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At the American Littoral Society, we strive to help our fellow community members become better stewards of the coast. While education and advocacy can change behavior and stop detrimental activities, these outcomes do not always represent total success. Sometimes further action is needed to reverse the damage that has been done. One way we do this is through community-based habitat restoration of our natural environment. Through restoration projects, we engage community members in activities to restore viable, productive ecosystems that are important to the coast. This can include planting beach grass, clearing marine debris from a salt marsh; replacing grass lawns with native plant communities; monitoring shellfish in aquaculture tanks; or bagging shell as part of an oyster reef restoration project. Restoration projects can be very large in scope, like our ten-year project in Florida to replace an invasive plant with native plants; or they can be small, like a day spent removing debris that is smothering a salt marsh. Below, you will find information on:
Restoration Projects Jamaica Bay (NY) Clean Sweep NJ Living Shorelines Initiative Sandy Hook Barrier Dune Restoration Project : Highlands NJ Shadow Lake Fishway Project : Navesink River (NJ) Baykeeper Community Oyster Restoration Program : Navesink River (NJ) Shrewsbury Island Marsh Restoration Project : Shrewsbury River (NJ) Coastal Watershed Conservation and Restoration Initiative : Navesink, Shrewsbury, Shark, & Manasquan rivers (NJ) Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program Project PORTS : Delaware Bay Delaware Estuary Regional Restoration Initiative Restoration Site Inventory : Jamaica Bay to Delaware Bay
Add yourself to our mailing list so you don′t miss out. Project PORTS (oyster restoration) : Bivalve (Cumberland County), NJ --- For more information, please send an email to bill@littoralsociety.org or call Bill at (732) 291-0055.
Project PORTS (oyster restoration) : Green Creek (Cape May County), NJ --- For more information, please send an email to bill@littoralsociety.org or call Bill at (732) 291-0055.
Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program : Ocean Gate, NJ --- For more information Project PORTS (oyster restoration) : Green Creek (Cape May County), NJ -- For more information, please send an email to bill@littoralsociety.org or call Bill at (732) 291-0055.
If there is a degraded natural habitat in your community, we′d like to hear about it, especially if it is a site that you or your group would like to work on. We maintain an inventory of sites that need to be restored. This helps us prioritize our work, find funding, and match people and organizations to projects. To learn more and nominate a site, please download our habitat restoration inventory form or contact us at (732) 291-0055 or bill@littoralsociety.org . Our restoration program is funded by public and private grants as well as donations from our members and non-members. Direct donations of cash and in-kind time, services, equipment, and materials are critical to the growth of this program and may support activities such as pre-project planning and follow-up monitoring not covered by our grants.
Restoration News The 5th National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration will be November 13-17, 2010, in Galveston Island, Texas. Registration is now open! To learn more ~  A new national publication, Hope for Coastal Habitats: People, Partnerships, & Projects Making a Difference, features community-based oyster restoration programs of Rutgers, NY/NJ Baykeeper, and the American Littoral Society.
Restoration Resources From our friends at the NOAA Restoration Center and Save the Bay in Rhode Island, here is a nice video about the restoration of a saltmarsh. Brief article showing how habitat restoration is a job-creator Habitat is the primary reason we work to restore oyster reefs. For a great illustration of the oyster reef as habitat for other marine animals, check out this video. Interested in dam removal? Check out these websites: Winnicut River Dam Removal, NOAA Dam Removal, & Seber Grove Dam Removal. Here′s a great video from Restore America′s Estuaries that illustrates why habitat restoration is so important. Want to learn more about the restoration of aquatic habitats? Visit the NOAA Restoration Portal. An article about restoring American eel Ecological Restoration Reading Resources from the Society for Ecological Restoration
Restoration Project Funding Partners  
Restoration Project Partners NOAA Restoration Center Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Monmouth University - Urban Coast Institute Monmouth Conservation Foundation Township of Brick (NJ)
Cousteau Center at Bridgeton (NJ) Rutgers Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences National Park Service - Gateway NRA New York City Department of Environmental Protection Boro of Monmouth Beach (NJ) Ducks Unlimited US Fish and Wildlife Service - NJ Field Office Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory NJ Bureau of Shellfisheries Mantoloking (NJ) Yacht Club Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service of Ocean County ReClam the Bay NY/NJ Baykeeper
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