POINT PLEASANT — Seventh-grade students at Memorial Middle School took a two-day field trip to Slade Dale Bird Sanctuary this Tuesday and Wednesday, where the American Littoral Society showed the students a variety of ways the organization works to protect wetlands, not just at Slade Dale, but all around the country.
William Pirl, Memorial Middle School seventh-grade science teacher, said, “Students have been doing an ecology unit on climate change in the Barnegat Bay. We have been funded with a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education that has given us the ability to purchase equipment to engage in wetlands ecology to go on numerous field trips related to wetlands ecology.”
This subject has been taught in the seventh grade level for many years, but the lessons have always been in the classroom. Now, teachers have the capacity to bring their students into the field to put what they have been learning into practice.
“This year we finally have the opportunity to come out and do this,” said Pirl. “Part of the grant was coastal resiliency, making our community more (resilient) on rising sea levels and the potential effects of climate change. We have been doing some of that curriculum work in class, so this is the actualization of that.”
Slade Dale — located along the North Branch of Beaverdam Creek, a tributary of the Metedeconk River — is a 13-acre bird sanctuary that can be accessed via Sea Point Drive off Dorsett Dock Road in Point Pleasant. Historic aerial imagery shows the shoreline has eroded approximately 300 linear feet since 1930, according to the Littoral Society.
Students participated in a variety of activities throughout the day, using several marsh monitoring tools that give data on water quality, tree health and overall ecosystem stability in the marsh environment.
Slade Dale marsh has been the target of the American Littoral Society for a few major projects over the years. Most notably, the group collects Christmas trees from all around town and places them in breakwater boxes, just off the shoreline of the marsh, to slow the rate of erosion and help build back the shoreline. As these trees break down over the course of the year, they settle and replace shoreline lost to the many years of erosion.
On top of the Christmas trees, the Littoral Society also places stakes made of coir logs, made of coconut fiber logs stuffed with brush. These also act as erosion barriers, along with Spartina plants, otherwise known as cordgrass, which are planted along the shoreline.
“We have had a lot of marsh retreat and marsh loss over the years. As you can see, the marsh is dying,” said Pirl. “The idea is to raise awareness for these kids to be the next group that maybe fixes this up.”
Pirl noted that this is not the only marsh in town in need of restoration. The Nellie Bennett Marsh has also been targeted for restoration efforts. This project is being undertaken by the Barnegat Bay Partnership, however.
“We figured if we could educate the next generation of kids who are more ecologically aware, they may be able to make a bigger difference in the future,” Pirl told The Ocean Star. “The best thing that I could ever do in the past was to show them videos of stuff. Now, we get to have the kids out here, invested in their local ecosystem.”
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