We’ve all seen them: big signs on the beach that warn not to step or walk onto the dunes. But why? This Keep Off Dunes sign, available from New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, seeks to go further than just warn the public to keep off the dunes by explaining the many important benefits of dunes.
While they play an important role in stabilizing beaches and protecting our homes and infrastructure, dunes provide an essential habitat for many plants and animals. Walking on dunes can destroy the plants that hold them together. Without these plants, wind would erode the sand off the dune, diminishing its effectiveness as a natural barrier. This is why it is so important to stay off the dunes and always use designated dune walkways.
So now if you tell someone they should keep off the dunes, you’ll be empowered to explain why.
New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium also offers a Dune Manual. The Dune Manual answers a variety of questions and provides valuable resources for community groups or towns looking to build or restore the dunes along the beaches in your area.
Municipal officials interested in obtaining these signs can contact the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium at 732-872-1300 ext 10.
From Marine Science Day Camp at Sandy Hook to Pennsylvania Coast Day in Philadelphia, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium staff have been busy across the state and beyond. We hope you enjoy our recap of our action-packed summer and a fall preview in the Autumn 2016 edition of Coastodian.
New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium staff ventured to Pennsylvania Coast Day. Dr. Michael Schwebel, NJSGC/Urban Coast Institute community resilience and climate adaptation specialist, taught visitors about resilience. Visitors utilized shells and other items to protect models of communities against storms in a wave tank. Dr. Peter Rowe, NJSGC’s director of research and extension, taught visitors about an extremely important species, the horseshoe crab.
Visitors used a wave tank and learned about horseshoe crabs. Photos by Michael Schwebel.
A new infographic created by New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium and Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute visualizes the beliefs of Americans on this key topic.
Using data collected in a December 2015 Monmouth University poll, Dr. Michael Schwebel, community resilience and climate adaptation specialist for New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium and Urban Coast Institute, developed this infographic to bring the data to life.
According to the poll, 7 in 10 Americans believe that the world’s climate is undergoing a change leading to more extreme weather patterns and sea level rise. A majority of participants were convinced that climate change would impact both coastal and inland communities but had differing opinions on the extent of the human impact of climate change.
The infographic also provides information on how New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium is working to better understand and communicate the impacts of climate change in coastal and inland communities. The infographic, which was adapted from a template provided by Delaware Sea Grant, can be viewed and downloaded at njseagrant.org/climateinfograph.
If you are interested in a receiving hard copies of the poster, please contact Dr. Michael Schwebel at mschwebe@monmouth.edu. Click here to download the PDF or the high resolution version here.
New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium has partnered with local artist Lisa Bagwell to bring attention to local art, our national parks and environmental science. Bagwell specializes in creating sculptures out of discarded plastics and other trash. See some of her art on her website.
During this summer, Bagwell worked with campers at the Consortium to create art out of recycled materials found around Sandy Hook.
You can see Bagwell in action during the Zero Waste Arts Fest, a festival meant to engage diverse communities through an array of arts, environmental and historical education activities, public art and battery tours, games, arts and food vendors, and free family fun. The festival will take place on September 17 and 18. Bagwell will create a sculpture during the festival created from garbage thrown out during the two day event.
Other organizations partnered with artists for this Monmouth Arts project include Clean Ocean Action, American Littoral Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Learn more about the projects and Zero Waste Arts Fest here.
New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium staff were featured in a segment on the City University of New York TV’s Science & U.
Dr. Jon Miller. coastal processes specialist, and Dr. Amy Williams, coastal ecosystems extension agent, spoke to Lisa Beth Kovetz of Science & U while gathered at New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s Annual State of the Shore Media Event. Read more about the show here.
In celebration of the National Sea Grant College Program‘s 50th anniversary, we are celebrating water resources all through the month of July. This month, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium shared the positive impacts of being a better boater with a featured story on the National Sea Grant website.Read more on how Sea Grant programs across the country are positively impacting water resources in weekly featured articles here. Highlights of work across the Sea Grant Network on water resources are available on the 50th Stories page and a fact sheet.
Now we want to hear from you. We all have a connection to water. What is your most memorable or favorite story about your local waterway? Share your waterway moment on social media with the hashtag #SeaGrantWater. See what others are adding to the conversation here.
If it is summertime, you can be pretty sure that most New Jersey residents have plans to make it to the beach. And with so many miles of wonderful coastline, why wouldn’t they? Whether it’s for a day trip or a whole week, New Jersey beaches are prime locations for summer fun in our great outdoors.
This poll was created in 2008 as the New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches Survey to encourage stewardship and pride in the state’s beaches while promoting a little healthy competition between New Jersey’s favorite beach towns. It is a way to celebrate everything there is to love about the Jersey Shore. We’ve conducted this poll since 2008 to call attention to New Jersey’s amazing beaches. Over time we’ve learned a thing or two — mostly that New Jerseyans are passionate about all the beaches up and down our coast. So, in order to better recognize every inch of our wonderful coastline, this year we will recognize a number one beach in each of New Jersey’s four coastal counties as well as a favorite beach overall.
This year after nearly 10,000 votes cast in a public poll, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium revealed the winners in Ocean City, the defending champion of the poll.
As summer approaches, sharks are often the center of media attention as swimmers enter the water and habitat of these creatures. However, only 6 deaths occur worldwide due to shark attacks while more than 100 people per year die as a result of rip currents in the United States.
Throughout the summer, Dr. Amy Williams will discuss the important of her exciting new trivia game – fittingly deemed Ocean Hazards: Rip Currents vs. Sharks – at libraries and schools throughout local coastal communities. Dr. Williams, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium Coastal Ecology Extension Agent will present on June 22 to raise awareness about rip currents and what to do if you are caught in one.
For additional information on New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s Rip Current Awareness program, please visit https://njseagrant.org/ripcurrents/.
Take a spin at the Climate Hazards Game with Dr. Michael Schwebel on June 5. Learn firsthand about the decision processes that emergency planners and public officials now face.
Schwebel, Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation Specialist at the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium and Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute, developed the game as a way to educate audiences of all ages about pressing threats coastal communities face and steps that can be taken to deal with them. Players spin wheels that show the likelihood of various coastal hazards taking place and are challenged to allocate a limited amount of funding to deal with each of them.
Dr. Schwebel’s presentation will take place on June 5 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m at the Eatontown Community Center at 58 Broad Street, Eatontown, N.J.
Take this opportunity to learn the basics about climate change and coastal resiliency and answer the question of the difference between weather and climate. You will also learn what it means to choose eco or ego solutions.
No reservations are needed and the event is recommended for ages 10 and up. Light refreshments will be served.
The event is sponsored by the Eatontown Environmental Commission. For more information, email EEC@yahoo.com or call Sara at 732-890-6772.
