The Atlantic Highlands Mayor and Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting Naval Weapons Station Earle and Monmouth University $450,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research designed to analyze data and develop living shoreline testbed designs for coasts community resilience and ecosystem benefits.
Action had been taken by the Borough of Highlands in March when the governing body unanimously approved the resolution authorizing the application to the Defense Department‘s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program and noting that up to $40 million in FY22 was being granted for land conservation, improvement and management activities that limit development in the vicinity of DOD installations and ranges, as well as an enhance military installation resilience to climate change or extreme weather reports. Their resolution also approved relieving current or anticipated environmental restrictions in support of key mission capabilities of strategic importance. The borough had submitted a pre-proposal in November of last year in partnership with Monmouth University for funding the bulkhead and the living shorelines project at Veterans Park with a 50 percent local match.
In the recent action by Atlantic Highlands, representatives of both NWSEarle and Monmouth University have met with the borough’s environmental commission who also recommended the project move forward.
Atlantic Highlands Council approved the grant noting the Bayshore waterfront includes boro land which falls within the NWS Earle Military Influence area, as well. Council also recognizes the area’s infrastructure and the fact the base and its civilian workforce force cannot operate effectively because of rippling of the infrastructure.
Monmouth University entered into a cooperative agreement with the naval installation to study and implement techniques to improve the situation, including constructing protective structures to stabilize eroding shorelines and encourage the re-establishment of habitat along the Henry Hudson Bayshore trail within the borough.
Council members indicated such support and work would increase the sustainability of Earle facilities as well as local communities within the area, and was first recommended three years ago in the Raritan/Sandy Hook Bay Coastal Resilience Study.
Long term goals of the new grant are to construct multiple living shoreline structures and projects and monitoring their effectiveness to improve the ecosystem and the community.
