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By Danielle McCulloch, Executive Director  Tagging horseshoe crabs inform the model that helps scientists understand population levels. Society tags horseshoe crabs for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Photo Credit: Sue Allen Affordability is on everyone’s mind. We are all asking what we can afford now, what we need to save, and what today’s choices will cost tomorrow. The same is true in nature.
Delaware Bay has its own economy. Every spring, tiny green horseshoe crab eggs become one of the Bay’s most valuable currencies. The influx of calorie-rich eggs fuels red knots, ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, fish, terrapins, and the larger web of life. When there are enough eggs on the beaches, shorebirds gain the weight they need to reach Arctic breeding grounds. Fish and terrapins fuel up after a long winter. And that abundance helps sustain the next generation of horseshoe crabs and the future productivity of the Bay. A large spawning horseshoe crab population is a long-term investment in the Delaware Bay ecosystem. Throughout the month of May, both horseshoe crab tagging and horseshoe crab egg density surveys took place throughout Monmouth County. Tagging events took place in Neptune Township in Shark River, a body of water that Society staff has been tagging horseshoe crabs in for 20 years! Although horseshoe crabs are not as abundant in this region as in our Delaware Bay beaches this time of year, many volunteers were able to enjoy the thrills of studying and tagging our favorite living fossil.  On May 30th, over 70 volunteers from Evergreen Group visited Sandy Hook for a day filled of service work. Attendees spent the day cleaning the beach, filling biodegradable shell bags, constructing Reef Prisms, and learning about tabby concrete, a hardened substance derived from recycled oyster shells. As volunteers assisted Society staff in assembling and constructing materials, they learned about the purpose and destination of these materials. Dorn Island, located in the Navesink River, will serve as a monitoring station for Society staff to observe and document the performance of varying shoreline protection materials in order to determine what best to use in large scale habitat restoration efforts throughout the state. In Fall 2026, the Evergreen Group volunteers will be invited back to transport and install the materials constructed at the May 30th event at Dorn Island allowing Society staff to begin the monitoring process.
Decades of Littoral Society boat support to the NYC Bird Alliance Harbor Herons surveys advances important recent findings about the state of today’s Heron Colonies in New York Harbor  Great Egret Chick. Photo credit: Don Riepe For decades, the return of herons, egrets, and ibises to New York Harbor stood as a symbol of environmental recovery. After disappearing from the region during the era of severe pollution and habitat loss prior to the 1970’s, these birds rebounded following the Clean Water Act and became one of the clearest signs that the harbor ecosystem was improving. However, a new 22-year study spearheaded by the science and conservation team at NYC Bird alliance has revealed a troubling reversal: the Northeast's largest breeding population of colonial wading birds has declined by 27%, with losses driven primarily by dramatic drops in black-crowned night herons and glossy ibises. Most concerning is the black-crowned night heron, a longtime icon of New York City's waterways, whose population has fallen by more than half and could disappear locally in the next few decades if current trends continue.
 Restoration Corps members, Chuck and Derick, measuring sill structures along the marsh of Bay Point Beach Since the kickoff of horseshoe crab spawning in the beginning of May, the Society’s Delaware Bay Restoration Corps members have been lending a helping hand at Bay Point Beach. This consisted of assisting Habitat Restoration Technician, Kerstin Axe, with imperative monitoring activities. Restoration activities at Bay Point Beach were completed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, in conjunction with the Stockton University Coastal Research Center.
 What does climate action look like in the hands of students? In the American Littoral Society’s Beach Grasses in Classes program, it looks like hundreds of young people rolling up their sleeves, nurturing dune grass in their classrooms, and then heading to the beach to help restore coastal habitats one plant at a time.
Beach Grasses in Classes combines hands-on learning with real-world environmental impact. It begins with an interactive classroom lesson introducing students to the vital role dunes play in protecting communities from storms, flooding, and the growing effects of climate change. Each student then plants a beachgrass plug in a pot and cares for it at school for several weeks. As the grass begins to grow, so does the students’ connection to the ecosystem around them.  Every year, the Littoral Society joins our partners at United Advocacy Group (UAG) and Southeast Gateway Community Action Partnership (Gateway CAP) for "Family Day of Service" in Bridgeton. For the past several years, volunteers have joined us to help maintain "Triangle Park" which is a joint project between us that we've been working to improve since 2019. This site originally had a gas station and some old houses on it, which had long since been demolished. At the corner of MLK Jr. Way and South Avenue, across from the Alms Center and a playground, this site had great promise to become an environmentally friendly "pocket park" which could soak up stormwater runoff, beautify the area and provide habitat for pollinators with native plants, and be a nice place for local residents to enjoy some time outside.
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