New Jersey Resources Marks Earth Day 2023 with $50,000 Donation in Support of The Lighthouse Center

New Jersey Resources (NYSE: NJR), the parent company of New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG), today marked Earth Day 2023 by announcing a $50,000 donation to the Natural Resource Education Foundation of New Jersey (NREF), a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to maintaining and enhancing The Lighthouse Center and its mission as a community environmental education and research facility.

The gift, made through NJR’s Coastal Climate Initiative (CCI), will support NREF as it expands its programs and operations to include hands-on coastal ecosystem enhancement, preservation and research.

“At The Lighthouse Center, the Natural Resource Education Foundation is making a difference to protect and enhance New Jersey’s precious coastal ecosystem, while educating future generations on the importance of these environmental treasures,” said Steve Westhoven, President and CEO of New Jersey Resources. “This work aligns with the mission of NJR’s Coastal Climate Initiative, and we are happy to provide this $50,000 donation to support the Center in protecting these habitats and making an impact against climate change.”

The NREF serves as the steward of The Lighthouse Center property which is owned by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). Originally established as a camp for the blind, The Lighthouse Center site was rescued from development in 2000 and donated to the NJDEP, which in turn leases the property to the NREF, which provides educational programs for children and adults, as well as volunteer opportunities.

Located on 200 acres of diverse coastal habitat in Waretown, Ocean County, The Lighthouse Center is home to classrooms, dormitories and research facilities that are used to host educational camps and conferences, as well as natural laboratories for research at the property’s coastal mud flats, saltmarshes and living shoreline that hug the Barnegat Bay.

NREF is expanding its existing education operations to include more direct restoration, preservation, and research work at The Lighthouse Center, building upon its May 2022 installation of wave attenuation devices, the first in New Jersey. This work is expected to include:

• Invasive species management
• Planting native vegetation
• Shoreline stabilization
• Beach and shoreline enhancement
• Enhancing transition between the coastal and developed areas
• Monitoring novel restoration methods
• Research to support and inform future coastal wetland restoration efforts statewide

In addition, NJR has selected The Lighthouse Center as the site for its 2023 NJR You Days – an annual, large-scale mobilization of NJR employees providing volunteer work to benefit nonprofits in local communities in its service territory. Over the course of two days in June, 200 employees from across NJR will provide over 1,000 hours of hands-on work to help restore, refurbish and enhance the resiliency of the Center’s buildings and facilities – many of which date back to the 1950s – as well as the trails, grounds, and other outdoor nature habitats on the Center’s property.