About the Blitz
Litter – it’s everywhere! You see it on our streets, in our parks, on our shorelines, and in the water. Blown by the wind on trash day, tossed out car windows, intentionally dumped – however it gets there, it’s an eyesore and bad for the environment.
The Barnegat Bay Blitz is an annual watershed-wide cleanup that brings together hundreds of volunteers with one goal in mind – keeping our land and water clean by removing litter from our neighborhoods. By removing bags, bottles, and butts to tires and larger items, Blitz volunteers make a difference!
2022 Results
This year’s Blitz took place from June 3rd to June 16th with multiple clean-up events from Allaire Park in Wall down to Great Bay Boulevard in Little Egg Harbor.
Cleanups by Land
Elementary to high school students from Toms River, Barnegat, Little Egg Harbor, and Surf City cleaned up their school yards, local parks, and beaches. Volunteers, including a group from Veolia Water (formerly SUEZ), removed tons of large debris from preserved public land in Toms River and Berkeley. We even had some animal volunteers! During a clean-up of Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Plumsted, alpacas packed out the litter picked up by the human volunteers.
Cleanups by Water
Sometimes the best way to remove trash in the water is by boat. Blitz volunteers helped with clean-ups by kayak on Lake Shenandoah in Lakewood, on Tuckerton Creek at Tuckerton Seaport, and on the bay in Eagleswood. Others were transported by a NJ Department of Environmental Protection boat to remove trash from bay islands offshore of Sunset Beach in Seaside Heights. And in a different type of water cleanup, divers from the Berkeley Underwater Search and Rescue removed trash from the bottom of Cedar Creek.
2022 Totals
Through all of these efforts, Blitz volunteers removed a total of 172 bags of trash and 57 tons of larger household and construction debris!
Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped and especially our Blitz captains — NJDEP staff, NJDEP watershed ambassadors, Barnegat Bay Master Naturalists, and others all volunteered to help organize and coordinate these cleanups.
This year’s Blitz was made possible by a generous donation from the Knudson family in the name of their parents, Richard and Karen Knudson, long-time residents of Barnegat Township. Thanks to their support, the bay and land around it is safer and cleaner.
Become a Blitz Sponsor
Interested in sponsoring the next Blitz? Sponsors help with cleanup supplies, t-shirts for volunteers, refreshments, publicity, and more. Sponsor logos will be displayed on this site and on promotional materials. Contact Karen Walzer at [email protected] for more information.
Thank you to Richard and Karen Knudson of Barnegat Township for their generous sponsorship of the 2022 Blitz!
