NJ Wetlands Drowning - Asbury Park Press

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As sea level rises, some of the species that depend on these areas face increasing risks

PROFILE

AP deputy mayor Amy Quinn stresses the importance of local government Alex Biese Asbury Park Press USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY

Amanda Oglesby Asbury Park Press | USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY

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utside the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, marshland is giving way to open water. h It’s happening up and down the New Jersey coast, but here, Lenore Tedesco has a front row seat. h “If you look at Google Earth (a satellite imagery web-

site) and drive around… we’re starting to see that conversion of marsh to mud flat,” said Tedesco, the executive director of the Wetlands Institute.

“That’s the first step.” h New Jersey’s wetlands habitats are ecosystems that serve as home to migrating shorebirds, crustaceans and small fish.

They act as crucial coastal buffers during storms, protecting taxpayer property, while filtering pollutants from the water. h And they’re drowning.

See WETLANDS, Page 24A An aerial view of Yellow Bar Marsh Island post-restoration in Queens, N.Y. PROVIDED BY THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.

America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber makes its debut after years of secret development. 25A

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NJ wetlands drowning

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional feature series on people in the LGBTQ+ community who live among us and brighten our lives. Do you know someone who stands out? Send a note to Alex Biese at abiese@gannettnj.com.

Amy Quinn understands the importance of local government.

Quinn, the deputy mayor of Asbury Park, was first elected to the city council in 2013. And while politics at a national and state level garner far more attention, Quinn explained that decisions made by municipal governments have a far greater impact on citizens.

“I don’t think people understand the direct effects on your life are absolutely your local government,” she said. “So your dog park, that is your local government.

Your parking, paid parking (or) no paid parking, that is your local government. (Dealing with) local crime,

NJ Transit addressed issues, but some decisions aren’t public Colleen Wilson NorthJersey.com USA TODAY NETWORK – NEW JERSEY

In 2019, The Record and NorthJersey.com spent five weeks examining what parts of the NJ Transit reform legislation had and had not been implemented since Gov. Phil Murphy signed it into law on Dec. 20, 2018.

Three years since that series, the law still has not been fully enacted. The Record and NorthJersey.com will reexamine what areas of the law have and have not been fulfilled over the course of five weeks leading up to the four-year anniversary of the reform law’s inception.

This is the second installment.

NJ Transit has dramatically improved how it governs behind the scenes and far from the minds of riders boarding trains and buses. But it still faces scrutiny that some business is being done in private.

Three years ago, the agency’s board didn’t have See NJ TRANSIT, Page 2A

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Wetlands Continued from Page 1A

“We’re actually seeing marsh drowning, widespread areas up and down the Atlantic coast of our tidal wetlands,” Tedesco said. “We lost a bunch, and now we’re really worried that we’re at a tipping point with our current marshes.”

In New Jersey, more than 40% of the state’s original wetlands are gone, according to the Wetlands Institute.

A combination of factors are killing these vital ecosystems: sea level rise is drowning the marsh grass and in some areas, waves from boats and personal watercraft are eroding fragile shorelines.

The disappearance of wetlands is worrying coastal biologists. Wetlands filter pollutants and sediment from water. The areas also provide critical habitat for birds such as ducks, egrets, herons, gulls and ibis.

In the Meadowlands, wetlands decreased from 20,045 acres in 1889 to just 8,400 acres by 2019, according to a 2021 study by researchers at Rutgers and Drexel universities that was published in the journal Anthropocene Coasts.

In Barnegat Bay, nearly 12% of tidal wetlands disappeared between 1972 and 2012, according to the researchers.

Each year, the wetlands shoreline erodes another half-meter, the researchers said.

As sea level rises, some of the species that depend on these areas face increasing risks, such as the salt marsh sparrow.

“They make their nest a couple of feet off the marsh surface, in the vegetation,” said Virginia Rettig, manager of Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge covers more than 48,000 acres of New Jersey’s southern coast.

About 78% of the refuge consists of salt marshes.

Rising sea level means these nests and the chicks within these wetlands sometimes end up flooded, Rettig said.

“Species aren’t adapted to those changes,” she said.

Not only birds are at risk. About 80% of the region’s commercial fisheries stock spend some part of their life cycle in coastal marshes, said Tedesco, of the Wetlands Institute.

Each year, about 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands in the United States are lost to development, sinking, erosion or flooding according to NOAA. Just a fraction of that — roughly 50,000 acres — has been restored since 2008, according to the agency.

In New Jersey, another force is combining with the rising water levels to drown wetlands — subsidence, or the sinking of the earth’s crust throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

If sea level rise is slow and gradual, wetlands can keep pace by trapping sediment and growing slightly higher each year. In some areas of New Jersey, the increase can be as much as 3 to 4 millimeters annually, said Tedesco.

However, the current rate of sea level rise combined with the sinking ground exceed the marsh grass’s ability to keep pace in many locations, she said.

“The fate of a wetland in a steady state is just like the fate of a lake… to fill in,” said Stan Hales, director of the Barnegat Bay Partnership, a collaboration

Army Corps of Engineers’ personnel monitoring the success of Elders West Marsh Island Restoration in Queens, New York.

PROVIDED BY THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

“If you have a couple of thousand feet of marsh out behind your house, if you live in one of these back bay communities, the marshes provide protection from storm surge and sea level rise.”

Stan Hales Director of the Barnegat Bay Partnership

A marsh area at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor. COURIER-POST

of colleges, universities and environmental groups working toward restoring and preserving the bay.

“Marshes trap sediments, so they basically grow the land along coastal areas,” Hales said. “But with sea level rise… they need supplies of sediment just to keep their heads above water, so to speak.”

In northern Barnegat Bay, marshes are not getting that sediment due to large areas of human development throughout the watershed.

“With bulkheading, that disrupts the flow of material off the landscape,” said Hales.

As a result, these marshes are not able to keep up with rising water levels, he said.

“We’re losing lots of different ecosystem functions,” said Hales. “One thing I think that most local residents would appreciate is that those marshes prevent waves from lapping at their front

door… If you have a couple of thousand feet of marsh out behind your house, if you live in one of these back bay communities, the marshes provide protection from storm surge and sea level rise.”

During storms, salt marshes decrease damage from waves to nearby homes and structures by up to 20%, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They also serve as a sponge to absorb large amounts of water.

In November, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. of New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District urged the federal government to use some of the money allocated in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for natural shoreline restoration projects, including wetlands programs, and to fund studies on their effectiveness in protecting nearby communities.

Already, the federal Army Corps of Engineers is using dredged material

gathered from deepening channels and is strategically placing it in and around marshes. Off Brooklyn, the agency is building five new marsh islands in Jamaica Bay with dredge materials gathered off the southern shore of Long Island, said James D’Ambrosio, a spokesman for the Corps. The project is part of a larger restoration program within the Hudson-Raritan estuary, he said.

The Corps also recently created a list of potential estuary restoration projects using similar techniques throughout New Jersey and New York, he said.

This “beneficial use” may be the best way to protect New Jersey’s salt marshes, according to experts. The extra material provides the sediment the wetlands need to build higher.

“If we did let things proceed (as is), we are going to lose a lot of marsh,” said Rettig, of the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. “We are now at the point where we want to try to human engineer our way out of this problem.”

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers Brick, Barnegat and Lacey townships as well as the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

Earthweek: Diary of a Changing World

By Steve Newman

Week ending Friday, December 2, 2022

La Niña Lingers

Endangered Bats The United States declared that the northern longeared bat is endangered because the species has been driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease.

“White-nose syndrome is decimating cave-dwelling bat species like the northern long-eared bat at unprecedented rates,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams.

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It attacks bats’ wings, muzzles and ears when they hibernate in caves and mines.

Spinning wind turbines are also killing large numbers of the species.

Earthquakes Canada’s Alberta province was soundly jolted by its strongest earthquake and aftershocks on record.

• Earth movements were also felt in western Vancouver Island, the Philippine island of Mindanao, Bosnia and Herzegovina, central Greece, Trinidad and New Zealand’s North Island.

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But globally, large numbers of wild birds have also been killed by the virus this year, with sea birds being especially hard hit.

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Key Birds $ QHZ VWXG\ ÀQGV WKDW some of the most unusual birds are among the most threatened with extinction.

Researchers at Imperial College London say that those species have important and specialized roles in the environment, such as seed dispersal, pollination and hunting.

“If we do not take action to protect threatened species and avert extinctions, the functioning of ecosystems will be dramatically disrupted,” said Jarome Ali. Such specialized species may be less able to adapt to a changing environment, including human impacts on their habitats.

More Lakes

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Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and other institutions say there was a particular increase beWZHHQ DQG LQ WKH QXPEHU RI WKH ZRUOG·V VPDOO lakes, which emit large amounts of greenhouse gas.

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It joins Kilauea in erupting across the Big Island.

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Photo: USGS/HVO

Dist. by: Andrews McMeel Syndication ©MMXXII Earth Environment Service