 Monmouth County has a goal of preserving 20,000 acres of undeveloped land. Voters will decide in November whether to fund the next step of the county plan.
The last question on the ballot for the Nov. 7 election will ask voters to support the Monmouth County Open Space Trust Fund with an additional 1.25 cents per $100 of equalized assessed property value. The money will go toward preserving open space in the county and maintaining the existing county park system. The increase will cost the average homeowner in the county little more than a cup of coffee per week. The American Littoral Society supports efforts to preserve and increase open space in New Jersey because of the many benefits open space brings, both to the environment and people.  This spring the American Littoral Society will be conducting school field trips at the Wreck Pond restoration site. The field trips are part of the pond restoration project and are intended to continue educational programs begun at some area schools over the winter.
Field trips will involve students from St. Catherine School in Spring Lake, NJ, Wall High School in Wall Township, NJ, and Communication High School, which is part of the Monmouth County Vocational School District. Field trips will run through May and into the beginning of June.  The American Littoral Society is hosting two great events and we need your help! Please sign up below to volunteer for the Green-up Bridgeton Litter Clean-up and the Upper Deerfield School Rain Garden Planting.
The event in Bridgeton, NJ will take place on Saturday, April 29 from 8 a.m. to noon. The Upper Deerfield rain garden planting is scheduled for Saturday, May 6 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.  It's not just a fun run, it's a family-friendly affair, at an amazing location, that is followed by good food from a great restaurant. All to support an important cause -- the American Littoral Society's efforts to care for the coast.
The 2nd Annual Lobster Run/Walk to Care for the Coast will be held on Saturday, April 15 at 9 a.m. on the Asbury Park, NJ boardwalk. Once again the Society will partner with Langosta Lounge and Split Second Racing for this fulfilling event. The run/walk will be followed by an optional after-party at the relaxing Langosta Lounge, and feature a menu developed especially for the occasion. Participants can sign-up for food, the run or a combo of both. Proceeds from the event will benefit the American Littoral Society, a 501c3 charity based at Sandy Hook, NJ that has been protecting and restoring the coast since 1961. Those who can't run or want to do more for the cause can fundraise or make a donation through the event registration page.  Learn to read a beach, bait a hook and cast from the beach at the Littoral Society Surf Fishing Clinic with Fish Tagging Director Jeff Dement.
The clinic will be held Saturday, April 15 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Meet at Littoral Society Headquarters, 18 Hartshorne Drive, Highlands, NJ 07732. map  The American Littoral Society Rumson St. Patrick’s Day parade experience was a big hit on March 12, thanks in no small part to Doug Douty of the Lusty Lobster and his walking oyster bar.
Our float highlighted the Society’s "Shuck It, Don't Chuck It!" oyster shell recycling program and the “Bags in the Bay” pilot project being expanded to the Two Rivers Area as part of ongoing Society efforts to help clean up New Jersey’s bays and estuaries. The Bags on the Bay restoration research project has been underway in Barnegat Bay since 2016. The project involves hanging bags of recycled shells off docks. The bags are periodically pulled out of the water to catalog the species inhabiting the bag with a heavy emphasis on searching for natural oyster spat on the shells. Once analyzed, the shells are re-bagged and rehung.  On your mark, get set, run over to the registration page for the 2nd Annual Lobster Run. Registration for the 5k Run/Walk to Care for the Coast opens Wednesday, Feb. 1.
The event will be held Saturday, April 15 in Asbury Park, NJ, with a time-trial start any time from 9-10 a.m. The course is a down-and-back on the beautiful Asbury Park boardwalk and registration can include a lobster or vegetarian breakfast buffet.   On Saturday, January 16 the American Littoral Society held a training session for people who would like to be part of the citizen science monitoring program at Wreck Pond. Additional training sessions are scheduled for January 21 and 28 at 10 a.m. in Spring Lake Borough Hall, 423 Warren Avenue, Spring Lake, NJ. At them volunteers will be trained in the tests they need to conduct and how to use the equipment that will be provided. Wreck Pond is a 73-acre coastal pond located on the border of Spring Lake and Sea Girt, NJ. The American Littoral Society, in partnership with several public and private entities, helped construct a fish passage that will connect the pond to the ocean. The passage — made from 600 feet of box culvert — will improve water quality in the pond, provide better flood control to the surrounding area, and allow fish to move into and out of the pond. Those who become Wreck Pond Citizen Science Monitors, will help us gain valuable information on the effects of the fish passage on pond water level, salinity and temperature. Bird monitors will help track long-term use of the pond and the surrounding areas by shorebirds including endangered Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) and threatened Red Knots (Calidris canutus). The information collected in this program will ultimately assist us in determining the overall success of the project. If you are interested in becoming a Wreck Pond Citizen Science Monitor or would like more information, please contact Julie Schumacher at: [email protected].   A bill to ban possession or sale of shark fins are on the agenda for the New Jersey Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste Committee on Thursday January, 19.
The American Littoral Society continues to support passage of bill A3945 (and its counterpart in the state Senate, S2044) because eliminating the market for shark fins is crucial to shark protection. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed globally each year, and one of the major incentives for this is the shark fin trade. Bill sponsors are Assemblymen Reed Gusciora, Herb Conaway Jr., and Nicholas Chiaravalloti.  We need your help to plant dune grass in Bradley Beach, NJ.
The Jersey Shore Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and American Littoral Society will hold a dune planting event in Bradley Beach on Saturday, Jan. 28. 2017 at 10:30 a.m. Participants should gather at the pavilion on 5th and Ocean Avenue. Last spring, hundreds of volunteers came out to help us plant thousands of dune grass plugs on top of the dunes on the beach in Bradley Beach. It was a great success and we want to expand the dunes further this time. |
Archives
September 2024
Categories
All
|
