Littoral​ Society

  • Home
  • What We Do
    • Education
    • Conservation
    • Restoration
    • Advocacy
    • Fish Tagging
    • Presentations
  • Where We Work
    • Sandy Hook
    • Barnegat Bay
    • Delaware Bay
    • Jamaica Bay
    • Sarasota Bay
    • National Policy
  • Who We Are
    • History
    • Staff
    • Officers & Trustees
    • Financial Accountability
    • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice
    • Contact
  • Newsroom
    • Littoral News
    • Press Releases
    • Videos
    • Publications
    • Reports
  • Blog
  • Join Us
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Sponsor
    • Sign Up for Littoral Updates
    • Littorally Local
    • Lobster Run
    • Upcoming Events
    • Field Trips
    • Volunteer
    • Jobs
  • Store
  • Home
  • What We Do
    • Education
    • Conservation
    • Restoration
    • Advocacy
    • Fish Tagging
    • Presentations
  • Where We Work
    • Sandy Hook
    • Barnegat Bay
    • Delaware Bay
    • Jamaica Bay
    • Sarasota Bay
    • National Policy
  • Who We Are
    • History
    • Staff
    • Officers & Trustees
    • Financial Accountability
    • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice
    • Contact
  • Newsroom
    • Littoral News
    • Press Releases
    • Videos
    • Publications
    • Reports
  • Blog
  • Join Us
    • Donate
    • Membership
    • Sponsor
    • Sign Up for Littoral Updates
    • Littorally Local
    • Lobster Run
    • Upcoming Events
    • Field Trips
    • Volunteer
    • Jobs
  • Store

The Society Blog

Volunteers Key to Success of Forked River Reef Construction

11/29/2021

 
Picture
After months of delay due to supply chain issues, the work at Forked River Beach finally got underway in early November with the delivery of materials for building offshore reefs. Called HESCOs, these galvanized wire baskets will be put together by volunteers, then carried by barge to the reef site and filled with stone (to anchor them) and shell (to give oysters a home).
 
With the help of our new best friend and partner Aaron Ackley, who represents HESCO, the Littoral Society restoration team, along with staff from ReClam the Bay, immediately began learning the most efficient ways to build the HESCO arrays.
 
What we learned was conveyed to more than 20 volunteers who attended training events on November 9.  The Lacey Department of Public Works was also on hand as well and provided a trash and recycling can, has helped us with large trash removal, and also gave us 4 sawhorses and lumber which we made into the perfect side panel chicken wire attachment stations.

Besides providing insight on how to best streamline assembly of the HESCOs, those initial training sessions also launched our volunteer work days, which will be focused on constructing enough baskets for seven, 200-foot long, double-rowed oyster reef segments.
Picture
For this project, each HESCO unit/reef segment will consist of three connected galvanized steel baskets surrounded by eight outer pockets (aka shell faces). The interior baskets will be filled with rock, while the outer shell faces will be filled with a mix of recycled shell. For half of the reefs, the recycled shell mix will be seeded with up to 70 million oyster larvae.

The reefs will be located offshore and run from the mouth of Forked River in the north, near Bayfront Park, to a lagoon located at the southern end of Beach Boulevard. This section has lost over a hundred feet of shoreline since 1995. Erosion rate is accelerating: abut 20 feet of shoreline were lost in 2017 alone.

On November 10, another load of HESCO material arrived and, with the help of eight volunteers, 13 units were completed. At the same time, four finished baskets were moved to the area staked out for the reef in order to determine if assembly needed any tweaks.  Another 18 units were put together on Veterans Day with the help of a number of volunteers - including several veterans.

What’s next?
 
Volunteer work days will continue Monday through Friday until December 18 (weather permitting). Click here for more information and to register.

We are also starting Saturday volunteer events until Christmas for college students, which will allow those aspiring practitioners to gain hands-on restoration experience. A schedule of those event dates will be posted, and flyers will be provided electronically to Stockton University, Ocean County College, Kean University, Monmouth University, Stevens Institute, Rowan University, Georgian Court University, Rutgers University, and the Ocean County MATES program.

Hopes are to have the reefs in by December 3, then come back in late spring/early summer 2022 and add the live shell to the inshore reefs and transplant some eel grass.
Help with the project has come from a number of sources. The Jetty Rock Foundation is providing a significant amount of recycled shell, while Lacey Township - the municipality surrounding the living shoreline site - has been providing in-kind support.

Stockton University will conduct base-line monitoring and project design, which will lead directly to staking reef locations. Albert Marine, the project contractor, will place the HESCOs based on the work by Stockton.

We are also working with ReClam the Bay and Rutgers Coastal Stewardship Program to coordinate volunteer involvement to help construct the HESCO baskets.
 
Thanks again to our volunteers, our veterans, and all our partners. This restoration project is off to a great start and truly shows how important teamwork, communication, and partnerships are. Stay tuned for next week’s updates and see you at the site!

For more info on the project go to https://www.littoralsociety.org/forked-river-beach.html.


Comments are closed.
    BLOG HOME

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

     Subscribe in a reader

    Categories

    All
    5k
    Action
    Advocacy
    Amazon
    Art
    Asbury Park
    Ballot Question
    Barnegat
    Bay
    Beach
    Benefit
    Biomedical
    Breakfree
    Camp
    Celebration
    Cleanup
    Climate
    Coast
    Conservation
    Crafts
    Delaware Bay
    Delbay
    Drilling
    Dune
    Dune Grass
    Earthday
    Earth Day
    Economy
    Eggs
    Election
    Estuary
    Event
    Family
    Fishing
    Fun
    Global Warming
    Horseshoe Crab
    Jamaicabay
    Legislation
    Litter
    Live Music
    Lobster
    Long Beach Island
    Marine Science
    NJ
    NY
    Oil
    Open Space
    Oyster
    Oystere
    Parade
    Party
    Plastic
    Policy
    Pollution
    Protect
    Race
    Rain Garden
    Red Knot
    Reef
    Restoration
    River
    Run
    Sandy Hook
    Shark Fin
    Shell-a-bration
    Shell Bagging
    Shore
    Shorebird
    Summer
    Superstorm Sandy
    Surfcasting
    Tag
    Tagging
    Tourism
    Volunteer
    Wetlands
    Wreck Pond

     Subscribe in a reader

Picture
18 Hartshorne Drive
​Highlands, NJ 07732

What We Do

Education
Conservation
Restoration
Advocacy
Fish Tagging

Where We Work

Sandy Hook
Barnegat Bay
Delaware Bay
Jamaica Bay
Sarasota Bay
National Policy

Who We Are

History
Staff
Officers & ​Trustees
Financials
Contact

Newsroom

Blog
Press Releases
Videos
Publications
Reports

Join Us

Memberships
Donate
Sponsor
Upcoming Events
Field Trips
Volunteer
Jobs
Donate
Membership
Mailing List
Volunteer
Privacy Policy
Copyright ​© 2017, American Littoral Society, All Rights Reserved
Photo used under Creative Commons from A. Strakey