Barnegat Bay Islands Working Group: Partner Charter

Purpose and Goal

The Barnegat Bay Islands Working Group (BBIWG) is an affiliation of collaborating organizations and individuals that view island restoration as key to ensuring resilience of the communities and natural habitats of the Bay. If successful, the group will create a synergy among biological, municipal, and coastal engineering objectives that benefit all parties. The geographic area of interest ranges from the northern end of the Bay at the Metedeconk River in Ocean County south to Absecon Inlet in Atlantic County.

To increase resilience of the ecosystem, which includes wildlife habitat and the developed community, the group will develop a decision support tool(s) that allows for prioritization of island restoration projects. The tool, which is intended for use by working group members, will have the ability to weigh parameters to align funding opportunities with restoration projects (e.g., improving community stabilization vs. increasing migratory bird habitat). It will also provide the opportunity to strengthen projects across partners (e.g., using sediment from channel maintenance to optimize available funding).

The long-term goal of the BBIWG is to manage bay islands as a system where a variety of habitat enhancement and restoration projects are pursued that simultaneously address multiple needs of member organizations.