Forsythe Refuge Trail On Cedar Bonnet Island Is Now Open

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, NJ -For the first time ever, a section of Cedar Bonnet Island - once a former dredge dump site and now a part of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge - will be open to visitors.

The first public access trail on the island has a one-mile walking path with pedestrian benches, two gazebos with picnic tables and interpretive signs along the path. The trail has views of Atlantic City, the Manahawkin Bay Bridges, Long Beach Island, coastal marshes and Barnegat Bay, and shore-area wildlife.

The state Department of Transportation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other stakeholders partnered on the $9.6 million mitigation project that began back in February 2015. They announced the opening of the environmental trail on Thursday.

The work included wetlands creation, mitigation for existing freshwater wetlands and the modification of two existing storm water basins within the Barnegat Bay watershed, according a DOT release.

"Through a partnership between NJDOT, the Fish & Wildlife Service, the DEP, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, we were all able to reach an agreement on how the required environmental mitigation could be accomplished and satisfy the goals of all of the stakeholder agencies," DOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said. "A win for all parties involved.”

The project created nearly 20 acres of tidal salt marsh, said Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge Manager Virginia Rettig.

"Allowing the public to visit and enjoy this part of Forsythe Refuge is a great opportunity,”Rettig said.

The Cedar Bonnet work was an environmental mitigation project for the DOT's larger $312 million federally-funded Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Bridges project,

Route 72 traverses a portion of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, known as the Cedar Bonnet Island Conservation Unit (CBI), a portion of which was a former Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) that accepted dredge materials from adjoining marina construction and channel maintenance dredging dating back to the 1950s, according to the DOT release.

The property was acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife back in the 1990s, but it has not been open for public use until now.

The project also included the construction of a permanent Peregrine Falcon Eyrie (nest) on a wooden tower next to the new Causeway, to help give falcons a chance of success in one of the most precarious locations. Falcons often make their homes under large bridges, to use tall structures in an urban setting to hunt.

The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge protects more than 47,000 acres of southern New Jersey coastal habitats which is actively managed for migratory birds. The refuge’s location in one of the Atlantic Flyway’s most active flight paths makes it an important link in seasonal bird migration.

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Image: Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service