accelerated rates of coastal erosion are associated with beaches backed by seawalls and coastal segments lying downdrift from stabilized inlets. Because jetties are littoral drift blockers, they are responsible for about 85% of Florida's beach erosion problem. Erosion fronts, which migrate downbeach from jetties at a rate of about 1 km a super(-1), can quickly impact long coastal segments in a few years. Just south of the Port Everglades inlet, for example from DEP monuments R86-R91, beach fill placed in 1989 eroded 60 m in 6 y