Work To Restore Waretown Marsh Set To Begin

WARETOWN, NJ — Parts of the Lighthouse Center in Waretown and the Upper Barnegat Wildlife Management Area will be temporarily closed while a coastal habitat restoration project moves forward there, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Fish & Wildlife program.

Construction is anticipated to occur Monday through Friday, generally between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., from Monday, Oct. 5 through Friday, Oct. 23. The work is centered on the Lighthouse Center property in Ocean County.

NJDEP Fish & Wildlife, through its Bureau of Land Management Coastal Program, is working with The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resource Education Foundation of New Jersey, Ducks Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife Coastal Program, NJDOT Office of Maritime Resources, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and academic partners on the project. Restoration planning was supported by the Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund administered by NREF and Ducks Unlimited. Implementation is funded through a 2022 Natural Climate Solutions grant from NJDEP to The Nature Conservancy, along with funding from NJDOT Office of Maritime Resources.

According to the announcement, the work is designed to improve salt marsh health, wildlife habitat and coastal resilience. For public safety, portions of the Lighthouse Center and Upper Barnegat Wildlife Management Area will be temporarily closed during active restoration work. Visitors were told to follow posted signs and closure notices and avoid entering active work areas.

The approximately 194-acre property is owned by NJDEP Fish & Wildlife as part of the Upper Barnegat Wildlife Management Area and is operated by the Natural Resource Education Foundation of New Jersey. It includes salt marsh, maritime forest, a brackish impoundment and lagoon. The DEP said those coastal areas provide habitat for fish and wildlife and also help protect the center’s buildings and infrastructure from flooding.

The project will address long-running marsh damage tied to historical land uses, altered drainage, shoreline erosion and declining marsh elevations. The DEP said parts of the southern shoreline have retreated by an estimated 5 to 10 feet per year since 1995. The site also has been affected by older salt hay farming and mosquito-control ditching that changed tidal flow and contributed to marsh loss.

Planned work includes runnelling, which creates small channels to reconnect trapped water with tidal channels, and ditch remediation using natural materials such as salt hay. In areas where hydrology changes alone are not enough, the project team plans to reuse clean sediment from nearby state channels to raise marsh elevation. The northern marsh was designed for sediment placement to reestablish 8 acres where marsh had previously been lost while maintaining mudflat and shallow pond habitat.

The project also calls for reestablishing a fringing beach along the southern shoreline using sand and natural features to absorb wave energy and reduce erosion. Surveys at the site documented shorebirds, wading birds, osprey and diamondback terrapins. The DEP said the site will be monitored during and after construction to measure changes in elevation, water movement, vegetation and wildlife use.