Save Barnegat Bay

SAVE BARNEGAT BAY is a not-for-profit environmental group working to conserve undeveloped natural land and clean water throughout the Barnegat Bay watershed. We were founded in 1971 as a local chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, a leading national environmental organization.

SAVE BARNEGAT BAY's efforts to protect natural land take two basic forms. First, we scrutinize and if necessary object to development proposals on both the local and state level. Over the years we have taken developers, planning and zoning boards, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to court. Second, we use Green Acres, foundation, and other funding to purchase environmentally sensitive land in order to convey it to public ownership as permanently protected natural open space, with appropriate public access allowed.

OVERDEVELOPMENT is the primary threat to the Barnegat Bay ecosystem and to the quality of life for those who live in or visit the Barnegat Bay area. Excessive building threatens water quality by creating polluting runoff; lessens the ability of wetlands to purify water and to absorb high waters at times of flooding; destroys habitat for both endangered and non-endangered plant and animal species; diminishes our area's natural beauty; and puts an unacceptable amount of traffic on our roads. It is to combat these ills that SAVE BARNEGAT BAY keeps up the fight against imprudent development of our region.

SAVE BARNEGAT BAY works closely with other local, state and national environmental groups as well as with governmental agencies at all levels. Some of our most effective projects, such as our leadership in advocating the creation of a taxpayer-funded Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Fund, have succeeded as the result of partnerships with other organizations.