All documents are in comment on the New Jersey Coastal Management Program and New Jersey Draft Environmental Statement.

With approximately 85 percent of the Chesapeake Bay shoreline privately owned, a critical need exists to increase awareness of erosion potential and the choices available for shore stabilization that maintains ecosystem services at the land-water interface. The National Academy of Science published a report that spotlights the need to develop a shoreline management framework (NRC, 2007). It suggests that improving awareness of the choices available for erosion control, considering cumulative consequences of erosion mitigation approaches, and improving shoreline management planning are key elements to minimizing adverse environmental impacts associated with mitigating shore erosion. Actions taken by waterfront property owners to stabilize the shoreline can affect the health of the Bay as well as adjacent properties for decades. With these long-term implications, managers at the local level should have a more proactive role in how shorelines are managed. Preserving its natural environmentis a local priority particularly inregard to future development considerations (Gloucester County, 2016). The shores of Gloucester range from exposed open-river to very sheltered creeks, and thenature of shoreline change varies accordingly (Figure 1-1). This shoreline management plan is useful for evaluating and planning shoreline management strategies appropriate for all the creeks and rivers of Gloucester. It ties the physical and hydrodynamic elements of tidal shorelines tothe various shoreline protection strategies.