Fortescue an early success for restoration project
TRENTON - A state coastal restoration project has found early success at the Delaware Bayshore in Cumberland County.
According to a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection news release, about 13 acres of wetlands and beach in Fortescue have been restored successfully, giving the state confidence as it continues a pilot program this year.
The work, conducted by the DEP and the state Department of Transportation, involved raising the elevation of 10 acres of degraded wetlands in the Fortescue Wildlife Management Area and three acres of beach.
“This marsh restoration process holds a great deal of promise to provide many benefits in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner,” DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. “The DEP is committed to working with our state, federal, local, academic and non-profit partners to assess the potential for this process to be applied on a wider scale to help protect our coastal communities from flooding.”
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The work was the third in a series of pilot projects designed to gauge the effectiveness of beneficially reusing silt and sand dredged for navigation improvement projects to restore degraded salt marshes as protective buffers against severe storms, according to the news release.
“The thin layer application pilot program is an ambitious step in an attempt to restore the meadowlands along the Delaware Bay,” Downe Township Mayor Robert Campbell said. “It is certainly a great solution for the use of dredge material that is usually the biggest roadblock in most dredging projects.
Additional marsh and beach restoration will take place later this year, the DEP said.
“Being able to place dredged material back onto the marshes rather than disposing of it elsewhere will provide much needed relief to shore communities, recreational boaters and commercial fishermen that depend on New Jersey’s Marine Transportation System, as well as achieve environmental benefits and increased storm protection,” NJDOT Acting Commissioner Richard T. Hammer said.
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The three projects are part of a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Interior Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resilience Competitive Grant Program.
The DEP, working with the Nature Conservancy, Green Trust Alliance and other non-profit partners, is using the funds for biological monitoring and evaluation of the project sites, they said in their release.
Daniel J. Kov; (856) 563-5262; dkov@gannettnj.com