Island Beach State Park is one of New Jersey's last significant remnants of a barrier island ecosystem that once existed along much of the coast and is also one of the few remaining undeveloped barrier beaches on the North Atlantic coast. Over 3,000 acres and 10 miles of coastal dunes remain almost untouched since Henry Hudson first described New Jersey's coast from the ship, the Half Moon, in 1609.

Shaped by storms and tides, this narrow barrier island stretches for 10 miles between the restless Atlantic Ocean and the historic Barnegat Bay.

Miles of dunes and white sandy beaches offer habitat to maritime plants and diverse wildlife that is almost the same as it was thousands of years ago. Island Beach State Park contains outstanding examples of plant communities such as primary dunes, thickets, freshwater wetlands, maritime forests, and tidal marshes. Island Beach is nationally known as a unique resource with over 400 plants identified, including the largest expanses of beach heather in New Jersey.