Joining Forces to Restore Shrewsbury Island
J. M. Huber Corporation Helps Society Restore Habitat

On Sunday, November 6, a small flotilla of boats carried 20 people from the public boat ramp near the Channel Club Marina in Monmouth Beach, NJ to Shrewsbury Island, a about a quarter of a mile offshore. The passengers were staff and members of the American Littoral Society and a cadre of volunteers from the J.M. Huber Corporation, headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. Armed with rakes, trash bags, and waders needed to remove marine debris that had accumulated on the island, the group spent the day preserving this important haven for wildlife.

Owned by the Borough of Monmouth Beach, Shrewsbury Island is a 20-acre island which includes low marsh, high marsh, and the more elevated areas created from the dredge spoil piles. Much of the island is high quality intertidal marsh populated by the native marsh grasses, Spartina alterniflora and Spartina patens.  The island is located in the Shrewsbury River, part of the Shrewsbury-Navesink estuary, a few miles south of Sandy Hook.

It is the site of a habitat restoration project begun by the American Littoral Society and other partners in 2008 to enhance and restore intertidal habitat. We continue to monitor the island and organized this marine debris removal event to protect our prior work and the area’s diversity of wildlife including bluefish (snappers), striped bass, fluke, blue claw crabs, Atlantic menhaden (bunker), black sea bass, tautog, multiple species of killifish, Atlantic croaker, great blue heron, snowy and great egrets, osprey, kingfisher, double breasted and great cormorant, least terns, oystercatcher, and many species of gulls. It is also foraging area for bald eagles with the nearest known nest in the headwaters of the Navesink near the Swimming River Reservoir.

In addition to achieving these environmental goals, this project held special significance for the Society and the J.M. Huber Corporation: Both organizations had a long-time connection to the late Mike Huber, who had worked at J.M. Huber Corporation for 45 years, serving as Chairman, CEO, and Director of the company founded by his grandfather. During that time he was also a trustee of the American Littoral Society, where he served as President for two terms. Well known throughout New Jersey as a conservationist, Mike Huber infused his company with his love for the environment and brought his business acumen to the Littoral Society. The project also protected habitat in the Shrewsbury River, where he loved to go birding, fishing, and clamming.

It was Mike’s son, Sam, (who now holds his father’s seat on our board) who saw this event as an exciting and meaningful partnership opportunity for the Society and the J.M. Huber Corporation. He said, “This is a great thing, and I hope we have many years of a mutually beneficial relationship ahead of us. Many thanks to J.M. Huber Corporation employees for honoring the spirit of public service that was, for my father, a core value of corporate responsibility. He would be proud of both organizations to which he tirelessly devoted himself.”  

The J.M. Huber Corporation provided more than sweat equity—they bought lunch for the entire group and presented us with a check for $5,000. According to Robert Currie, Vice President, Chief Communications & Public Affairs Officer for Huber, “Responsible stewardship of the environment is a hallmark of Huber. There’s no better way to honor the legacy of Mike Huber than to put our company’s longstanding environmental efforts to work for an organization in which he played such an important role.” 
 
By the end of the day, we had filled more than an entire dumpster with marine debris—everything from bottles, cans, car tires, and lumber. The volunteers ferried the trash from the island to the mainland where the Borough of Monmouth Beach had provided a dumpster. We thank the Borough of Monmouth Beach for providing the dumpster and properly disposing of the trash and recyclables and the Channel Club Marina for making their restrooms available to our volunteers. We also thanks the volunteers who supplied boats for ferrying both volunteers and trash: Steve Gruber, a Society member, Jay Cosgrove of Bahr’s Landing, and Bobby.

We especially thank the J. M. Huber Corporation for their hard work and generous financial support and look forward to many future collaborations to protect the environment.

On this work day we removed marine debris from about one quarter of the island. We are planning to resume work in the spring. Watch for announcements on our website, Facebook page, and via emails. We’ll be calling for volunteers and boats.