Get to Know Us: The Many Facets of The Wetlands Institute
For many islanders, The Wetlands Institute is a place that’s “always been there.” Some will know us as the place that saves the terrapins. Others, for the summer nature programs enjoyed by their children or grandchildren, or for the fall Wings ’n Water Festival of years gone by. Chances are that the full range of the institute’s efforts are not well-known or understood.
The Wetlands Institute of today is a dynamic research, conservation, and education organization with a distinctive focus on our coastal and wetland resources. We are a year-round operation with 19 full-time staff members, and in the spring through fall our numbers swell to more than 50 employees. As a nonprofit, we rely on our more than 1,400 members from more than 40 states to support our efforts and we serve more than 17,000 visitors each year. Private philanthropic support underpins our work, along with competitively won research grants.
A core tenet of our mission is to connect people with nature so that they understand the value and benefit of our natural resources, but also so that they can be voices for their stewardship and agents for change. We have always known that the natural world is a place of peace and harmony and that those who are connected to it reap rewards throughout their lives. Providing places and opportunities for people of all ages to make that connection is at the heart of what we do.
Visitors to the Institute may join us year-round for self-guided exploration of our marsh boardwalk and trail system, up-close encounters with the animals in our aquarium, or through guided programs and activities out in the marsh and along Scotch Bonnet Creek. Members of our education team offer badge-earning programs for scouts, and our rigorous homeschool program provides excellent science programs for families and groups. Throughout the school year, formal education programs for school groups dominate the education schedule with more than 14,000 children from the tri-state area experiencing the marsh and beach ecosystems on field trips, or through encounters with animals of the coastal systems with traveling programs at their schools. Others learn about these fragile environments at public outreach programs at libraries and festivals. Training tomorrow’s environmental scientists and educators is an important way to ensure a bright future. The Luing Family Internship Program is an immersive undergraduate internship program that enriches all of us as well as the program participants, and has done so for more than 30 years.
Our work extends well beyond our education programs and visitor services. We are a distinctive organization because we house our research, conservation, and education programs under one roof and work diligently to have our efforts be collaborative and integrative. Our applied research programs work to understand and rehabilitate our coastal environments and help at-risk wildlife. Our research programs inform the best conservation practices that we then implement through our staff efforts, as well as significant volunteer-led efforts. The issues and solutions are then integrated into our education programs.
Our applied research programs specialize in how the marshes function and are responding to rapid sea-level rise. Several sensitive species make the beaches, marshes, and back-bay waterways their home or utilize them for life support on their journeys through our area. The marshes themselves and many species of birds and our beloved diamondback terrapins are at risk and struggling under the pressures and strains of decades of habitat impacts from development and rapidly occurring changes tied to climate.
If you have been visiting the coastal area over time, you have surely noticed that the marshes are flooded frequently now. This excessive flooding is threatening the persistence of our marshes themselves and with it the services the marshes provide to the wildlife that rely on them – and also to us, and our coastal communities. Understanding, and working to solve the complex problems posed by sea-level rise now dominates the work we are doing. In fact, essentially all applied research and conservation efforts in our coastal zone revolve around this core focus. The impact is so great that this has to be our focus.
For the past decade, we have developed significant relationships with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and forged a research partnership called the Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab. This think tank has been effective at advancing the science and practice of using uncontaminated sand and mud dredged from boating navigation channels to uplift drowning marshes and create habitat for at-risk wildlife. These projects have restored more than 100 acres of marsh in the bays behind Seven Mile Beach by beneficially using more than 175,000 cubic yards of dredged sediment to make New Jersey a national leader in these groundbreaking methods. The projects are designed using innovative engineering approaches that are informed by the extensive knowledge we have about the needs of our marshes and wildlife. Significant research goes into project selection, design, and then monitoring so that we can learn and apply new knowledge to the next projects. Findings are rapidly translated to help inform policy, and we have made great strides in the acceptability and permitting of these types of projects.
Informing conservation best practices is how we complete the circle of affecting positive change. Our work has helped create an ethic of stewardship around the plight of diamondback terrapins, and while there is much more to do, the efforts of our community to help terrapins is laudable. Similarly, the reTURN the Favor horseshoe crab rescue program has mobilized a cadre of volunteers to save more than 1 million stranded horseshoe crabs since its inception a decade ago. Well-trained beach stewards can be found at Stone Harbor Point educating visitors to this significant natural resource about the importance it has as a critical conservation area and to help retain balance between recreational use and the needs of the birds that try to raise their young there.
The Wetlands Institute is a complex organization that is conducting crucial innovative research that is acting to make significant change for our coastal natural resources. We are responding to save the marshes that are the backbone of our coastal way of life. We have made tremendous strides and work tirelessly every day to ensure a better future for these ecosystems and for our coastal community.
We can’t do it alone and, as the saying goes, it takes a village. The awareness that you bring to helping to alleviate the stressors matter, and the action of individuals has an important role to play. Learn more about what we do: Stop by for a visit and learn about the value we bring to our community and well beyond. Join us at one of our events or become a member, learn more, support our work, and visit us online at wetlandsinstitute.org. Be a part of the positive changes we are working desperately to affect.
