The Bayshore Regional Watershed Council (BRWC), an all-volunteer environmental group, is asking for your help to protect, preserve, and to cleanup our waterways.

Since 2000, the council has been working to improve the physical environment in the Bayshore region of Middlesex and Monmouth counties, New Jersey. The BRWC is made up of volunteers, including citizens, scientists, environmental commissioners, and municipal officials from a variety of Bayshore communities, from Old Bridge Township eastward to the Borough of Highlands.

The Bayshore region consists of all or part of the following 11 municipalities in Monmouth County: Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Hazlet, Highlands, Holmdel, Keansburg, Keyport, Marlboro, Matawan, Middletown and Union Beach. Portions of three municipalities in Middlesex County are also included in this region. They are Old Bridge Township, Sayreville, and South Amboy.

The council's goal is the restoration and conservation of Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay. This goal can only be accomplished, however, through active public participation by people in each Bayshore community.   

The Bayshore Regional Watershed Council was created in 2000 under the watershed planning initiative of Monmouth County and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). While relatively young, the group has initiated and accomplished a number of small, focused projects that have or will result in improving and protecting the water resources of the Bayshore region of Monmouth and Middlesex counties.

The first recorded meeting of the BRWC was held on December 15, 2000 inside Aberdeen Township Municipal Building. Twelve people were in attendance at this meeting from Keyport, Holmdel, Marlboro, Matawan, Middletown, and Union Beach, and non-governmental organizations, such as the NY-NJ Baykeeper and the Raritan River Keeper. Some of the items discussed consisted of the establishment of an Area 12 Watershed Management Plan, hosting a public clean up of Flat Creek in Hazlet, and the creation of a checklist to discover what ordinances Bayshore municipalities have in place to protect the watershed region.

Since that initial meeting, the BRWC has met monthly and has increased membership to include Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Hazlet, Clean Ocean Action, the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program, and many others.

The BRWC has accomplished important activities to help achieve our goal, such as obtaining over $50,000 in NJDEP grant funds to help decrease sedimentation and runoff in Flat Creek, acquiring over $5,000 in grant funds from the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program to mark over 1,200 stormdrains with information that reads – NO DUMPING, DRAINS TO CREEK, and identifying eight environmentally sensitive/pristine areas that are threatened with development and are most valuable for protection.

There is much to do and we need to work together to improve our waterways for future generations to enjoy.

We believe the time is now to create a new Bayshore region for the twenty-first century. It is time to give birth to a region that has well-designed, wisely managed, and thoughtfully planned development that transforms the area without sacrificing the environment and our coastal traditions. It is time now to integrate into the minds of our political and government leaders the idea of a livable community based on the protection and enhancement of our wetlands, waterways, and natural areas. We need to better manage growth and defend our waterways if we are to preserve the unique coastal environment in the Bayshore.    

Each resident in the Bayshore can play an important part in the effort to help restore and protect their local creeks and waterways that drain into the Raritan Bay-Sandy Hook Bay region. Even the smallest contribution, such as speaking up at a local planning board meeting or participating in a beach clean up, can add up to valuable changes for the health of your local waterway and to the overall Bayshore region.

Get involved. The Bayshore is your shore. Let’s protect it together!

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