DOI Project #NJ077; Hurricane Sandy; Protect Gandy's Beach; Downe Township; NJ

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to The Nature Conservancy in Arlington, Virginia, New Jersey Operating Unit. This announcement is for notification purposes only. The intent of the award is to protect Gandy¿s Beach in Downe Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey and adjacent wetlands from wave and storm-induced erosion. Gandy¿s Beach is currently a Nature Conservancy Preserve along an area of undeveloped shoreline on the Delaware Bay that provides valuable habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife resources. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages Gandy¿s Beach. The entire coastline of the Delaware Bay has suffered from erosion particularly during storm events. Hurricane Sandy furthered the decline and erosion of that shoreline. Continued erosion and storm damage of Gandy¿s Beach and adjacent wetlands threatens an abundant diversity of natural wildlife habitats including open marsh, salt ponds, exposed mud flats, shrub dominated areas and shallow water habitat. The Nature Conservancy measured shoreline retreat at Gandy¿s Beach to be about 130 meters since 1930. These habitats provide breeding, foraging, and resting areas for many species of migratory birds, including shorebirds, wading birds, raptors and waterfowl. During the spring hundreds of thousands of shorebirds including ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres), the federal candidate red knot (Calidris canutus), semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla), and sanderlings (Calidris alba) forage and rest on the shores of the Delaware Bay and nearby salt marshes. This project was previously vetted and approved for funding by the Department of the Interior. The appropriation for this project is the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriation Act of 2013, Public Law 113-2. Criteria for funding was based on the project¿s ability to yield the greatest return on investment by taking advantage of existing science and regional planning tools for resiliency and by working with states, cities, communities, and partners who contribute to the goals of restoring and rebuilding national wildlife refuges and other federal public assets; and to increase resiliency and the capacity of coastal habitat and infrastructure and to withstand future storms and to minimize the damage incurred. The proposed project would preserve and protect Gandy¿s Beach diverse natural bird and marine habitats by stabilizing the shoreline and reducing future storm damage. Several shore protection measures were evaluated for storm reduction; however, the most cost-efficient and effective is to construct a breakwater with a living shoreline of about 3,000 feet to protect about 1 mile of sandy beach marsh edge and 337 acres of adjacent wetlands. The breakwater and living shoreline would be effective at reducing wave energy by approximately 40 percent while still providing connectivity to the interior habitats with waters of Delaware Bay. This project is authorized by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, Public Law 113-2.