Volunteers needed June 27, 28, & 29 to help restore an oyster reef in Delaware Bay. To learn more
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Thank you to the volunteers who helped us and our partners on May 13th on Shrewsbury Island in Monmouth Beach, N.J.
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The American Littoral Society helps people to become better stewards of the coast. When necessary, we go to court to prevent or halt activities that are detrimental to the coast. Changes in public behavior or a favorable court decisions are excellent outcomes; however, these do not always represent total success. While ending a bad practice like dumping dredge spoils in a salt marsh or discharging waste into the bay can bring about dramatic improvements, sometimes the change is not enough to induce a full recovery and we need to take further action to reverse the damage that has been done. This is restoration. 
Through restoration projects, we engage community members in activities to restore nature to its healthy state. This can include replanting grass on a damaged dune, clearing marine debris from a salt marsh; replacing pretty green lawns at the shoreline with native shrubs and other plants; or installing a fishway on a dam to help migrating fish reach their historical spawning waters so they can reproduce. Restoration projects can be very large in scope, like our ten-year project to replace invasive species with native vegetation, or they can be small, like a one-day beach clean up by a scout troop.
How You Can Help - - - Habitat Restoration Inventories: To help facilitate habitat restoration in the Delaware estuary and along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey, the American Littoral Society is creating a database of potential and in-progress restoration projects in the Delaware Estuary. Like similar efforts in other estuaries, one of the primary reasons for these databases is so that those in the restoration arena can have a resource from which to draw information about specific sites and therefore be in a better position to apply for restoration funding and, hence, serve the overriding purpose of restoring critical estuarine and coastal habitats. It also can be used in broader planning and prioritization. Sites are being solicited from experts and non-experts alike. To learn more and nominate sites, please download our habitat restoration inventory form or contact us at 732-291-0055 or bill@littoralsociety.org.
The first edition of the Atlantic coast inventory was completed in spring 2006 and the first edition of the Delaware Estuary inventory will be completed in spring 2008.
Both databases are funded, in part, by the National Partnership between the NOAA Community-based Restoration Program and Restore America’s Estuaries.
Call for Proposals - - 2008 Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration
Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) is seeking proposals for its bi-annual conference. As a founding member of RAE, the American Littoral Society highly recommends this event for anyone interested in coastal and estuarine habitat restoration. The general RFP is closed; however proposals for student poster presentations will be accepted until May 31, 2008. To learn more Want to learn more about the restoration of aquatic habitats? Visit the NOAA Restoration Portal.