June 10, 2020

Protecting Our Shorelines

by S-FX.com

iowa court

Following Super Storm Sandy, Little Egg Harbor Township and Tuckerton Borough jointly applied for and received $2.1 million through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF’s) “Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grants Program.” The municipalities sought to stem shoreline erosion and provide continued mitigation protections to homeowners in the Iowa Court section of Osbourn Island in Little Egg Harbor and on East Green Street in Tuckerton.

The Barnegat Bay Partnership was asked to provide pre- and post-project implementation monitoring and received funding from the New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership in support of our time. The funding also served as a match to the NFWF grant.

BBP staff conducted baseline monitoring in 2017 and 2018 before construction began in the summer of 2019. During the construction phase, the BBP worked with Steve Jacobus of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Information Technology and videographer Kirk Jarvis to document the project using drone, video, and still photos. The end result is a BBP video entitled “Protecting our Shorelines.”

The Barnegat Bay Partnership has received additional funding from Little Egg Harbor (through a NJDEP 319(h) grant the Township received in 2019) to continue monitoring until 2024 and provide technical support to help the municipalities adaptively manage the two projects. We are monitoring the following metrics: position and integrity of structures, elevation changes, vegetation (survivorship of plant plugs, growth, and robustness), bycatch and wrack capture, shellfish presence, and water quality. 

Explore More Insights from Barnegat Bay

Dive deeper into the ongoing efforts to protect and restore our environment with more updates and initiatives that you can take part in. Check out our latest blog posts for valuable tips and insights.

View All

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.

 

Protecting Our Shorelines

Following Super Storm Sandy, Little Egg Harbor Township and Tuckerton Borough jointly applied for and received $2.1 million through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF’s) “Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grants Program.” The municipalities sought to stem shoreline erosion and provide continued mitigation protections to homeowners in the Iowa Court section of Osbourn Island in Little Egg Harbor and on East Green Street in Tuckerton.

The Barnegat Bay Partnership was asked to provide pre- and post-project implementation monitoring and received funding from the New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership in support of our time. The funding also served as a match to the NFWF grant.

BBP staff conducted baseline monitoring in 2017 and 2018 before construction began in the summer of 2019. During the construction phase, the BBP worked with Steve Jacobus of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Information Technology and videographer Kirk Jarvis to document the project using drone, video, and still photos. The end result is a BBP video entitled “Protecting our Shorelines.”

The Barnegat Bay Partnership has received additional funding from Little Egg Harbor (through a NJDEP 319(h) grant the Township received in 2019) to continue monitoring until 2024 and provide technical support to help the municipalities adaptively manage the two projects. We are monitoring the following metrics: position and integrity of structures, elevation changes, vegetation (survivorship of plant plugs, growth, and robustness), bycatch and wrack capture, shellfish presence, and water quality. 

Contact Protecting Our ShorelinesContact Protecting Our Shorelines
iowa court