Welcome to the New Jersey Bay Islands Restoration Planner – a decision-support tool for managing NJ’s bay islands from Metedeconk River south to Beach Haven / Little Egg Inlet.

This tool allows you, the user, to select (filter) islands based on restoration need (ISLAND CONDITION) and helps you plan an ecological restoration project (PROJECT PLANNING). Show more
  1. To start, all islands are selected (all data/attribute ranges are “on”).
  2. LEFT MENU: Use the menu on the left to narrow the islands selected by turning on or off the data (island attributes) of your choosing.
  3. CENTER TOP MENU: Click to view supporting layers - waterways, subaqueous soils, marsh vegetation classification, and bathymetry. The opacity of each can be changed there too.
  4. RIGHT TOP MENU: Select the underlying imagery (base layer).
  5. Click on any island to reveal a list of its data (attributes) and a 1-mile and 3-mile buffer from its shoreline. (Click outside the 3-mile buffer area to remove the stippling.)
This tool was created by Barnegat Bay Partnership, Stockton University Coastal Research Center, The Nature Conservancy, and USFWS-E.B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, which are members of the NJ Bay Islands Initiative.

Download Island Data: Shapefile   Excel

Other web-based tools and maps you may find useful:

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Island Condition

Confined Disposal Facilities (CDFs)
Indicates the presence of a Confined Disposal Facility on a selected island. This dataset was compiled in 2009. More Info
0 to 100 %
Island above MHW
Area above mean high water (MHW) was calculated for each island using the USGS's New Jersey and Delaware Coastal National Elevation Database DEM (2015 data and below). MHW values calculated using NOAA's VDatum. The DEM was post-processed to remove positive elevation bias due to salt marsh vegetation by using raster resampling methods described in the journal article “Removal of Positive Elevation Bias of Digital Elevation Models for Sea-Level Rise Planning.” These methods remove positive elevation bias by resampling the raster from a 1-meter cell size to a 4-meter cell size and apply the minimum elevation value within the search window. USGS CoNED Journal Link
0 to 20 acres
Island Edge Erosion 1977-2015 (acres)
This dataset was created to illustrate and quantify in acres how bay islands footprints have changed over time. This dataset was created by comparing island footprints delineated in the 1977 NJ Tidelands Claim Line and the 2015 Land Use/Land Cover datasets. For each island, the total acres of salt marsh lost since the 1977 mapping was calculated. In general, loss in bay island footprint can be attributed to erosion and inundation. Note that marsh footprints between 2015 and 2012 LU/LC remained mostly unchanged. NJ Tidelands Claim Line 2015 NJ Land Use/ Land Cover
0 to 100 %
Island Edge Erosion 1977-2015 (%)
This dataset was created to illustrate and quantify in acres how bay islands footprints have changed over time. This dataset was created by comparing island footprints delineated in the 1977 NJ Tidelands Claim Line and the 2015 Land Use/Land Cover datasets. For each island, the total acres of salt marsh lost since the 1977 mapping was calculated. In general, loss in bay island footprint can be attributed to erosion and inundation. Note that marsh footprints between 2015 and 2012 LU/LC remained mostly unchanged. NJ Tidelands Claim Line 2015 NJ Land Use/ Land Cover
0 to > 5,000 linear feet
Tidal marsh ditching (linear feet)
The Marsh Ditching dataset was compiled from state and academic sources. This layer shows where bay islands have been ditched and provides length (in feet) of ditching per island. Note: this data layer should be used as a reference only as it does not fully delineate all man-made ditching. For more detail, a desktop analysis or an on-the-ground survey should be conducted. USGS NHD University of Mass. Amherst
0 to > 5 %
Tidal marsh ditching(% area)
The Marsh Ditching dataset was compiled from state and academic sources. It estimates the percent of each island that is ditched. To calculate areas, an average ditch width of 5.0 feet used. Note: this data layer should be used as a reference only as it does not fully delineate all man-made ditching. For more detail, a desktop analysis or an on-the-ground survey should be conducted. USGS NHD University of Mass. Amherst
0 to 10
Tidal marsh Soil Penetration Depth
Soil Penetration Depth is one of the five parameters used in the Habitat Score section of the Mid-TRAM assessment. This parameter is a measure of soil resistance using a slide hammer. A lesser depth indicates that the substrate is firmer, suggesting good conditions for supporting loads (wetland plants). Zero Value indicates the island is too small for the Mid-TRAM methods or it has yet to be assessed. More Info
1 to 100
Mid-Atlantic Tidal Wetlands Rapid Assessment Method Score (Mid-TRAM)
In 2020 and 2021, Barnegat Bay Partnership and US Fish and Wildlife Service used Mid-TRAM to determine the condition of 69 of the islands. Mid-TRAM determines wetland condition on a watershed scale using a combination of on-the-ground and desktop (remote-sensing) analysis. Each wetland is assessed at a single randomly selected point. The assessment area (50m radius from the selected point) and buffer area (250m radius) are assessed with the attributes of hydrology, habitat, and landscape. Condition scores (1-100) are calculated for each wetland, with higher scores indicating better condition. A score of zero (0) means that the wetland could not be assessed using Mid-TRAM because of the assessment method’s limitations (i.e., marsh size and type). Because only a single point per wetland is assessed, it is not reasonable to extrapolate the condition score to the entire wetland, but instead view the condition scores of wetlands on a watershed basis.More Info

