The Department's Division of Fish and Wildlife, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Army Corps of Engineers have determined that beach raking and other mechanical manipulation of beaches has the potential to adversely affect threatened or endangered beach nesting shorebirds and their habitat. These adverse impacts can occur in several ways. First, mechanical vehicles (such as beach rakes and tractors) crush the eggs, as well as chicks and adult birds. Second, these vehicles create ruts in the beach/berm, which restrict the ability of juvenile birds to move between the upper berm nest areas to the feeding habitats along the wrack line. Third, the mechanical sifting of beach sand removes the birds' natural wrack line feeding habitat, which is the primary food source for these beach nesters. Requiring activities to only take place within certain timeframes in areas documented as habitat for threatened or endangered nesting shorebirds or areas documented as habitat for endangered or threatened plant species will minimize impacts to such species by restricting beach maintenance activities to times of year where the species are not likely to be utilizing the beach area. These timeframes are consistent with USFWS recommendations and accommodate piping plovers, least terns, black skimmers, and other migrating shorebirds. The Division of Fish and Wildlife publishes an annually updated list of areas in which these timing restrictions apply. If a particular area is not listed but is subsequently found to contain such a species, the activities must halt until the restricted time period has passed. Restricting beach raking and sand transfers to active recreation beach areas in locations not documented as threatened or endangered species habitat enables permittees to mechanically clean heavily used recreational beach areas while preserving shorebird feeding habitat.
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, the Department determined that provisions to allow for the maintenance of engineered beaches and dunes to the design template, allow for the removal of sand from beneath a boardwalk, and allow for the placement of temporary sand fencing during winter months are necessary to facilitate the maintenance of engineered beach and dune systems. Barone, McKenna, and Farrell in their paper "Hurricane Sandy: Beach-dune performance at New Jersey Beach Profile Network Sites" (2014) concluded that Federally designed shore protection projects that included engineered dunes protected landward structures. In the face of future storms, these provisions will allow communities to maintain protective beach and dune systems.
N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-10.2