Locals Honored for Bay Restoration Efforts

Brick resident Wes Dalzell, vice president of the ReClam The Bay organization, and Charles Brandt of Manchester have received one of the nation's highest environmental honors.

Dalzell, alongside fellow RCTB member Brandt, received the Environmental Quality Award from the United States Department of Environmental Protection at a ceremony held last week at the EPA's regional office in New York.

The Environmental Quality Award is the agency's highest recognition, presented to members of the public for protecting and enhancing environmental quality and public health.

ReClam the Bay, founded by Surf City resident Rick Bushnell as a volunteer arm of the Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program, raises millions of seed clams and oysters each season and in an effort to restore the waterway's shellfish population.

The organization also offers a host of educational programs for children as well as adults, and works with Rutgers University to train shellfish gardners and volunteers.

"We were honored in accepting this award, and we did it representing all of the volunteers of ReClam The Bay, and all of our partners in the business community around the bay who have purchased our Giant Clams or joined with us as part of the Clam Trail.," Dalzell said in an e-mail, referencing two of the group's initiatives.

Accompanying Dalzell and Brandt to the award ceremony were Gef Filmlin and Cara Muscio of the Rutgers Marine Extension.

ReClam the Bay has repopulated the bay with 10.7 million clams and 3 million oysters since its founding in 2005. Upwellers, devices where juvenile seed clams and oyster are raised, are located up and down the bay from Brick to Long Beach Island with several locations in between.

After the shellfish grow large enough to survive in the open bay, they are deposited by volunteers in various locations.

The group's education outreach effort taught over 9,500 people about the bay ecosystem last year, according to group organizers.