Governor’s School on the Environment-- Back to Nature

Although this was group leader Todd Klawinski’s first visit to Sedge Island, his “Back to Nature” theme certainly was in sync with our Sedge philosophy. Our first short paddle in the marsh was cut short by an extreme low tide created by the full moon condition. We quickly found ourselves aground in the deep mud of the narrow winding marsh channels. One of the girls remarked that getting stuck in the mud was a “liberating experience.”

In keeping with the Back to Nature theme, the group chose to go without lights for their entire stay at Sedge. As it got dark we sat on the porch looking out over the marsh. The brightness of the rising full moon partially obscured our view of the bio-luminescent fire-flies over the Spartina grass and the comb jellies in the water under the dock. What a spectacular night!

We rose before sunrise the next day to get an early start on our seven and a half mile paddle to the Barnegat Inlet. (We took a little time before breakfast to catch some of the foot long “cocktail” bluefish that were chasing the spearing just as the sun rose.) Every time we visit the area it seems like the ocean has taken away a little more of the dike. We observed that a fifty-foot section of the geo-tube at the end of the rock wall has been washed out and the sand on the top of dike which was 100 yards wide has now been reduced to ten yards.


We left the dike earlier than we had planned so we could paddle to the Horsefoot Slough to meet Tom Virzi. Tom has banded more than forty osprey chicks this year. He was able to give the students an up close look at the banding procedure with a juvenile that at four weeks old has a beak and talons almost as large as an adult. As the tide ran out we dug clams on one of the sandbars before returning to the house. That evening we feasted on crabs (very few), clams (many) and grilled bluefish (tasty). Life doesn’t get much better than this.

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