Plover chick next to a seabeach amaranth plant. Photo by Alice Brennan.
Despite hundreds of trash bins conveniently located on the beach, litter is still found in the sand every day. Many people enjoy their summer days at a key beach nesting bird site in Sea Girt. Beach goers leave behind trash that litters the crucial environment. These include plastic bottles, bags, cans, wrappers, straws, fishing line, etc. Plastic pollution effects the surrounding environment and wildlife that inhabits it.
At the Sea Girt beach, piping plovers (Charadrius melodus), an endangered beach nesting bird species, travels hundreds of miles to breed and nest during the summertime. This species is directly affected by the amount of litter that pollutes the beach. Every year shore birds, and many other species, ingest plastic or get entangled in fishing line which lessens their chance of survival.
Seabeach Amaranth. Photo by Meghan Kolk.
Another significant endangered species located at Sea Girt beach is seabeach amaranth (Amaranthus pumilus). This annual plant needs a healthy ecosystem free of debris to thrive every season. It is important to maintain a strong coastal habit for reproduction and population growth.
Twenty weeks of litter was collected at the Sea Girt beach with approximately 200 plastic straws, 50 plastic bags, 75 bottles, and 25 pieces of fishing line. Pollution on the beach can be prevented if patrons are mindful of properly disposing their trash at the end of their trip.
20 weeks worth of beach trash recovered from the Sea Girt beach.
Mary Emich is an assistant biologist with Conserve Wildlife Foundation.
Piping plover chick feeding at the restoration-created pond. Photo courtesy of Northside Jim.
Last winter the Conserve Wildlife Foundation, in partnership with Rutgers University, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, and New Jersey Fish & Wildlife’s Endangered and Non-Game Species Program, completed the final stages of a beach restoration project in Barnegat Light State Park.
The project, which broke ground the winter before last, aimed to create more ideal habitat for the endangered piping plover away from human disturbance at Barnegat Light’s more recreationally busy beaches. This was accomplished by removing vegetation, grading dunes to be more suitable for nesting, and creating alternative feeding sites (i.e. ephemeral pools).
Now, with the beach nesting bird season at its peak and the final stages of the project complete, we can start to assess the effectiveness of the work that has been done.
Virtual award ceremony participants from left to right: (top row) CWF Executive Director David Wheeler, PSEG Foundation Chairman Rick Thigpen, CWF Director of Education Stephanie DAlessio, Third Place Winner Lauren Johnson, First Place Winner Virginia Higgins, and Second Place Winner Rory Leadbeater
If you browse through social media, you will find some incredibly creative and effective ways to help imperiled wildlife. You might be compelled by calls-to-action, experience stunning photographs, or may even discover posts about New Jersey’s vulnerable species that—thanks to talented New Jersey high schoolers—got their share of screen time, likes, and retweets during the Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s (CWF) fifth annual Species on the Edge 2.0 Social Media contest.
One of the winning Instagram posts by Virginia Higgins, highlighting the diets of Piping Plovers.
Over the course of 8 days, hundreds of students from across the state created Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook posts about animals that the CWF protects. Through campaigns that featured original artwork, photos, and infographics, contestants took the internet by storm, rose awareness about their chosen species, and garnered nearly 12,000 likes.
The three finalists were celebrated on June 18 in a Facebook Live virtual awards ceremony. The PSEG Foundation sponsored the contest and provided scholarships to the winners.
When asked to describe the ecological conditions of any one year of our 23 years of work on Delaware Bay, Humphrey Sitters, one of the first biologists to understand the value of Delaware Bay to shorebirds would respond “every year is unprecedented”. And so it seemed until this year.
Some of the species (super) volunteer John King has helped.
When I retired from teaching, one of my first tasks was to search for local organizations that encouraged volunteers, especially in areas of wildlife conservation. Luckily, I found Conserve Wildlife Foundation. I have to say that over the past few years, my volunteer service with CWF has been both rewarding and inspiring!
New Jersey has more people per square mile than any other state by far. It’s not an easy place for wildlife to survive. Yet countless wildlife species from bald eagles to bobcats are doing just that.
But what happens when you inject climate change into the mix? Superstorms and sea level rise, coastal erosion and salt water intrusion, invasive species, disrupted life cycles and wildlife disease.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to introduce the ‘State of Change’ podcast that explores how climate change is affecting wildlife in our state. Hosted by CWF executive director David Wheeler and produced by Matt Wozniak, each episode highlights a different climate change issue – and every story helps paint a portion of the big picture of our changing world.
A piping plover chick tests out its wings. Photo courtesy of Bill Dalton.
A new report from Conserve Wildlife Foundation and the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife shows that the state’s piping plover population increased in 2019, leading to cautious optimism for the birds’ long term prospects. The piping plover is listed as threatened federally and endangered in New Jersey.
One hundred fourteen pairs of piping plovers nested in New Jersey in 2019, a 19% increase over 2018’s 96 pairs. The 2019 population is slightly below the long-term average of 117 pairs and well below the peak of 144 pairs in 2003.
Piping plover productivity, measured by the number of chicks who survive until their first flight (or fledging), dropped from 1.51 in 2018 to 1.24 in 2019, and was the lowest seen in the last six years, but remains above the long-term average of 1.3.
Getting kids excited about a career in science is no walk in the park, but thanks to the Bayshore Adventure Program, it is a week at the marina.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation, the State Parks Department and the Leonardo State Marina held the Bayshore Adventure Program for 40 Monmouth County 8-11 year olds in August. The program gives kids the chance to peek into the lives of a variety of science based professionals through exciting, hands-on activities that foster exploration and discovery of the natural world.
Asbury Park students and staff pose with their “talons up” after seeing an Osprey snatch a fish from the ocean.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF), the Asbury Park mayor’s office and public schools, and New Jersey Natural Gas hosted Wildlife Wednesdays Field Experience at North Beach at the end of July. The hands-on, project-based outing taught elementary school students about Asbury Park’s rare wildlife, and how to protect and preserve the environment the kids – and wildlife- call home.
Update May 30, 2019: Another example of the dangers of fishing (or this time crabbing) line unfolded in dramatic fashion in Tuckahoe Wildlife Management Area. CWF biologist Ben Wurst was called upon to put his climbing skills to the test to help an osprey dangling high above the ground. Thankfully Ben was able to get to the bird in time, and our friends at Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research nursed the osprey back to health and were able to re-release him near where he was found. Read more about the daring rescue on our Facebook page.
Ben Wurst puts his climbing skills to the test to rescue and entangled osprey
As thousands of people plan their trips to the Jersey shore for Memorial Day weekend, it is a good time think about how to help out shore and sea birds. Enjoy the holiday weekend!
The 141 miles of seashore in New Jersey are home – or at least part-time host – to many of the birds Conserve Wildlife Foundation protects and nurtures. Osprey, oystercatchers, black skimmers, piping plovers, red knots, and many others rely on a healthy coast to thrive.