Project Planning

Bird utilization
Indicates the presence or absence -- individual or nest -- of common tern, Forsters tern, egrets, herons, and laughing gull on the island using 2013 data.
Island Ownership
Ownership type of island. Check multiple ownership types to view islands with more than one owner. More Info
0 to > 1 miles
Proximity to New Jersey waterways
Straight line distance in miles to the closest state or federal navigational channel. More Info
0 to > 100 feet
Proximity to submerged aquatic vegetation
Distance to the closest submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). A value of zero indicates that SAV was mapped at the island shoreline. Mapped data is from from Rutgers Univ. CRSSA and includes the years 1968, 1979, 1985-87, 1996-99, 2003, 2009. Original data sources include Rutgers, Army Corps of Engineers, NJDEP, Dr. Paul Bologna, Paul McLain, Robert T. Macomber, and Dick Allen. Please refer to each layer's metadata for use restrictions and limitations. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class: high marsh)
Percent of island covered in high marsh. Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class: low marsh
Percent of island covered in low marsh. Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class: mud flat
Percent of Island covered in mud flat. Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class: open water
Percent of Island covered in open water, represents mostly island boundaries. Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class: phragmites
Percent of island covered in Phragmites. Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class - pools/pannes
Percent of island covered in pools and pannes. Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 100 %
Tidal marsh class - upland
Percent of island that is upland (non-wetland). Data represents 2015 conditions. More Info
0 to 4 feet
Tidal range
Tidal range is the difference (in feet) between MLLW (mean lower low water) and MHHW (mean higher high water) at the center of each bay island using NOAA’s Vertical Datum (VDatum) software. More Info
-82 to > 100 feet
Average shoreline change 1977 - 2015 (feet)
Average shoreline change was calculated for just 67 of the islands, which are either within Forsythe Wildlife National Refuge or proximal to Long Beach Island. Change (in feet) is the difference between the 1977 NJ Tidelands Claim Line and the 2015 NJ Land Use/Land Cover, calculated every ≈20 meters. Islands that were not assessed were assigned a value of -9,999. More Info
0 to > 6.4 acres
Open Marsh Water Management (acres)
Area (in acres) of mapped open marsh water management (OMWM) features. This data layer should be used as a reference only as it does not delineate all OMWM features. A value of 0 can indicate that either OMWM has not been mapped for an island or the island has no OMWM features. To verify the presence of OMWM feature, a combination of site visits and aerial imagery should be used. More Info
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NJ Bay Islands

Islands
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