Educator Resources

Barnegat Bay Watershed Experience

Find a guided field program on the Bay or in the forests of the watershed for your class or community group. These programs are offered by public agencies and nonprofit organizations to meet the needs of teachers, educators and community leaders.

The Barnegat Bay Watershed Experience is an initiative of the Barnegat Bay Partnership, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and the partners listed on the webpage. We have come together to create this information hub to help educators and community leaders find guided outdoor and school-based programs for their students and participants in the Barnegat Bay Watershed.

This page is a one-stop-shop for anyone - from parents to teachers - to find lessons, curriculum, or visits from experts covering environmental topics about the Barnegat Bay.
Barnegat Bay Watershed Experience

Barnegat Bay Watershed Educational Resource Guide

This comprehensive booklet (updated version available for download) was created as your one-stop guide for all educational resources related to Barnegat Bay watershed education. What began as a simple directory has grown into a compendium of resources and organizations offering numerous programs, publications, field trips, and watershed information that educators can incorporate into their lessons and activities.
Download the Booklet Here
jfy elementary plantingBecome a Jersey Yard Certified School
By enrolling your class into the Jersey Friendly Yards school certification programs, you and your students will learn about landscaping practices that reduce sources of pollution, conserve water supplies, and create valuable habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. The voluntary actions you take as a program participant and land steward will contribute to cleaner water and a healthier environment for everyone who lives, works, and plays in the Barnegat Bay watershed.

Local and Regional Environmental Education Resources

Jenkinson’s Aquarium

In addition to the educational exhibits, Jenkinson’s Aquarium offers workshops for children of all ages, as well as professional development workshops for teachers and group tours for schools and scout groups. Groups are provided a general tour of the building and can choose between a number of Focus Programs that will highlight a chosen topic. If your group is unable to make it to the Aquarium, they can come to you through their Outreach Program.

NJ Department of Environmental Protection State Environmental Education Directory (NJ SEEDS)

Coordinated at the state level, this directory is full of information on environmental education events, in-class and out-of-class programs, classroom materials, workshop information, etc.

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

The Division of Fish and Wildlife conducts a variety of educational programs for teachers and the general public, such as Project WILD and Aquatic WILD workshops. The goal of Project WILD/Aquatic WILD/WILD School Sites is to assist learners of any age in developing awareness, knowledge, skills, and commitment that result in informed decisions, responsible behavior, and constructive actions concerning wildlife and the environment upon which life depends. These programs are conducted in cooperation with the National Project WILD office.

New Jersey Watershed Ambassador Program

The New Jersey Watershed Ambassadors Program is a community-oriented AmeriCorps environmental program designed to raise awareness about watershed issues in New Jersey. Through this program, AmeriCorps members are placed in watershed management areas across the state to serve their local communities. Watershed Ambassadors will come to your classroom for a hands-on environmental education lesson, such as the EnviroScape® demonstration. The Barnegat Bay Partnership is the host agency for the Barnegat Bay Watershed Ambassador.

Forest Resource Education Center (FREC)

The FREC offers free environmental education programs to groups of all ages and several special events throughout the year. FREC also provides teacher workshops in Project Learning Tree, a national program that helps children learn how to think about the environment.

Ocean County Soil Conservation District (OCSCD)

The OCSCD provides Ocean County with a wide variety of natural resource conservation services, including extensive resources for Ocean County educators. They offer professional development and in-service opportunities, information on construction of outdoor classrooms and rain gardens, classroom materials, and the Discovering Barnegat Bay workshops for teachers. Discovering Barnegat Bay is a 340-page interdisciplinary guide with lesson plans about the historical, cultural, and natural resources of the Barnegat Bay watershed.

Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA)

The PPA offers a variety of teacher resources including trainings, curricula, and customized field experiences. For more information visit their website or call (609) 859-8860.

Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center Workshops for Teachers

The New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife offers an extraordinary learning experience at its Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center, located within New Jersey’s first Marine Conservation Zone. Several uninhabited islands situated just off Island Beach State Park in Barnegat Bay comprise the 300-acre Sedge Islands Wildlife Management Area (WMA), a remarkable estuarine environment teeming with wildlife.

United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Education

The EPA’s Environmental Education website provides information about educational resources, publications, training programs, fellowships, grants, and much more.

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.