Barnegat Bay and its extensive, marsh-and-stream-laced watershed (a total of 660 square miles) annually pumps as much as $4 billion into the state's economy.
BARNEGAT BAY STRETCHES for 42 miles along our coastline and reaches deep into the memories of anyone who has summered Down the Shore.
On the surface, it's a sparkling expanse of blue -- a playground for sailors, water-skiers, fishermen, crabbers and kayakers. It's also a major driver of the state's recreation and tourism industries. Barnegat Bay and its extensive, marsh-and-stream-laced watershed (a total of 660 square miles) annually pumps as much as $4 billion into the state's economy, according to a 2012 study prepared for the Barnegat Bay Partnership.
Below the waterline, though, there are signs of trouble. Excessive nitrogen, mostly from fertilizers carried into the bay, triggers algae blooms that lead to low levels of oxygen, depriving fish, crustaceans and other aquatic wildlife of a necessity of life. A United States Geological Survey study estimated that 1.4 million pounds of nitrogen enter shallow bay waters every year.
The ecological threat here isn't some villainous chemical factory or vile industrial polluter that could be shut down or reformed. It's the insidious effect of thousands of individual property owners who may not realize that their choices, replicated many times over, are responsible for the bay's decline. In other words, we have met the enemy and it is us.
"Since the 1990s, the Barnegat Bay Partnership has been working to make the point that what people do in their own backyards affects the environment as a whole," says Karen Walzer, the partnership's public outreach coordinator. "We're trying to change people's minds about what constitutes sustainable landscaping in the Barnegat Bay watershed -- and watersheds throughout the state."
One key development occurred in 2011, when New Jersey enacted a fertilizer law that severely restricted the use of phosphorus (an unnecessary element in nearly all state soils) and limited the amount, type and timing of nitrogen applications. In a campaign aimed directly at homeowners, the partnership recently launched a website, Jersey-Friendly Yards (jerseyyards.org), to provide people with resources, examples and insights into home gardening practices that will help restore and maintain the health of New Jersey's waterways.
Kevin Sparkman, of FusionSpark Media, developed the website, which was funded by a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection and modeled after a similar project in Florida. Without enlisting individuals devoted to making their properties livable and attractive -- gardeners and landscapers -- the quest to preserve water quality across New Jersey is a battle that can't be won.
"One of the objectives was to create 'one-stop shopping' for tools related to creating a low-impact yard or landscape," Sparkman says. "There's lots of really good information out there -- from Rutgers University, soil conservation districts, native plant and littoral societies, environmental groups and watershed alliances -- but it's scattered around. This website tries to pull it all together."
The website is dense, with helpful resources drawn from some of BBP's 30 partners. There's an extensive plant database that can be searched for plants that will tolerate specific conditions, including the sandy soils and salt-laden breezes typical at the Shore. Retail sources for recommended plants. Specifics on the state's fertilizer laws. Information on invasive plants to avoid. And directions to idea-filled demonstration gardens.
Perhaps the most innovative feature is the "Interactive Yard," which demonstrates in easy steps how to convert a landscape dominated by fertilizer-hungry lawns into one that requires fewer chemicals and provides greater benefits to the ecosystem -- and the homeowner.
Nibbling away at the lawn by replacing it with beds of well-adapted native plants, installing rain gardens to trap and filter runoff, and paying attention to soil health are some of the steps that gardeners can take to lower environmental impacts and reduce maintenance.
"There are good, selfish reasons for converting yards to landscapes that stand up to local conditions -- they're less costly over the long term, less time-consuming to maintain and attractive to wildlife," Walzer points out. "They can be beautiful, too, and give every yard a sense of place. New Jersey native plants are adapted and strong. They've got Jersey attitude."
The apocalyptic damage done by Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call to Shore homeowners, who saw their lawns flooded, their evergreens and other ornamentals killed by salt water and spray, and their properties eroded by rising tidal surges. Replacing these landscapes with more of the same is futile, especially since every indication suggests that the Shore continues to be in for more of the same severe weather.
Many were galvanized by the damage to Barnegat Bay in the aftermath of Sandy -- visible damage that threatened the viability of a beloved and indelible part of the Shore experience. Tons of debris, including splintered houses, decks, docks, boats and automobiles that littered the bay, have been hauled away and marine channels have been dredged and restored.
But the less-dramatic impacts, the ones that will ultimately assure the bay's health or decline, are those that take place day by day, season by season, year in and year out. The fate of Barnegat Bay is in the hands of thousands of individuals, most of whom would do the right thing if they knew how. That's what the Barnegat Bay Partnership is counting on -- it's up to gardeners and homeowners to heed the call.
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