Coastal issues stretch well beyond the beach
American Littoral Society director
raises environmental awareness
FOR LIVING
Coastal issues stretch well beyond the beach
American Littoral Society director
raises environmental awareness
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
CHRIS KELLY Head of the American Littoral Society, a conservation group, Timothy Dillingham believes it’s possible to contain sprawl and accommodate population growth without sacrificing the environment. Idyllic childhood hours spent exploring beaches, tidal marshes and coastlines instilled the seeds of stewardship for the ocean and coastal regions in a young Tim Dillingham.
"Not only do I love the ocean, I have spent my life in it and on it," said Dillingham, who grew up in a U.S. Navy family.
"You have an obligation to live in the times and the world that you live in. If you sit back and let bad things happen ‘on your watch,’ then you’re going to pay a price at some point," observed Dillingham, currently executive director of the American Littoral Society, a national organization dedicated to the study and conservation of the ocean and coastal habitats.
The ALS has some 6,000 members in 42 states who are concerned about issues impacting the ocean despite the fact that many live inland.
Dillingham said that’s no surprise.
"Coastal issues are important to people everywhere," noted the Hopewell resident. "It’s important to know about the oceans; people want to know the oceans are healthy, the oceans are being protected. I love the idea because I think it’s a form of world citizenship. You have stewardship and responsibility even if it’s not in your back yard."
Headquartered at Sandy Hook, the ALS has chapters in six New England states as well as New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Florida. But most of its research, education, advocacy and public interest litigation is centered in the Mid-Atlantic region, Dillingham said.
Founded in 1961 by sea divers and marine scientists working at Sandy Hook, the ALS began as a scientific society a year after Dillingham’s birth.
"We’ve always been interested in the scientific aspects of the ocean, of understanding the life that’s in it, the beaches, and understanding what’s happening to the ocean," explained Dillingham, who joined the society as assistant director in 2002. He was named executive director in April, succeeding Dery Bennett, who had been with the society since 1968 and director since 1972.
Bennett, who is credited with broadening the society’s scope to include land use, coastal water quality, estuarine ecology, public access issues and land use litigation, will continue to work on ALS publications, activities and special issues.
Dillingham joined ALS after serving as head of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club from 1990-98 and the Highlands Coalition, a multistate watershed and forest conservation effort, from 1998-2001. Earlier, the Hopewell resident worked on developing regulatory policy for watersheds and estuary management planning for the State of Rhode Island Coastal Management Program.
The different orientations of ALS’ founders bridged pure science and interpretive observation and set a course for the society, Dillingham noted.
"There’s scientific study, a rigorous process subject to the scientific method, and there’s a long legacy of naturalists — people who simply observed the ocean and coastline," he said. "The American Littoral Society brings those two worlds together."
This symbiosis of the scientific and natural worlds is reflected in ALS programs like its fish-tagging program, he noted, which has grown into the largest volunteer fish-tagging program in the country, using "citizen scientists" to record data on fish migration, growth rates and disease.
Dillingham also cited the society’s strong record of successful advocacy over the past four-plus decades.
"We do a lot of advocacy work," he said. "We speak up in defense of places, or for the ocean itself."
The ALS can be credited with leading efforts to halt dredging and filling of tidal wetlands by winning passage of the New Jersey Wetlands Act; passage of the state’s Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA), the first law in the state to control development in the coastal region; organizing the Ocean Dumping Task Force to end dumping of sewage sludge and chemicals; and helping to secure approval of the National Estuary Act to restore vital natural resources to the country’s bays and coastline.
Currently, ALS is gearing for a legal battle that will challenge a hard-won moratorium on the harvest of horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay, he said.
Used as bait by commercial fishermen, the crabs had been overharvested to the point where their survival was threatened when a link to the survival of the red knot, a South American migratory shorebird that feeds on the crab eggs, became apparent.
Tracking the problem required the same combination of science and observation that is the foundation of the ALS, with naturalists observing the fact that the numbers of birds had dwindled as the crab harvest took its toll and ALS scientists quantifying what was happening in the crab and bird populations.
The ALS lobbied successfully for limits on the harvest and went to court when commercial interests tried to block the rules.
"Advocacy was how we put this campaign together," Dillingham noted. "We argued what science was best for these animals, and we’re prepared to go to court to defend and strengthen the regulations when legal challenge comes from the fishermen."
Through advocacy, the society has managed to rectify some of the more egregious environmental practices, he noted.
"We’ve addressed a lot of the really blatant insults to the ocean like dumping raw sewage and acid wastes into the ocean, or allowing wetlands to be filled to build houses," he said.
But the more subtle environmental issue of land use — particularly inland — remains to be addressed, he noted.
"The real challenge now," he explained, "is to learn to use the land that influences the land along the coast that influences the water in a way that is respectful of the ocean and the coast."
This will require land use laws that protect the coastline and check sprawl up and down the coast where development "is poorly planned, doesn’t respect the environment and is haphazard."
"The issue is to grow intelligently and to not sacrifice things that are important to us, like wildlife, clean water, the coast, as we grow," Dillingham said. "It’s very much within our reach to do that if we have the political will to do it."
The changes will challenge special interests, he pointed out.
"Builders, many local mayors and local politicians have wrapped themselves up in half-truths, myths and distortions of the facts," Dillingham said, "all in an attempt to avoid changing the status quo about the way we use land, the way we grow."
According to Dillingham, it is possible to contain sprawl and accommodate population growth without sacrificing the environment.
"I think it can happen. Look at the fact that we have garnered the political will to stop filling wetlands, to try to protect endangered species, to clean up the water," he noted. "So it’s not that it’s impossible. It’s difficult because there are very powerful people that have a vested interest in seeing the status quo stay the same."
Failure to stop sprawl has serious consequences, he warned, including rising taxes to support development and a lack of diversity in communities.
In addition to societal issues, he added, failure to control growth will have environmental impacts as dire as the collapse of ecosystems.
"The scary part is it’s going to happen with a whimper and not a bang. We stopped the really egregious problems, but there’s a silent collapse going on in the ecosystem," he warned. "Look at the nutrients increasing in the bay, other water quality parameters, the fact that toxins are accumulating in fish, which is an indication of toxins in the environment."
But Dillingham said reversing the damage to the ocean and coast is entirely within reach.
"Absolutely it is possible, first and foremost because nature has amazing recuperative powers," he said. "Just the short history of when we started to really try to protect the environment shows that if you stop the insult, nature will restore itself, or is capable of doing so with help."
Not only is change possible, but the ALS can, as it has in the past, call on its network of "citizen scientists" and volunteers to bring about change.
"The vast majority of people care about the environment and are concerned about it," he said. "The challenge is to find a way of channeling that concern into political action. It’s there, a reservoir of good will and support, and it far outweighs the special interests working toward the detriment of the ocean and coastline."