Strategic Plan

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2012-2016 Strategic Plan

Completed in 2012, the Barnegat Bay Partnership’s second Strategic Plan is the result of a collaborative effort from all major partners of the Partnership to identify the key priority issues to focus on over the next five years. This plan focuses the efforts of all partners on those priority challenges facing the ecosystem using a manageable time frame which allows for improved progress and performance measures.

If you have any questions about this document, please contact Stan Hales, Barnegat Bay Partnership Director, at shales@ocean.edu or (732) 255-0472, extension 3.

Download the 2012-2016 Strategic Plan

Priority Areas of the 2012-2016 Strategic Plan

To build upon the previous commitments of its Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP), the BBP has identified the following Priority Areas for the coming five years. For each Priority Area, the BBP has established Long-term, Intermediate, and Short-term Environmental Outcomes, as well as key Objectives for achieving these outcomes.  In each Priority Area, the partners have committed to specific Actions and Deliverables for the five-year period.  In recognition of our changing climate, including sea level rise and other dynamic processes in the bay, the BBP will promote an ecosystem-based management approach to increase overall understanding, while working to address the following Priority Areas:

  • ·Water Quality: to improve water quality throughout Barnegat Bay by focusing on causes of water quality degradation, especially eutrophication, stormwater, and other sources of pollution;
  •  Water Supply: to ensure adequate water supplies and water flow for ecological and human uses that will support a sustainable watershed;
  • ·Habitat: to protect, restore, and enhance habitats, especially submerged aquatic vegetation, marshes, shellfish, and large terrestrial tracts;
  •  Fisheries and Wildlife: to protect, restore and enhance healthy populations of finfishes, shellfishes, and other wildlife by increasing our understanding of the dynamics of fish communities and other biota; and
  •  Land Use: to identify and promote: (1) holistic and collaborative approaches to land-use planning, and (2) practices that will improve soil function and hydrology and will restore and enhance water quality and quantity.

2008-2011 Strategic Plan

The BBP’s first Strategic Plan was completed in 2008. As with the second plan, this one was the result of a collaborative effort between all the partners to identify the key priority issues and target tasks to accomplish the objectives of the plan. The initial Strategic Plan integrated Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) actions and focused partner efforts on agreed-upon priority issues.

The priority issues for the 2008-2011 plan were 1. improving the capacity of the Barnegat Bay Partnership office and strengthening its working relationships with partners to address priority issues; 2. improving recognition and understanding of the bay’s condition, and addressing the causes of water quality degradation within the ecosystem, especially eutrophication in the bay and stormwater and non-point source pollution in the watershed; 3. addressing water supply and flow issues that affect the bay and watershed; 4. preventing habitat loss, especially of submerged aquatic vegetation, and supporting habitat restoration; and 5. improving understanding of, and addressing, fisheries declines.

Download 2008-2011 Strategic Plan

UNKNOWN

There is limited data available to quantify Wetland and Riparian Buffer Preservation, or updated data to quantify Wetland Acreage. The BBP has obtained funding and will begin assessment efforts for both targets, in the next few years.

 

 Hard Clam abundance has not been updated since 2012. Recovery of the stock will be guided by the Fishery Management Plan for Hard Clams, which is under development with the NJDEP, BBP, and other organizations. Reclam the Bay and other partners have continued to plant clams for restoration purposes. Continued plantings in strategic locations which maximize survival and reproduction is one strategy to pursue in the coming years. This work can use a model developed by Rutgers with BBP funding which identified areas where planted clams could have the greatest dispersal of their larvae and thus potentially maximally contribute to the recovery of the stock.

 Water Withdrawals were over the target in the 2021 report; USGS has not yet completed its latest update, so a definitive determination of status is not available. However, additional NJDEP data show that it is likely that we continue to not meet the target. Per capita water use has gone down, demonstrating the effectiveness of water-saving appliances and practices, but that decrease has been offset by population gains. 


IN PROGRESS

New maps quantifying Submerged Aquatic Vegetation extent were developed, but poor image clarity resulted in a high degree of uncertainty in the total acreage. NJDEP and Rutgers are working to resolve the uncertainty of these maps, and improve the total acreage estimate. Funding has also been obtained for further research and restoration activities. Several groups are developing potential restoration actions.

The USGS has completed the first phase of its study to identify minimum ecological flows in select Barnegat Bay tributaries. USGS scientists compared streamflow statistics between historical and current time periods to better understand trends in watershed flow conditions. This work provides a foundation for developing ecological flow targets in the Barnegat Bay watershed.  Similar to SAV extent, funding (approximately $450K) has been obtained by the BBP to complete the remaining phases necessary for threshold determination.

 

TARGETS ACHIEVED

No targets can be considered “Achieved” at this time.

 

NOT ACHIEVING

Several Public Swimming Beaches exceeded their safe swimming standards more frequently than during their baseline time period (2016-2018).

While most beaches are routinely safe for swimming, several problematic areas such as Beachwood, Hancock, Windward, and several lake beaches need track-down studies and restoration to pinpoint and address sources of bacteria.

Acres of Approved Shellfish Waters decreased from the last report. While this decrease was small, it represents a loss of previously approved waters. Similar to public beaches, track-down studies and restoration work are needed to pinpoint and address sources of bacteria.