Sierra Club: Belmar Mayor Doesn't Get Importance of Sustainable Boardwalk Woods

Last week Belmar chose to forgo the use of Ipe for their boardwalk with Mayor Matt Doherty of Belmar being quoted stating: “It’s not an environmental reason that we’re not using Ipe, it was because we didn’t want to get tied up in court.”

Jeff Tittel, Direct of the New Jersey Sierra Club issued the following response to the Mayor's quote:

“The Mayor Doherty of Belmar doesn’t get it. If he actually cared about the environment and protecting his town from future storms or storm surges than he would have used recycle plastics and sustainable woods in the first place. It is not about whether or not he is going to get sued it is about what is right for Belmar and for our coast. Hundreds of people emailed the Mayor with concerns over the use of Ipe showing the Mayor is wrong and short sighted. There is no way to sustainably harvested Ipe. Anybody who says they can sustainable harvest Ipe is lying. When they clear cut the soil erodes and when they try to replant the trees they all die.  It ends up becoming grazing land or sugar cane adding to global warming and sea level rise. The Mayor has also failed to mention that they want to use public money to rebuild and public money should not be used to cut down the rain forest adding to climate change and sea level rise.”

“Belmar has also decided to move ahead with a sea wall instead of constructed dunes to protect its community. Seawalls provide a false sense of security creating more beach erosion and do not actually protect people from storm surges. We have found one of the lessons from Hurricane Sandy is that natural systems like vegetative dunes and coastal marshes work much better protecting people and property than manmade, which are better for the environment. Sea walls create more beach erosion and raise the level of the stormwater creating more flooding as the water goes around the wall potentially in Lake Como and areas around the Shark River.  Dunes provide habitat and better stabilize the shore.  The areas that had dunes with high vegetation were practically untouched during the storm. Belmar can even put in dunes, raise the boardwalk, and have parking underneath. There are many options to make Belmar’s boardwalk sustainable and practical while protecting the town from storm surges.”

 “All the people who are environmentally conscious may want to know that he does not care about the environment. We reached out to help and first he ignored us regarding alternatives. Even when he changed his mind it is not for the right reasons. In the court of public opinion he is a loser. The people of Belmar who are concerned about the environment have been insulted by their own Mayor.  Is he going to replace the electric vehicles that the meter maids use now with SUVs?  If this is really what he thinks about the environment people who are environmentally conscious may choose to go to Bradley beach a town that cares about the environment rather than Belmar. People like Mayors have choices.”