To protect the bay for key wildlife and surrounding communities, our team has been conducting restoration work within the bay since 2013. Our team has restored over 5 miles of shoreline, improving horseshoe crab spawning habitat in an adaptive management framework that has led to innovations in both beach construction for spawning as well as infrastructure to protect those beaches.

With each round of restorations, we have refined our approach based on integrated monitoring that includes bay-wide topographic and bathymetric shoreline profiles; wave and current measurements; sand depth and grain sizes; assessing protective values of oyster reefs; horseshoe crab egg abundance and development; and red knot population size and body condition.

Through our extensive monitoring we have identified the ideal sand grain size, sand depth, beach slope, berm width and height to improve project resiliency and the production of horseshoe crab eggs. By combining comprehensive, landscape-scale monitoring with adaptive management we have maximized the persistence and resilience of this restored habitat for local communities and increased resilience of this restored habitat for horseshoe crabs and shorebirds.

Sand placement and beach construction is performed by H4 Enterprises LLC.

Partners: American Littoral Society, Stockton Coastal Research Center, the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey