Traders Cove Marina, Brick, N.J. (Photo: Shorebeat)
Brick Township officials are planning to combine a needed dredging project at Traders Cove Marina with a marshland reconstruction project supported by the federal government to combat flooding linked to climate change.
The dredging project, at $2.6 million, is the biggest-ticket item in the township’s 2024 capital budget. While technically two projects, the state has dedicated about $5 million toward marshland restoration within the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge, which runs from Brick Township near to Atlantic City. Current plans call for the area under the slips themselves to be dredged after the boating season, with the sand from the project to be re-used to build up marshlands in the refuge.
The marina dredging is meant to ensure silt and shoaling is not occurring in the area where slips are located and where boaters navigate through the marina itself. It is considered part of the regular maintenance of the marina.
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“At Traders Cove, the slips, we’re going to be dredging them separately because we have got to get that done for slip owners, but we’ll probably take the spoils and have it be part of this marshland restoration program,” said Joanne Bergin, the township’s business administrator.
The $4,997,124 in restoration funds will place more than 120,000 cubic yards of suitable dredged sediment into a series of 13 “cells” to increase tidal salt marsh elevation, protecting the marsh from drowning. The total area of sediment placement is approximately 95 acres of marsh. The bulk of the marshland in Brick Township is located in an area south of Mantoloking Road, extending for miles from the intersection of Adamston Road, out to the bayfront itself.
Brick is planning to acquire about 3-acres of marshland as a donation. (Photo: Shorebeat LLC)
Salt marshes in Brick Township’s portion of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Jan. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)
Salt marshes in Brick Township’s portion of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Jan. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)
State officials said added protective measures will be used to contain placed sediment and strengthen shorelines. The elevated marsh will be planted in areas that did not previously contain vegetation “to ensure recolonization of vegetation occurs to ultimately restore the health of the marsh.”
The refuge’s marshland area was the focus of numerous cleanup projects after Superstorm Sandy to remove boats and debris from the vast expanse of swampy land. Environmental experts have long warned that bulkheading the shore of Barnegat Bay leaves flood water with no place to go, leading storm drains to backwash. Marsh areas naturally flood, absorb wave action and are considered beneficial to the ecology of the bay.
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