Vote Long Beach Island as New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches

Use the links below to cast your vote now!

There are 48 shore communities represented, from Sandy Hook to Cape May. In your opinion, which represents the best beach? Once again, there are four categories in which to rate your best beach. We’ve given you some tips to get you started. Let the competition begin!

Family Destination | Day Trips | Ecotourism | Shore Events

The results of the 2010 New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches Survey will be featured during NJMSC/NJSG’s annual State of the Shore Media Event which will take place on Thursday, May 27, 2010, just before the Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of the summer season.

The idea of protecting our Earth is slowly catching on with the increase in green products and services. There are so many small things that each individual can do to contribute to keeping Earth healthy.

This time of year on Long Beach Island is exciting as the warm days increase and the cold ones disappear. Many people start cleaning up their yards and cleaning off the lawn furniture so it’s ready when those warm days arrive.

Living and raising a family on Long Beach Island is special. It’s early spring and the kids already had some beach playtime. Let’s face it…Sand is fun! The kids can’t wait to run around on the beach and plop down and play in it.

My concern arises when my little ones start shoveling sand into their buckets and there are more cigarette butts than seashells in their little beach pails.

 How big is the problem?

It is estimated that several trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide every year. That’s billions of cigarettes flicked, one at a time, on our sidewalks, beaches, nature trails, gardens, and other public places every single day. In fact, cigarettes are the most littered item in America and the world.

Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate (plastic), NOT COTTON, and they can take decades to degrade depending on environmental conditions. The toxic residue in cigarette filters is damaging to the environment, and littered butts cause numerous fires every year, some of them fatal.

But beyond the plastic, the filters contain trace amounts of toxins like cadmium, arsenic and lead. When smokers discard their butts improperly, they are essentially tossing these substances into the environment.

What are the dangers of littered cigarette butts? 

When it rains, the water carries cigarette butts and trash via storm drain systems and waterways right out to the ocean, where currents wash it up onto the beach.

In addition to polluting streets and beaches, plastic pieces, such as cigarette butts can pose a health hazard to animals. Marine animals can mistake butts as food. If plastic blocks their digestive track, animals may become ill or even starve. Animals can also become entangled in trash, which restricts their ability to eat, breath and swim, often with fatal results.

“ Cigarette filters have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, whales and other marine creatures who mistake them for food … Composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic, cigarette butts can persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic.”–Clean Virginia Waterways

People need to be educated of the negative impacts that cigarette butts have on the environment and animals. Each cigarette butt is so small, people don’t even think about the consequences of littering butts.

There is legislation that would ban smoking at beaches, amusement parks and racetracks in New Jersey but it is on hold and it’s not known when a vote may be scheduled. State Sen. Andrew Ciesla of Ocean County wants to prohibit smoking on state-owned beaches.

So, when you visit Long Beach Island, do your part in maintaining our beautiful beaches and keep them clean!

References:

Cigarette Litter.org

The Daily Green – A Consumer’s Guide to the Green Revolution

N.J. beach-smoking ban is on hold

Earth 911

Ocean Conservancy

Adopt a Beach Program

Environmental Research and Public Health

Cigarette Butt Litter

How to plant dune grass:

• Beach grass is sold in bundles of 50 or 100 culms (stems)
• Plant two stems per hole. Placing more than two stems per hole will increase competition for nutrients causing loss of plants
• Plants (holes) should be spaced 18″ apart.
• There should be 18″ between rows.
• The rows should be staggered to provide maximum wind erosion control. 

Step 1: Open a hole 10 to 12 inches deep with a pointed stick or spade.  Place 2 stems, with roots facing down, in the hole to a depth of 8 inches. If plants are not planted 8 inches deep, they may dry out or be blown out by the wind.

Step 2: Press next to the plant to firm the sand and eliminate air space in the root zone.

Newly planted and old dune grass responds well to fertilizer.  Fertilizer (use environmentally safe) should be applied 30 days after planting but not before April 1. 

Sand Fences, Vegetation and Dune Management

The first step to dune establishment is providing a barrier to trap sand. Wooden slat fences are most commonly used.

Role of the dune grass foliage- decreases the wind velocity near the dune surface, and sand is deposited in the vegetation. As the sand continues to accumulate, the grass grows up through it, maintaining a protective cover.

At times the grass can be completely buried beneath the blowing sand. Research suggests that this is actually good for the grass causing it to grow taller and stronger.

The dune grass protects the dune from waves during storms by stabilizing and building the dune. By holding the dune in place, the grass helps to hold the Barrier Island in place. Ultimately, it is this small grass that preserves the Barrier Island.

References:

Dune Protection and Improvement

Restoration and management of Coastal Dune Vegetation

Beaches are always changing with sand being washed away and added to them and can change depending on the strength and frequency of storms. The Long Beach Island beach replenishment project will help reduce erosion and property damages associated with coastal storms, The US Army Corps of Engineers designed the Barnegat Inlet to Little Egg Harbor Inlet Long Beach Island Storm Reduction Project

The beach replenishment project started in November 2009 in Harvey Cedars. The work involves dredging millions of cubic yards of sand from an approved borrow area approximately three miles offshore and pumped through a series of pipes onto the beaches. The sand is then built into a dune and berm system designed to reduce potential damages to infrastructure, businesses, and homes that can occur from coastal storm events.

