AMERICAN LITTORAL SOCIETY

We will continue our work to promote and secure increased coastal habitat protection, restoration, resiliency in response to climate change related impacts and clean water restoration and protection. We plan to continue and build upon our successful model of creating demonstrations of needed policies and practices, protecting special places, engaging diverse communities and identifying and advocating for needed policy changes to accelerate implementation.

Oysters will continue to serve as an iconic species for habitat restoration, cleaning up polluted waters and using nature to make our communities safer from climate change impacts. As part of the state’s continued efforts to clean up Barnegat Bay (which we led – in partnership – much of the advocacy for), we will be building new oyster reefs in Barnegat Bay. These reefs will help the Bay by filtering water, reducing turbidity along a high energy shoreline and providing increased protection to an adjacent community park and homes. We will connect these community-based efforts to an ongoing policy discussion about significantly scaling up the scope of oyster restoration efforts, working with the state to identify policy barriers and needed new approaches. Successful demonstrations in Barnegat will not only help that bay but inform efforts in our other focus areas along Delaware Bay and in the Two Rivers region (Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers, Monmouth County), in addition to the state policy discussions.

Our deep involvement in the protection and restoration of the Delaware Bayshore will continue and expand. The conservation work will continue to focus on protection and recovery of the endangered red knot and horseshoe crabs through habitat restoration. Additionally, policy efforts aimed at reducing continuing stressors related to crab harvest, aquaculture and coastal management are on our agenda. Our work in the more urban communities of the Delaware River estuary will expand with new emphasis on securing clean water and cleaning up pollution sources which prevent communities from enjoying swimmable and fishable waters – the guarantees of the Clean Water Act. We will continue our successful Green Stormwater Infrastructure program, and launch a new effort to develop in partnership with the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority a “road map” to identifying and accelerating pollution reduction actions around Camden and Philadelphia.

At the state level, we will continue our policy and advocacy work promoting the use of natural and nature-based approaches to hazard mitigation and climate change adaptation, making sure the RGGI tidal marsh and forest stewardship program “rolls out” appropriately, developing the necessary policy and regulatory changes for expansion of tidal marsh restoration activities, and ensuring that the increased public access to tidal waters promised by the Public Trust Act are secured through changes to state policy, regulations and enforcement actions.

We plan to continue and build upon our successful model of creating demonstrations of needed policies and practices, protecting special places, engaging diverse communities and identifying and advocating for needed policy changes to accelerate implementation.

A strong team of environmental experts coupled with non-profit professionals brings the needed expertise to continue to complete demonstration projects, engage and educate the public, and advocate for the coast. Our Executive Director and other staff are often requested to serve on steering committees, collaborate on projects, and provide expertise to national, state, and local agencies. We also have a long history of recognition through funding awards by foundations and government agencies to continue caring for the coast.

The Society was organized in 1961 when a group of skin divers volunteered their services to the recently established research laboratory of the US Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife at Fort Hancock, NJ, a Sandy Hook marine laboratory. The lab's assistant director John R. Clark, became the Society’s first president. Eventually the scope of the Society’s interests became broader than just observation of shore areas, reaching from study to conservation, education and advocacy. The Society remains a steward of a long stretch of coastline that runs along the northeast. The American Littoral Society continues to believe in the value of citizen scientists, makes them an integral part of our work, and advocates for best environmental practices. In 2017, the Society planted over 23,000 native plants planted, returned 176,000 oysters into our waterways, employed 13 US veterans, tagged 14,500 horseshoe crabs, removed 60,000 lbs, preserved 450 acres of critical wildlife habitat, connected over 14,000 people to the coast through NY state beach clean ups, volunteerism, and educational programs, and tagged 11,364 fish to track migration and growth.