by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director Another World Series of Birding is in the books, and this year’s all ladies Marshketeers birded their way to success under some challenging conditions. Over 20 hours of searching, they identified 124 species, braving persistent strong winds (and 30mph gusts) that kept the birds hunkered down and made...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director The Wetlands Institute, along with our project partners at the US Army Corps of Engineers – Philadelphia District and the NJDEP Fish and Wildlife team, is pleased to report that the construction phase of the project at Scotch Bonnet Island was successfully completed this fall. Our goal was to save Scotch...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director In an effort to continue to showcase the importance and possibilities of innovative solutions that increase resilience, reduce coastal risk, and provide benefits to wildlife and people, TWI is in the process of planning for a second project: to raise the elevation of the Salt Marsh Trail at TWI, restore...

by Brian Williamson, Research Scientist Since 1990, The Wetlands Institute has worked with Joe Grotolla, a science teacher at Lower Cape May Regional High School, to help protect local terrapins. Joe, and more recently Travis Davis, help raise terrapin hatchlings in their classroom as part of our head-starting project, and Joe has been an active...

by Brooke Knapick, Director of Educational Program Development The Wetlands Institute is proud to host Cheyenne Hamby as an Aquarium Intern. Cheyenne is a senior at Lower Cape May Regional High School (LCMR) and a participant in the final year of their Structured Learning Experience Program. Since September, as part of her academic schedule,...

by Elizabeth Hefner, Development Team At The Wetlands Institute, our scientists work tirelessly to discover and develop groundbreaking solutions to the threats that face wetland ecosystems, their wildlife, and our coastal communities. Key projects range from a more than 30-year ongoing effort to study and protect diamondback terrapins, to...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director As we roll into another summer down at the shore, I am reminded once again how lucky we are. Summer is a time of incredible energy, and The Wetlands Institute is buzzing with excitement and discovery. Our education programs are peaking with summer visitors, visitor programs, guided nature walks, and...

by Dr. Lisa Ferguson, Director of Research and Conservation They bark. They merp. They hang out in large groups by the water in the summer heat, and when they lift and swirl as a flock they can catch your breath. In a unique approach to fishing, they glide over still waters of the slack tide with the lower, longer bill scraping the surface,...

Stone Harbor, NJ – The Wetlands Institute is pleased to announce a new board member and a returning board member to its Board of Trustees, chaired by Deborah A. Hays, CEO of Archer Greiner LLC. Liz Thomas of Mount Laurel and Avalon, NJ is joining the board for the first time and Raymond M. Burke III of Avalon is returning after a two-year hiatus....

by Annie Ulichey, Institute Supporter and Board Member There is a village in Vietnam where a respected elder lost his beloved wife to an extended illness and became destitute and stricken with depression. After a long isolation, his village decided to support him as a community, gathered resources and bought him a cow. The collective gift of a...

by Elizabeth Hefner, Development Team The Wetlands Institute is pleased to announce that Garrett Maggio, a Ph.D. student in the Biology, Biomedicine, and Chemistry Program at East Carolina University, has been awarded a fellowship through the Jeannie Morris Graduate Fellowship Program for Coastal Conservation and Research. Garrett will use this...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director These past few months have seen a lot of changes in policies and priorities coming down from the federal level and rippling through society. Some view these as good; others see them as detrimental. I have always been crystal clear that the work of The Wetlands Institute (TWI) remains distinct from...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director We are pleased to report that the construction phase of the marsh rehabilitation project on Scotch Bonnet Island was successfully completed this fall. This project beneficially used clean sediment dredged from the NJ Intracoastal Waterway near Nummy Island to increase the elevation of low marsh areas that...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director This past winter, NJDEP and The Wetlands Institute were awarded a two-year planning grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Coastal Resilience Fund through the Department of the Interior. Funds from the grant are being put toward a wetland enhancement project using dredged sediments...

by Devin Griffiths, Marketing & Communications Specialist The number of challenges facing the natural world today can be overwhelming, and caring for it often seems daunting. Sometimes just deciding where to focus is a Herculean effort. What’s most important, and how do you begin? Since our inception, we at the Institute have been asking...

by Brian Williamson, Research Scientist Each year at The Wetlands Institute we incorporate new projects designed to investigate emerging and long-standing questions about the organisms we study. While we have been working with terrapins for decades, much remains to be learned about these important members of the saltmarsh community and how the...

by Sean Burkholder, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania The Wetlands Institute (TWI) has been collaborating with The Environmental Modeling Lab (EMLab) at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design over the past 5 years to collect data, visualize landscape change, and assist in the development of marsh resilience...

by Dr. Jonathan Hubler, Assistant Professor, Villanova University The Wetlands Institute (TWI) and the Villanova University (VU) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have teamed up to offer a Senior Capstone project for students to perform geotechnical evaluation and design for elevating the Salt Marsh Trail. Dr. Jonathan Hubler is...

by Elizabeth Hefner, Development Team Today, the threats to the marsh look different than they did in 1965. While development pressures continue to be a danger, now the impacts most acutely felt are from rapidly rising seas. They manifest as the increased frequency and intensity of coastal storms, nuisance sunny-day flooding, and continued...

by Ray Burke, Institute Supporter Raising a family of marsh wanderers meant that my parents, like so many others, were used to welcoming home wet, muddy children with their similarly afflicted pets.On one particular day in August 1965, however, there was a significant departure from the normal pattern of wet and muddy. On that day, everybody was...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director The threats to marsh ecosystems have shifted since The Wetlands Institute was first founded more than 50 years ago. At that time, a primary focus was to address wetland loss to development. Early research at the Institute, done through a partnership with Lehigh University, focused on oil spills and...

by Dr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director The Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary is a truly remarkable place, and an important refuge on 7 Mile Island. This 21-acre site boasts a mature Atlantic Maritime Forest and both fresh and tidal wetlands. These forests were once widespread on barrier islands and mainland coasts, but due to coastal development,...

by Steve Rochette, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers andDr. Lenore Tedesco, Executive Director, The Wetlands Institute No one organization can solve the most complex or difficult societal and environmental issues. Moving beyond the status quo and taking bold action is not always neat and linear. Thus, it’s no surprise that the...

by Meghan Kolk, Conservation Scientist, and Devin Griffiths, Marketing & Communications Specialist If you've ever visited us here, you've likely seen the gourd towers on our back lawn and the rectangular wooden boxes spread around the property, and you may have wondered who they're for - and more importantly, whether or not they work. These...

by Elizabeth Hefner, Development Team The Wetlands Institute is not merely a building, it is a gateway for experiential education that enriches connection, drives community building, and draws generations together. Sandra Mackin Mezzanotte's grandparents and parents met in Ocean City. In the late 1960s, Sandra’s parents purchased a home in Ocean...