Restoration funds: $11.5 million.

Trustees will restore wetlands oiled during the spill and replace injured natural resources in the New York/New Jersey harbor. Efforts to date have focused on restoring marshes that were impacted by the oil spill and acquiring wetlands and other critical habitats in the New York City metropolitan area. The marsh restoration project is considered ground breaking because the hand-planted native marsh grasses are rehabilitating and flourishing in the oiled shoreline.

Restoration activities are complimented by a comprehensive monitoring program and a volunteer labor and education component. The extensive volunteer effort represents a significant savings in labor costs and allows concerned members of the public to participate in a "hands-on" effort to speed recovery. The trustees have worked closely with their advisory committee, comprised of the Safe Harbor Coalition and Exxon Corporation, to ensure public input in their decision-making. A comprehensive restoration plan for the NY/NJ Harbor has been developed and guides the Bayway restoration and projects in the harbor funded by other natural resource damage cases.

Restoration Accomplishments

"The saltmarsh mitigation of the Arthur Kill oil spill is probably the most extensive and well-grounded urban estuary restoration to date. The enterprise is a solid example of ecological engineering and restoration in the public interest. The economic efficiency of the restoration is unparalleled. By scaling up the planting efforts, and concentrating on measurement and evaluation in the off-season, you have achieved efficiencies beyond any reasonable expectation in ecological engineering." Paul S. Mankiewicz, PhD Executive Director The GAIA Institute

Approximately six acres of intertidal salt marsh along the Arthur Kill shoreline have been restored over the last five years by the New York City Parks Department's Natural Resources Group. Approximately 250,000 seedlings of Spartina alterniflora were planted in three different locations (Old Place Creek, Saw Mill Creek, and Pralls Island). Additional plantings will occur over the next two years. A comprehensive monitoring program has been ongoing; measuring vegetative and sedimentary characteristics of the restored marshes and fish, invertebrate, and bird use of restored and unimpacted marshes.

The trustees have purchased over thirty acres of land in the Goethals Bridge Pond complex on Staten Island. The acquired lands, which were exposed to oil during the spill, are a mixture of upland forested habitats and freshwater, brackish, and salt marsh environments. These lands serve as a buffer to Goethals Bridge Pond, a brackish water pond that is a critical feeding habitat for wading birds. The pond and associated wetlands are part of the "Harbor Herons" complex on the northwest corner of Staten Island, an important habitat for colonial wading birds such as herons, egrets, and ibises that feed on the abundant aquatic fauna of the area.

In early 1998, the trustees completed the acquisition of 25 acres of freshwater wetlands and upland forest habitat in Edison, NJ, at the headwaters of the Rahway River, a tributary of the Arthur Kill.

The trustees are planning the design of a 25-acre, $1 million wetland restoration project on the Woodbridge River, a tributary of the Arthur Kill in Woodbridge, NJ. The 25-acre site is a diked Phragmites wetland that has been cut off from tidal flow. The project will involve removal of portions of the dike and the creation of tidal channels throughout the wetland to restore natural tidal flow. Restoring the natural ebb and flow of the tide should convert the wetland to a Spartina marsh and provide habitat for estuarine fish and shellfish species injured by the oil spill.