By: | March 10, 2026 | Local |
by Emma Sylvia
There is only one Mother Earth, and it is up to all of us to help take care of her. One group aiming to make a local difference is the Deal Lake Watershed Alliance (DLWA). They are a nonprofit created to protect Deal Lake – New Jersey’s largest coastal lake – and benefit those who live in and around the waterway. Chair Laura McBride, Trustee Robert Jaroszewski, and Vice President of the Board Nancy Ehrlich sat down to talk about the history of Deal Lake, and what the alliance is doing to ensure that history does not become a footnote – but instead lasts as a natural monument of Ocean Township and Monmouth County.
Deal Lake
In 2018, rain poured down on Monmouth like it had not in more than a century. This rain caused significant flooding, which impacted residents of Colonial Terrace (a neighborhood sitting on Deal Lake), Ocean, Interlaken, Asbury, and more, and caused a “horrific” intake of sediment into Deal Lake.
In light of this event, the Deal Lake Watershed Alliance was formed.Today the Alliance has 13 board members and trustees, and roughly 145 members, comprised of other watershed groups and primarily individuals that live in or around Deal Lake. The DLWA partners with Clean Ocean Action, Rutgers and Monmouth Universities, and the Deal Lake Commission. The purpose is to engage citizens, communities, and local leaders to find ways to reduce runoff and shoreline erosion in Deal Lake, which leads to pollution, flooding, and disastrous impacts on the local wildlife and suburban neighborhoods.
The need to protect the lake is dire, according to Jaroszewski. “Left to its own devices? It’s not going to get better.” Jaroszewski adds, “We feel this urgent need to do something about it. Despite all the challenges it has – like terrible storms – the wildlife persists. It’s amazing what’s out there; it’s something to see.”
Without people taking action to save the lake, what’s the worst that could happen?
Simply put, by Jaroszewski: “It will disappear.”
“You’ll have more flooding, property floods, and end up with upper sections as mudpits,” McBride elaborates. Formerly, you used to be able to see the lake from your view on Monmouth Road – today, all you can see are the trees, due to how much less water and more soil is in the lake.
A Community Effort
“We pushed and pushed for better stormwater erosion controls,” McBride says, “and we advocated through the county…for dredging projects, and the expense of dredging…really handicaps the whole process.” Fireman’s Pond and Lollipop Pond were slated for dredging, but the entire process is, at the bare minimum, described as “tricky,” given the potential for sentiment amounts and further weather events, leading to the dredging being paused. “We want to stay positive. It’s really difficult to do these projects.”
Currently, the DLWA advocates for projects that expose the lake, aiming to beautify the area and make it more accessible to the public. They started guided nature birdwalks around Ocean Township’s Wanamassa neighborhood, where residents have seen hawks, herons, bald eagles, and mergansers. “It was truly a community event,” lauds Jaroszewski. “Everyone said they wanted to do it again. We’ll do one closer to April when the songbird migration starts.”
Additionally, the group hosts – in collaboration with Paddle Time Kayaks – two-to-three community kayaking trips that are inexpensive and provide a wonderful tour of Deal Lake’s wildlife, from kingfishers to black-bellied whistling ducks.
Deal Lake itself also has a storied history. Ehrlich elaborates, “At the end of the lake was a nightclub, Ballard, back in the 1920s. They would fly people in from New York, and they would land on the lake. Residents of the lake would go out with torches and guide the seaplanes. It was $10-20 to get in, which today would be hundreds of dollars. The club burnt down in the 1950s. We talk about that history.”
Greener on the Other Side
After much advocacy, the DLWA made progress toward their mission to foster appreciation for the natural landmark that graces the county. They applied for and were awarded a N.J. Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program Matching Grant Award for park development. After realizing that there was no access to the lake from Ocean Township – only from Interlaken, Allenhurst, and Asbury Park – the Alliance decided to use their grant money to fund an $80,000 architectural project to improve this underserved area.
A beautiful architectural design by Melillo Bauer Carman Landscape Architects champions community engagement, with picnic tables, boat storage, bike racks, safer areas to launch boats, pollinator gardens, wood duck boxes, and educational signage to inform locals about Deal Lake wildlife, funded by the Green Acres grant.
The ability to enjoy the wildlife, these new park improvements and the keep history of the Lake alive will only be possible if the community and local leaders continue to get involved and work together to preserve Deal Lake.
“We really want to encourage people to get out on the lake,” says Jaroszewski, “and to buy into the beauty of it while there is still beauty out there.”
To find out more about the Deal Lake Watershed Alliance, visit dlwanj.org/
