Early History

The Ocean County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, which is today known as Save Barnegat Bay, was founded in 1971, the year after the first Earth Day. The Chapter was born in response to the threat to develop the area of Brick Township known today as "Herring Point". Some know Herring Point as the "F Lagoons" or the "Dunes". It comprises the land from the Gunning Ditch, which is the passage linking Barnegat Bay to the Metedeconk River, south to the present site of Trader's Cove Marina.

The company attempting to develop this area was named "Triarch". The battle to stop a large residential development from being built on this land was led by George Hetfield, who lived across the Bay on Barnegat Lane in Mantoloking. Hetfield was assisted by many, including Robert Weldon, Carl Menger, and William Koar. These and others may be regarded as the "founding fathers" of the Ocean County Izaak Walton League, which is the second oldest environmental group in Ocean County, behind the Ocean Nature and Conservation Society.

Under the regulatory regime then extant, the Triarch controversy centered around the question of whether the developers had destroyed a tidal stream in creating the lagoons upon which they planned to build. The tidal wetlands act of 1970 had recently been passed but had not yet taken effect in our area because mapping of wetlands had not yet been accomplished.

Ultimately, justice in the Triarch matter was obtained in a time-honored fashion: the developer went broke. The Triarch property went to the law firm of Starkey, Blaney, Kelly, and White in lieu of a fee. It remained in that ownership until it was purchased in 1990 by the Trust for Public Land, which conveyed it to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as the first acquisition in the Reedy Creek Unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Following the victory over Triarch, the Chapter became less active. In the early 1980's the possibility of the Chapter's dissolution was contemplated but rejected at the insistence of William Cannon, who advocated leaving it in place "in case something else comes along."

Something else did come along when, in 1985, the year that initiates what might be considered the second era of our Chapter, Trend homes proposed a 135 unit condominium development and expanded marina to be called "Pelican Cove" on the site of Trader's Cove Marina at the northwest foot of the Mantoloking Bridge. This new threat reinvigorated the League under the leadership of Nancy Heidt. Many of the names and faces familiar in future conservation battles were assembled at this time, notably that of Evan R. Spalt. On the League's behalf, Spalt headed the Barnegat Bay Preservation Coalition, which consisted of a dozen local and regional conservation groups, including the Congress of Concerned Citizens of Brick Township, led by Jean Schroth.

In spearheading the Barnegat Bay Preservation Coalition, the Izaak Walton League fought off the Pelican Cove development in a manner similar to the earlier victory over Triarch. Even though the League lost in appellate court - which refused to acknowledge the leases of commercial clammers off Swan Point as property rights - the developer ultimately wearied of the five-year battle and went on to more lucrative opportunities elsewhere.

In 1986, Nancy Heidt turned over the presidency of the League to Willie deCamp, who has served in that capacity ever since. DeCamp's emphasis was on expanding the fight against imprudent development to natural areas throughout the Barnegat Bay watershed. Thus began a close cooperative relationship between the League, the Trust for Public Land, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which was one of the few agencies with available land acquisition funding in that era.

The Ocean County Izaak Walton League, which came to be known as Save Barnegat Bay, spearheaded the effort to make lands surrounding Reedy Creek in Brick Township eligible for inclusion in the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. Two years later the League again led a campaign for an expansion of the Refuge's acquisition boundary - which defines the lands from which the Service is permitted to make purchases from willing sellers - this time to about 6000 acres on Barnegat Bay's western littoral in Barnegat, Waretown, Forked River, Lanoka Harbor, Bayville, and Toms River.