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Our team is modeling and monitoring 5 wetland restorations in a federally funded multi-year project with the US Army Corps and NJ Dept of Environment.

Abbotts Meadow is being managed to retard phragmites regrowth. Our vegetation surveys are key to assess elevations most susceptible to recolonization.

The Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab is a proving ground for advancing dredging and marsh restoration techniques through interdisciplinary research.

Multiyear vegetation surveys are crucial to set optimal datums (1.8’ low/3.2’ high) for revegetation relative to back-bay tidal horizons near-term.

NFWF Marsh Restoration Monitoring

As part of a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NWFW) Coastal Resiliency grant, the EMLab is assisting the New Jersey Department of Environmental Planning (NJDEP), The Wetlands Institute (TWI), and USACE in data collection, assessment, design, and monitoring of five salt marsh restoration sites (488 acres) around the south coastline of New Jersey. These restoration efforts, which include the beneficial use of dredge material and nature-based solutions projects to enhance tidal marshes for coastal resiliency, are critical for protecting threatened habitats of at-risk avian, amphibian, and aquatic wildlife.

These large landscape-scale projects will provide a restoration blueprint for other locations along the Atlantic Coast. An urgent and coordinated landscape approach is needed to continue the momentum of states and partners to accelerate coastal habitat restoration techniques that enhance the resiliency of natural systems in the face of climate change impacts.

This work was honored with a 2025 World Landscape Architecture (WLA) Outstanding Award and a 2025 National ASLA Honor Award in the Research Category.

Led By: Sean Burkholder, Karen M’Closkey, and Keith VanDerSys

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NFWF Marsh Restoration Monitoring

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