Pollinators

Brynn Coleman and Wainscot Media started a new magazine. Spring Lake and Sea Girt Magazine featured long-form stories and profiles of local individuals with an emphasis on quality writing and photography. The magazine, mailed to every home in both towns, was a welcome celebration of our area. Brynn grew up in Sea Girt, and she featured people and the stories she knew well.

One of her early articles was about Jackie Joule, Maggie Bossett, and pollinator plants. Both women were members of the Holly Club and had been early adopters of a resurgence in gardens focused on plants which would support the migration of the monarch butterfly, and support bees. The more natural gardens are also free of pesticides that often kill good insects along with the pests. The two women who spent over 100 summers combined in Sea Girt could remember a time when there were thousands of butterflies along the coast.

Spring Lake Magazine feature on Monarch Butterflies (Oct 2023, Wainscot Media)

There were funds for pollinator gardens, and suddenly they seemed to be popping up all over. Spring Lake got one on their side of Lake Como, and Lake Como got one on their side of their lake. The guard camp replanted the entrance road to the camp with a natural rain garden supportive of pollinators. The largest of all was proposed by the Sea Girt Conservancy in Edgemere Park. With over 2,000 individual plants and a fence to keep out the ever-hungry deer, the Conservancy volunteers began the long process of establishing a garden for flying friends.

The new garden layout in Edgemere with deer fencing (SeaGirtConservancy.org)

Friends of a larger variety were suffering. Sea Girt saw dead whales wash up on our shores. Many suspected there was a link between the deaths and the noise from the construction of wind turbines off the coast. read more

Humpback Whale spouts off Sea Girt Beach

Then it was revealed that the electric line for Atlantic Shores South, with up to 195 turbines, would exit the ocean at the guard camp and proceed under Sea Girt Avenue, then into town before crossing the tracks. Sea Girt residents joined a chorus of protest against the wind project and the unknown dangers of the first of their kind connections with this kind of power.

In 2024, Mayor Fetzer, a civil engineer, promised to use his expertise to join suit with neighboring communities if the utilities tried to seek approvals. The borough hosted a rally of over 500, and heard. The election of Donald Trump halted Governor Murphy’s signature energy plan in its tracks. Trump ordered a freeze on all of the leases and permitting, giving Sea Girt a reprieve for now.