Ridge and Valley Charter School

April 2, 2007

Seven parents and trustees accompanied nine students to Sedge Island for the weekend. Although these are by far the youngest students who come to Sedge (they range in age from four to fourteen) they are some of the most conservation minded. They are comfortable in the outdoors no matter what the weather because many of their school classes are taught outside. They have studied the water cycle and food webs. They all recycle and compost at school and at home.

As a result of the conservation knowledge base, activities at Sedge focus on the specifics of the salt marsh environment. As we kayaked through the mosquito ditches between the osprey nests and the peregrine falcon hacking tower, we discussed the negative impact caused by spraying DDT on the marsh and the success of the efforts by the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife to bring back these threatened and endangered species. One of the parents is the manager of the community based gardening program at Genesis Farm. He especially enjoyed making comparisons between his land farming in Warren County and our aquaculture program at Sedge.

Rutgers University Human Ecology Class

April 19- 21, 2007

Dr. Bonnie McKay brought students from her Human Ecology Class in April to become the first group to be in residence in 2007. Many of the students are majoring in environmental policy. As a result we had some interesting discussions as to how both government and non-government organizations could be involved in issues regarding wildlife and other conservation issues. Dr. Roger Locandro, former Dean of Students at Cook College, got things started as he led a discussion on Friday night.

The next morning we boarded the kayaks and paddled through the marshes that had been completely submerged during the big northeaster that hit the state several days earlier. We noted that the pair of peregrine falcons appear to be guarding eggs in their new “igloo” house and osprey are setting up their nests on almost all of the platforms. We stopped for lunch at one of the last remaining “shacks” on the islands in the Marine Conservation Zone. As we ate we watched several types of migratory warblers resting in the trees around the house. In the afternoon we returned to the house and got involved in a variety of the usual activities including clamming, and fishing. On his first cast one of the students caught the first fish of the season, a twenty-four inch striped bass.

On Saturday we celebrated Earth Day. We took a hike along the ocean beach to Barnegat Inlet. On this, the warmest day of the year, we enjoyed our walk along the jetty to the Army Corps of Engineers Dike. We found that this last northeaster has eroded the dike even more to a point where much of the sand has blown back into the inlet and the geo-tube is broken in several places. These observations led to more discussions of environmental policy.

One member of the class had been a professional photographer. Using his digital camera he took many pictures. If he sends a disc of his pictures as promised we will post them on this site.

Sedge "Open House"

I write this sitting in my “office” (desk in the corner of my bedroom) looking out over the Bay in South Seaside Park. This is the height of the April 2007 northeaster. The wind is “blowing like stink” (about 30 kts with gusts to 40) Most of the rain passed us to the north so our streets are only moderately flooded. It snowed some a little while ago but has now changed over to rain. Our beach was getting eroded last night at high when the wind was strong NE but now it has switched to NW so the ocean is calm while the waves are so high in the bay the wild wind blown white water it looks like the ocean did yesterday.

Ten members of Friends of Sedge, including three new interns, worked all day Saturday to get everything ready for our first group (Students from Rutgers will be arriving Thursday night.) Before leaving the dock at Island Beach, we did some work in the parking lot to replace some of the fill eroded away by the winter storms. (There is more work to be done here as much of the sand has moved into the boat slip making it difficult if not impossible to get the pontoon boat in at low tide.)

Once we got to the island we quickly set about working on many projects. We turned on the hot water and the stove. We washed all the dishes and replaced them in clean closets. We took all the kayaks out of the boat house and swept the floor. We launched the jon boat, put on the outboard and the interns had their first lesson in small boat handling.

After lunch we went to work on the shellfish. We checked the six predator screens covering the 600,000 10mm clams on the shellfish lease to the west of the house. They are still in place but are beginning to get fouled even though we cleaned them three weeks ago. Then we turned our attention to the shellfish at the dock. We scrubbed 8 bags of oysters removing thousands of 1 MM blue mussels growing on the outside and blocking water flow. We separated some of the oysters into additional bags to avoid over crowding. We cleaned the Taylor Float. We were disappointed to find that about 40% of one bag of 20mm clams has died- perhaps as a result of the poor circulation of water due to fouling by mussels, algae, and other organisms. But when you consider mortality in the wild is more like 95% we are not doing too badly.

Although we had intended to spend the night, the threat of the pending storm made leaving seem like a good idea. Even though the tide was blown out and we had to walk to pull the pontoon boat over the sand bar, this was a wise choice. We are now in the middle of a major storm and, had we waited, we would have been forced to stay on the island until it blew itself out. As it was we came back to my house and made clam chowder. GREAT IDEA!

Thank you so much to all the members of FOS , both new and experienced. We would not be able to run our programs if it were not for your help. Jim

Spring News!

As our 2007 season is about to get underway we look forward to a great season. Many of last year's groups are returning. In addition we have many new groups for what is shaping up to be our busiest year yet. Here are some of the things which have been, or are about to happen this Spring.

Hopefully some of you will be joining us for our "Open the House" on May 14 and 14 (see previous entry and contact Jim 609 658-7965) We are planning to get some work done cleaning the house and getting out equipment but we will have some fun too. Come on out to Sedge!

We have a whole crop of new interns. Sherry Martin, who volunteered at Sedge last fall, is graduating from MATES and will be starting as a freshman at Cornell after the summer. Two students will be coming to us from Richard Stockton College. Samantha Tennick is a sophomore marine bio. major and Ryan Ballou is getting his degree in Environmental Science. Erin Denniston is presently a Watershed Ambassador working at the Forest Resource Education Center in Jackson. In addition, Alton Hallgreen who is graduating this May with a Bachelor of Biological Science from Rowan University, will be spending a majority of his time working with the aquaculture program both at Sedge and other sites around Barnegat Bay.

Several weeks ago Jim accompanied by Ryan and Alton paddled out to Sedge. The tide was low and the water was blown out of the bay. It was evident that shifting sand over the winter will make it even more difficult to get to the island by pontoon boat at low tide. Low water made it easier for us to see the winter accumulation of sand and decaying plant material on the predator screens covering the 600,000 baby (8-10 mm) clams we planted last fall. Cleaning the screens proved far more difficult than we imagined. It took almost five hours of hard, back breaking work lifting and clearing the six screens. We noted that the screens are providing habitat for shrimp, blue and green crabs, sea squirts, sea stars and millions of tiny blue mussels.

As we were eating lunch we checked out the Peregrine Falcons who seem to be adapting quite nicely to their new house on the hacking tower. We also noted that the osperey are back and at least one pair was setting up its nest in preparation for the breeding season. When we took a quick walk around the island we noted that a fox had dug in the Diamond Backed Terrapin nest plots on the west side of the house. Hopefully the fox didn't get all the eggs.