This winter, Ocean County Soil Conservation District staff, Brittany Moore and Rachel Hammack, joined Craig McGee, District Manager at Camden County Soil Conservation District and Eileen Miller, Team Habitat Coordinator for South Jersey Resource Conservation & Development Council, to inspect multiple stormwater basins for the Lakewood Township Stormwater Basin Retrofit Project.
Soil samples were collected from potential retrofit project basins, as well as from completed retrofitted basins, to monitor the positive changes native vegetation provides to the basin’s soil health.
The proposed retrofit designs will include revegetation of the basin with native species that are site specific and consider multiple factors including soil type, deer browse, geese pressure, maintenance, etc. Once renovated, the basins will improve both the hydrological function and ecological value of the selected stormwater basins by improving the quality and reducing the quantity of discharged stormwater to receiving waterbodies, and providing wildlife habitat by revegetating basins with native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs and trees. The naturalization of these basins will also provide beauty and an education opportunity for the local community.
Craig McGee, District Manager at Camden County Soil Conservation evaluates the basin. Photo by Brittany Moore, OCSCD
Eileen Miller, Team Habitat Coordinator for South Jersey Resource Conservation & Development Council and Brittany Moore, Erosion Control Specialist at OCSCD inspect a soil sample. Photo by Rachel Hammack, OCSCD
Funding for the Lakewood Township Stormwater Basin Retrofit Project is provided through a Watershed Restoration grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (Grant # WM20-008) granted to the South Jersey Resource Conservation & Development Council in partnership with Ocean County Soil Conservation District, Camden County Soil Conservation District, and Lakewood Township Department of Public Works.