Rumson Garden Club Restores Sandy Hook Park’s Habitat Year by Year, Native Plant by Native Plant

GCA’s Partners for Plants Grants have Funded the Annual Planting Since 2018

June 10, 2026

Look closely at Sandy Hook Park and you still won’t be able to see where Rumson Garden Club (RGC) members have planted hundreds of native flowers, grasses, and shrubs over the past eight years.  That’s the point of the club’s habitat restoration funded over the years by the GCA’s Partners for Plants (P4P) at the national park. The plants are there, but blend seamlessly into nature.
 
Since 2018, RGC has collaborated with park botanists and rangers at the Sandy Hook Division of Gateway National Recreation Area—funded mostly by the GCA’s P4P grants—by planting native species to restore habitat at the much-used oceanside national park. A popular destination for fishermen, birders, and beach-goers, the park needs plants to discourage erosion from “social trails” created by pedestrian traffic on dunes. The plantings—bayberry, blueberry, milkweed, golden rod, beach plum, etc.--also nurture bird and pollinator populations.
 
Strict rules are maintained:  plants must be propagated within ten miles of the Atlantic Ocean; only park staff can deliver the plants as non-staff are prohibited from bringing plant material into the park.  While some of the plants were propagated at a Jamaica Bay, NY, park, most species were sourced from Greenbelt Native Plant Center, part of New York City’s Parks Department.
 
Withstanding obstacles from park closure due to COVID and two government shut-downs, the partnership has thrived, with the most recent planting this Spring.  Along with continuing the hands-on project, the park requested RGC design and install a native plant entrance to welcome visitors to view the tall ships for the 250th celebration.