Long Beach Township modified an old ordinance that would require oceanfront owners to pay for sand and dune maintenance in front of their homes if they did not sign the easement to allow The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Beach Replenishment project to proceed. The ordinance states that if homeowners refuse to do the work within 15 days, the township will do it and then bill them. The charge for the township to do the work will become a lien against the property.

The beaches can erode badly during the winter due to the strength and frequency of coastal storms and beaches not part of the beach replenishment project are more vulnerable. During the winter months, storms can cause a beach to erode and result in a seaward-sloping beach. The beach gradually accumulates sand as the result of currents produced by low waves that return sand to the beach during the calmer summer months.

A severe storm with high tides and strong wind and waves may cause significant erosion in a very short amount of time and could take months of normal wave and tidal conditions for the beach to recover.  If storms that roll in one after the other, the beaches take a longer time to replenish themselves.

Healthy beaches are our first line of defense to protect homes, businesses and inland structures along the coast by acting as a barrier from the pounding repetitive wave action resulting from coastal storms.

Natural removal and transport of sand will continue and the beach replenishment project cannot prevent erosion but a nourished beach provides storm protection. A wide beach is able to absorb energy from the wave impact of storms and replenished beaches will have to be maintained and nourished. Beach nourishment is not a one-time event but an ongoing maintenance project. Beach replenishment and nourishment is the best solution right now to allow continued normal use of our beaches.

DUNE GRASS

The best time to plant dune grass is from mid-October through March (the dune grass dormancy period). On the other hand, if the winter storm season is severe, high tides and waves may erode dunes and newly planted dune grass before the root system develops.

Once established, dune grass spreads by underground stems to form a dense vegetative cover. The foliage decreases the wind velocity near the dune surface, and sand is deposited in the vegetation. As the sand continues to accumulate, the grass grows up through it, maintaining a protective cover.

In the winter, dune grass looks as if it died off but the roots are still alive. Even though the grass leaves and stems are brown, they are still effective in trapping wind-blown sand. Depending on springtime temperatures this year, you’ll probably be able to observe new green shoots growing up at the base of each brown clump of grass by the middle of April.

Dune grass can tolerate the harsh conditions on the coast but cannot withstand foot traffic. These activities crush plant shoots and roots. Trampling by pedestrians and often lead to greater sand removal by wind. As summer approaches and the crowds step onto the beaches, many people are unaware of how fragile the dune grass system is and how important it is in maintaining our beaches for future use. Protect Long Beach Island beaches and share the word about our dunes and dune grass.

Summer Beach Replenishment

Sometimes the beach replenishment project comes at the most inconvenient times like in the middle of summer!  We understand how inconvenient a 24/7 construction job can be during the peak vacation season, but work is completed as fast as possible considering all factors such as federal funding timing. The timing of the real estate rights to legally construct a project before awarding a construction contract.

A large project means a large contract which has to provide private industry with an ample amount of time, often in excess of 300 days, to complete the work. If not enough time is provided, there is a risk of receiving bids that are too high to be considered, or receiving no bids at all.

It’s also important to note there is a limited number of dredges that can handle beach fill operations.  The safest and most efficient use of these dredges is often during the summer because of calmer seas. In addition, these same dredges already do most of the large navigation projects within U.S. waters, and when there is a large amount of emergency beach fill or channel dredging, the demand inevitably exceeds the supply. So if summer work is excluded, then that increases the risk of pricing the project out of the bidding market and not being able to build these projects at all.

Lastly,  the mission in these projects is to protect communities by reducing the risk of storm damages, whether from a September hurricane or a March nor’easter. Once a project is ready to build, there is a clear responsibility to do so – as opposed to leaving any community exposed any longer than necessary. Ideally summer beach nourishment would like to be avoided with the full awareness of the economic importance of this season. To help soften the impact, during construction no more than 1,000 feet of beach at a time is closed; this allows continued access for beach goers by detouring no more than a block or two from any given point.

Dune Structure

In the past, there has been question about slope modification at various locations because of concern over the potential for increased risks to swimmers with the current slope formula utilized throughout most of the project area. Many residents have also requested a gentler slope but there were practical mechanical restrictions and budget limits to prevent it. The standard slope design is intended to allow erosion for the beach to return to its more natural profile. This process should take only one winter season.

Although some people have complained about the variability in sand laid during the different sections of the project, the grain size and quality of the sand obtained from offshore borrow zones are pretty consistent throughout the entire project. However, there may be slight differences based upon the location of the cuts in the borrow area.

Beach Replenishment photos

Reference: NOAA Coastal Services Center

Click HERE to visit the US Army Corps of Engineers website for more information

Lt. Col. Michael Bliss is commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District.