Amid the hustle and bustle of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike, there are few wild places to experience solitude and wildlife in their natural habitat. The Holgate seashore, part of the Brigantine Wilderness Area on the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, provides visitors the chance to fish, watch for birds, and escape from the sights, sounds and smells of civilization.

This congressionally-designated Wilderness area on Long Beach Island was set aside to host thousands of shorebirds that migrate and feed along the coast of New Jersey.

The area is so critical that from April through August the Wilderness is completely reserved to allow piping plovers, a federally threatened species, time to nest and migrate. Moreover, this area remains a prime area for migrating shorebirds through the fall months.

Nearly 300 different bird species have been sighted at Holgate, including Atlantic brant, American black duck, and brown pelican.

Off-roaders Spoil Wilderness
But this rare place is being trampled by off-road vehicle use. Anglers routinely drive their 4x4 vehicles on designated wilderness within the refuge. The state allows motorized travel on the narrow state-owned inter-tidal zone between the ocean and the mean high tide line--- where the refuge and wilderness boundary technically lies.

When the tide is in, motorists drive through the wilderness and occasionally into fragile dunes. The refuge does little or nothing to enforce these wilderness violations. The area is one of the few remaining undeveloped spots along the New Jersey coastline and home to numerous migrating shorebirds.

Holgate is the only wilderness beach in New Jersey, a state where only two percent of the land is protected as Wilderness. Off-road vehicle users suffer no such shortage of opportunity for their recreational choices: more than two dozen beaches in the state allow beach buggies and other off-road vehicles to drive along the shoreline. On Long Beach Island alone, off-road vehicles are allowed on nearly 18 miles of beaches. Solitude and wildness are confined to only 2.5 miles of undeveloped beach -- the Holgate Seashore.

The Interior Department recently decided not to act to close down the passage to off-road vehicles, ignoring considerable public comment in support of such a move.

Focus Now Turns to State
Now, The Wilderness Society and partner groups are putting pressure on the state of New Jersey to gain the road closure.  You can help.