The 3,000-acre Island Beach State Park's long narrow barrier stretches for 10 miles between the Atlantic Ocean and Barnegat Bay, being shaped by storms and tides. It is one of New Jersey's last barrier island ecosystem and one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier beaches on the Atlantic coast.
The white sandy beach is home to many maritime plants and holds diverse wildlife just as it was a thousand years ago. Some plant communities that it contains are thickets, primary dunes, freshwater wetlands, and tidal marshes. New Jersey's largest osprey, peregrine falcons, wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, and migrating songbirds, are found on this beach.
Nationally known as a unique resource with over 400 plants known, including the largest amount of beach heather in New Jersey.