The Wetlands' Best Friend: Fisherman's Offseason Mission is Rounding Up Abandoned Docks, Other Trash
John Kauterman isn’t afraid to be knee-deep in the mud.
The wetlands are looking cleaner as of late thanks to one devoted local and his impactful nonprofit.
Avalon’s John Kauterman is a one-man commercial trash-removal service, clearing garbage out of South Jersey’s wetlands for years. He has been a dedicated champion of change in the community, scouring the back bays of the shore from Long Beach Island to Cape May.
Kauterman’s civil service was sparked by a New Year’s resolution he made in 2023 to put an end to the increasing pollution of the wetlands.
“I started noticing areas in our community that were becoming inundated with trash … in ways I had never really seen before,” he says. “I had some time off, so I started cleaning up a couple areas that were annoying me.”
A commercial fisherman by trade, Kauterman knows what a clean coastal ecosystem is supposed to look like. During the winter offseason, he spends his free time performing hours and hours’ worth of rigorous manual labor removing plastic waste, abandoned docks, and other littered debris from the marshes. He says not all of the garbage arrived there recently: “There’s a lot of stuff out there, just decades of accumulation and neglect.”
The vast scale of the trash removal coupled with the treacherous landscape of the wetlands is not for the faint of heart, but the lifelong fisherman and climate activist is up for the challenge.
“This isn’t like a beach sweep,’’ he notes. “This is out in the muck, up to your knees, with the mud pulling your boots off … sometimes getting completely covered in ticks or poison ivy. It’s tough.”
With every boat ride to the back bays, the risk is real for Kauterman: “I put myself in these remote areas … sometimes my engine cuts out on me, and I feel like I’m one slip-and-fall away from a GoFundMe page. It’s pretty dangerous.”
Though these areas are remote, marine wetlands are an integral landscape not just for plant and animal life, but for protecting and sustaining human life as well. Wetlands act as a natural barrier against hurricanes and other coastal storms, which help prevent storm surge and widespread flooding. The marshes of South Jersey are also natural aquifers, which filter contaminants out of the water source.
These natural wonders have been jeopardized by rising sea levels and a pileup of human garbage. Kauterman’s goal has not only been to improve the condition of these polluted wetlands, but also to bring the issue to the public eye.
“A lot of these areas are out of sight, out of mind,” he explains. “When they built the [Garden State] Parkway in the 1940s, a lot of the area has just been completely cut off. Our wetlands have really been forgotten about. There’s 40-to-50-plus years of storm debris collection in the back bay.”
For the first year of his solo wetland cleanup, Kauterman ran his operation entirely out of pocket, until a close friend offered a different approach. Kevin Dougherty, a dual resident of Westfield (Union County) and Avalon, had the idea to turn Kauterman’s community service into an official nonprofit organization: The Tidelands Initiative.
Through The Tidelands Initiative, Kauterman and Dougherty have been able to use generous donations to help fund an even greater number of wetland cleanups. The Tidelands Initiative grew from just cleaning up the waterways behind Seven Mile Beach to restoring natural habitats across the entire South Jersey shore.
Since 2024, Kauterman’s nonprofit has received countless donations. Possibly the most impactful donation was from a local family that donated a boat to the cause. The community’s kindness warms his heart.
“I find myself shedding a tear here and there,” he admits. “When I first started, I didn’t really think people would donate. I didn’t think too many people cared. All the support has been from the community. It’s been overwhelming and emotional at times.”
Thanks to the community’s extensive support, The Tidelands Initiative has been able to remove approximately 30,000 pounds of waste, according to Kauterman. This massive amount of trash removal has benefited not only the human inhabitants of the Jersey Shore, but even more crucially for the migratory birds and other animals that call the wetlands home.
“Some of these areas are hidden; people don’t see them, but they’re nesting habitats, and they just get smothered with trash,” Kauterman says. “You have all kinds of birds that migrate here for the summer and start families. Then in the wintertime we get a whole other batch that comes here and utilizes the wetlands.”
In his eyes, the people and critters of the Jersey Shore have more in common than they might realize: “People come to the shore to raise a family, and the birds are doing the same thing. It’s a great place for it. We live in a special place.”
Kauterman’s determination to protect and preserve this special place hasn’t been without many setbacks. A common source of waste that The Tidelands Initiative finds are abandoned docks. Though the initiative has removed upwards of 20 of these unsightly pieces of wood from the wetlands, it continues to find more with each cleanup.
“I’ve pulled probably six or seven from behind Avalon. I think I’ve done 14 from Stone Harbor, and it’s endless. There’s one that just showed up last month, and there’s still four more that I might not ever be able to get around to.”
While removing these abandoned docks has been a labor of love for Kauterman, constantly finding more in need of removal makes him doubt his mission: “It gets a little frustrating, like ‘What am I doing here?’ I’ve identified the problem. I’m trying to get people to stop it … I find myself in a mental debate trying to push through.”
Along with the personal struggles that Kauterman fights, finding the correct municipality to dispose of the trash collection is a whole different battle.
“Once [a dock] blows off the town’s property, and it ends up in the marsh, it’s sort of a gray area. Who owns that actual piece of land? It could be the county, it could be the DEP (NJ Department of Environmental Protection), it could be privately owned … The biggest obstacle has been trying to find an entity out there that’s going to help resolve the issue and get everything done.”
Despite the complications of his cause, Kauterman has turned the art of wetland cleanup into an exact science. He is able to plan out his days with the help of satellite imagery on Google Maps to determine the problem areas. He’s also devised a grid system to keep track of where the nonprofit has already cleaned or where there’s still work to be done.
Combined with Kauterman’s results-driven fisherman attitude, The Tidelands Initiative is able to effectively pinpoint and efficiently remove literal tons of waste, all of which he believes has proved his organization worthy of more government support.
“I feel as though I’ve made the case that this is a legit operation,” he says. “I got goals, I want to clean this up. I commercial fish. Everything I do is based off production. If I’m not coming back with weight, I don’t get paid.”
While the argument could be made that local townships, counties, or even the state of New Jersey are responsible to remove the buildup of pollution in the wetlands, ultimately it’s up to every individual citizen of the region to do their part as well.
“People can make donations, but they can also take the initiative,” Kauterman says. “If you see something on the ground, pick it up. We’re all in this together.”
Though some might overlook the wetlands on their drive to the islands, year-round residents and seasonal beachgoers alike have to join together to help The Tidelands Initiative and other environmental organizations keep the crucial ecosystem clean and healthy. While the fight is ongoing, Kauterman believes the finish line is within reach.
“After two-and-a-half years of cleaning up behind Avalon and Stone Harbor, I feel as though we’re getting close to the end here,” he says. “By the end, I’d like to award Avalon with the gold standard of wetlands restoration.”
That gold standard can be achieved by properly removing old docks, better covering of commercial dump trucks, and everyone in the community thinking twice before littering.
“Cape May County is a small cape,” Kauterman says. “With some hard work, in a few years we could really get it all cleaned up and set an example. We could separate ourselves from other counties and have the cleanest wetlands in the state, and in the country.
“That’s the Tidelands’ ultimate goal is to make Cape May County an oasis. A trash-free oasis.”
As The Tidelands Initiative continues its goal of achieving a pristine coastal environment, it hopes to attain more funding from government grants or a corporate sponsorship. If you’d like to contribute your time or make a donation to help restore and preserve New Jersey’s wetlands, visit tidelandsInitiative.org to make a difference today.
Photos courtesy of Jim Wright/@JerseyJim1453