Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 2 0 56 Act that would create a grant pro- gram through NOAA to assist in construction. The legislation has the support of many organizations including the National Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, American Littoral Society, and the Jersey Shore Partnership. Jessica Cobb, with NJDEP's Watershed and Land Use Manage- ment program, says Sandy "was really the impetus" for starting to think about living shorelines in New Jersey. In July 2013, the state offi- cially adopted Permit 24, commonly referred to as the Living Shorelines General Permit, to encourage "hab- itat creation, restoration, enhance- ment, and living shoreline activ- ities" and to remove some of the regulatory impediments for these projects. Since that time, Cobb says about seventy projects have been completed that involve living shore- lines or very similar measures. Just a few have included: Atlantic City Gardner's Basin; Bradley Beach Maritime Forest; Fair Haven at 78 DeNormandie Avenue; Slade Dale Sanctuary in Point Pleasant; and Spring Lake at Shore Road. With no one-size-fits-all solution and an admittance that "everyone here is still learning," projects have varied greatly. "Everything is so site specific," says Kira Dacanay, principal fisheries biologist with the Bureau of Shellfisheries. Both Cobb and Dacanay call it "adaptive manage- ment," or essentially testing, adjust- ing, and perfecting as you go. Here's two very different examples. Sedge Island Just west of Island Beach State Park lies Sedge Island, home to the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife education center. Over the last sever- al years, the shoreline under the care- taker's house had severely worn away, and it was decided the island was an excellent candidate for a living shore- line—but with a twist. "It's definitely an experiment in using only natural materials," comments Dacanay. The project used a method of roll- ing coir log (made from the outer husk of the coconut) in fiber mat- ting and coir bags filled with shells in the hope that these materials will trap sediment and eventually become completely buried by the reform- ing wetland. "If all goes according to plan, you won't see them," says Dacanay. In other living shoreline projects, shell bags are typically made of plas- tic mesh for its durability and lim- ited coverage of surface area, which exposes more shells to encrusting organisms. In these designs, the goal is often to encourage reef develop- ment to buffer wave energy. Since the objective of Sedge's living shore- line is to reclaim coastal wetlands, not reef development, the coir bags were used in an effort to keep the project plastic free. Installed in just one day (June 18, 2019), the project nevertheless "took a fair amount of prep," comments Dacanay. Wooden stakes in a sort of cradle design were used to secure the coir logs to the bay bottom. Meant to be an experiment, Dacanay says preliminary results have not been published yet, but admits some coir logs have stayed in place, Restoration of South Green Street in Tuckerton. JERSEY SHORE ENVIRONMENT RETHINKING BULKHEADS, continued from page 55 courtesy of T&M Associates

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