Wreck Pond to Host High School Field Trips

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.

While at Wreck Pond students will participate in fish and invertebrate sampling, as well as water quality and velocity testing. They may also help identify plants and animals, and help with beach profiling (e.g. measuring the contour of dunes). 

The school field trips and ongoing citizen science program is part of the $7.5 million Wreck Pond restoration project that began in 2015. 

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, administered construction a fish passage that connects the pond to the Atlantic 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. Monitoring of pond life and water quality is now underway.

Construction of the fish passage was funded by U.S. Department of Interior through a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Additional funding for the Wreck Pond project came from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as part of the Flood Hazard Risk Reduction and Resiliency grant program, and the Borough of Spring Lake.