Partners engaged in the New Jersey/Delaware Tidal Marsh Working Group continued to meet and collaborate in 2022. Most of the group’s energy and action was centered around the topic of use of dredged sediments to provide ecological benefits. The “Beneficial Use Learning Network” which formed early in 2021, was increasingly busy throughout 2022. Early meetings and practitioner workshops discussed the state of practices used and shared lessons learned retrospectively from past projects completed in New Jersey (e.g., Avalon, Ring Island, Fortescue, and Good Luck Point). They also developed a list of key learning topics and questions which were explored through a series of webinars, workshops and panel discussions in 2022 on topics such as:
- Designing construction-ready projects
- Constructing adaptively
- Sediment considerations
- Selecting sites & justifying projects
This working group’s organizing committee and the more than 100 people who have been engaged in its activities include partners from beyond New Jersey and Delaware; they reach New England, Maryland, and New York. During the summer of 2022 the group was approved as a working group of the New Jersey Coastal Resilience Collaborative, and they are now hosting recordings of all the webinars and workshops, which are available to view online at this link: BULN Webinars (nj-crc.org)
Through funding by the New Jersey Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, the Beneficial Use Working Group is now being professionally facilitated by Stevens Institute of Technology and Monmouth University staff, who are working to memorialize information shared through the webinar series and develop a summary “state of the practice” document this winter.