Our Summer 2006 appeal provides a roundup of our activities.

Summer 2006

Dear Friend of Barnegat Bay,

Save Barnegat Bay – the leading not-for-profit environmental group working for clean water, less development and more open space in the Barnegat Bay watershed – needs your help in our successful efforts to protect our environment and our quality of life.

Our many activities protecting Barnegat Bay are described on the Internet at www.savebarnegatbay.org. There you will find a calendar of important environmental events, articles updating the many issues in which we are involved, a self help section for troubleshooting environmental, ideas for volunteering, and a lot more. We invite you to become part of our efforts.

Save Barnegat Bay’s recent successes and ongoing projects throughout the watershed are many:

On December 13, Save Barnegat Bay attended the real estate closing that brought Traders Cove under the ownership of Brick Township and Ocean County. We are now working to be of assistance in making that once-threatened property a model waterfront park that can be emulated throughout Barnegat Bay and coastal New Jersey. (www.savebarnegatbay.org/news_139.shtml.) Excellent opportunities exist in other townships such as Seaside Park and Toms River.

In Brick, Save Barnegat Bay is continuing our decades’ long effort to conserve all wooded properties surrounding Reedy Creek that are not yet under federal or township ownership. www.savebarnegatbay.org/gis/rcsmall.html

Over the winter a major conservation goal was achieved in Toms River when the site on Fischer Blvd. previously proposed for a Home Depot was purchased by the township for conservation. This was a direct result of Save Barnegat Bay’s successful effort to get 1400 wooded acres near Ocean County College rezoned to one residential house per three acres. www.savebarnegatbay.org/news_181.shtml

Also in Toms River, on April 24, Save Barnegat Bay got the state’s Office of Smart Growth to hold a hearing on land use planning in Dover
Township. This allowed over one hundred attendees to urge that the current excessive development be restrained. www.savebarnegatbay.org/news_186.shtml

In Manahawkin ( Stafford Township) Save Barnegat Bay is assisting local citizens and other environmental groups in mobilizing opposition to the massive overdevelopment epitomized by the proposed Stafford Landfill, a questionable deal in which a developer would profit handsomely in return for building over 500 homes and an office park in exchange capping a landfill. http://www.savebarnegatbay.org/news_180.shtml

Save Barnegat Bay’s longstanding support of Island Beach State Park and other parks has been expressed this year in two outstanding creative products: First, volunteers have succeeded in putting the Emily deCamp Herbarium – an educational facility with a sample of every plant species at Island Beach – on the Internet for use by educators and the public. www.savebarnegatbay.org/herbarium.shtml.

In a second accomplishment in support of parks, film director George Chase has – on a shoestring budget – produced a suite of outstanding educational videos of Island Beach and Double Trouble State Parks.

All these endeavors are expensive. Our small staff is growing. We now employ three full time and two part time workers in our very small Lavallette office. Last year 1,739 families and businesses made contributions in support of our work for natural open space, park space and clean water. We ask that you join them.

Finally, we wish to call your attention to two upcoming events that may enable you to support Save Barnegat Bay and get to know us better. Our informal Annual Meeting will be held Thursday, June 29 at 7 PM at the Lavallette Fire House. And our first annul 8K to Save Barnegat Bay running race and (shorter) walk will be held in Lavallette on Saturday, June 24. www.sbb8k.com

Your tax-deductible contribution can be sent to Save Barnegat Bay, 906-B Grand Central Avenue, Lavallette, NJ 08735. With your help, we can sustain the natural ecosystem of Barnegat Bay for the benefit of future generations.

Sincerely,

William deCamp Jr.
President

Jennifer O’Reilly
Associate Executive Director

PS Please accept our apology if our outreach to new neighborhoods has caused you to receive more than one request for support.