The recognition that many coastal wetlands are suffering from the cumulative impacts of erosion and sea level rise has fueled an interest in the “beneficial use” of these dredged sediments as a means of sustaining these valuable habitats and enhancing coastal resilience. In most cases, the sediments that are dredged from navigation channels are disposed of in the open ocean or in upland containment facilities. Navigation channels across the country require regular dredging to avoid infilling with sediments and becoming impassable. Scientists from the NCCOS then documented sediment and soil characteristics, erosion rates and biological communities within the sediment placement region and in undisturbed inter‐ and subtidal regions of Mordecai Island from 2017 – 2019. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering With Nature (EWN®) initiative and the Philadelphia District of USACE used approximately 30,000 cubic yards of dredged sediments to restore Mordecai Island and join the two lobes back together. Over the past century, persistent wave action in the region has resulted in a loss of roughly 50 percent of the island's total area, effectively separating the island into two lobes. In addition to providing habitat for a wide range of estuarine organisms and nesting shorebirds, the island protects the adjacent developed shoreline from the erosive action of waves. Mordecai is an undeveloped island that runs parallel to the Barnegat Bay shoreline of Beach Haven, New Jersey. NCCOS scientist at work on Mordecai Island measuring marsh elevation with GPS.
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