Over the winter, biologists from CWF, Ducks Unlimited, USFWS, and Partnership for the Delaware Estuary visited sites like this marsh in Dix Wildlife Management Area to assess their restoration potential and strategize monitoring plans.
This spring, CWF will begin fieldwork for a new marsh restoration project along the Delaware Bay. The ambitious project, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and co-led by Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, aims to implement cost effective and low-tech marsh restoration techniques in New Jersey and Delaware salt marshes. Restoration plans will be designed to create, protect, and/or enhance habitat for multiple marsh-dependent species including black rails and saltmarsh sparrows. As a project partner, CWF will provide two seasons of biological monitoring assistance at the New Jersey sites. This week, WHYY published an article about the project, featuring representatives from CWF and other project partners. Click the link below to read the piece and learn more about some of the important work being done by the Delaware Bay!
originally posted by Jen Ursillo, New Jersey 101.5
Getting the backyard spring-ready to attract certain wildlife takes some planning and preparing the proper habitats for birds, reptiles, and furry creatures take time.
Habitat loss is a great threat to wildlife, so it’s important to provide proper habitat to attract them in backyards, said Ben Wurst, habitat program manager at The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.
Even though New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation, there are a lot of unique habitats and diversity with wildlife throughout the year, he said.
Food, cover, and water are the three necessities every form of wildlife needs, no matter what species.
But Wurst said depending on where someone lives in the state, he or she can do that by simply putting out a bird feeder, birdhouses to put on the property, or even a bat house if attracting bats tickles your fancy. Water is critical in the form of a birdbath or take it a step further and create a pond.
originally posted by Jen Ursillo, New Jersey 101.5
Photo by: Northside Jim
The population of the endangered beach-nesting piping plover is growing in New Jersey with 137 nesting pairs found in 2021, up from 103 pairs found in 2020, according to The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.
That’s a 33% increase, which is unprecedented in New Jersey, said senior wildlife biologist, Todd Pover. The number of nesting pairs fluctuates year-to-year so while the conservationists are excited about 2021’s numbers, the hope is to maintain that number in 2022.
The goal is to protect the piping plover which likes to nest on beaches and in New Jersey, that’s challenging since our beaches are some of the busiest in the northeast, said Pover.
But in the past five years, there has been an increase in the number of chicks that are fledged, meaning they’ve reached the level where they can fly so they’re successful. Pover believes that’s contributed to the jump to some degree this year…
Congratulations to Luke Tan for having his photo Semipalmated Sandpipers Feeding win Runner Up in the Student Category for NJ Monthly’s Cover Search Competition. Luke volunteers as a CWF Shorebird Steward on the Delaware Bay during the spring shorebird migration. He captured this photo while on Reed’s Beach, Cape May County.
We discussed how bat populations are recovering from White-Nose Syndrome, the difficulties of studying such an elusive species, the projects currently being undertaken by CWF to help our bats, and what makes our bats a special and irreplaceable part of New Jersey’s wildlife community.
We’d like to thank Sandy Perry for conducting this wonderful interview and Michele S. Byers for including us as a part of New Jersey Conservation Foundations’ The State We’re In.
Check out the excerpt below and continue reading this and many other great articles on njconservation.org.
Sit outside on a summer evening around sunset and look up. If you’re in an open area with nearby woods, you may be treated to a dazzling aerial display of bats hunting for flying insects.
“They’re endlessly fascinating,” said Ethan Gilardi, a bat biologist with the nonprofit Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. “They’re fun fliers, with all their diving and weaving and hairpin turns.”
Besides being interesting to watch, bats provide priceless insect control services in a state that jokingly refers to the mosquito as its state bird. “A single little brown bat can eat 3,000 insects a night,” noted Ethan. “They eat every kind of insect pest you can think of.”
But many of New Jersey’s bats are struggling to survive. Fifteen years ago, a fungus attacked hibernating bats, leading to a disease known as white-nose syndrome. The disease disrupts hibernation, causing bats to use up their vital energy needed to survive the winter. White-nose wiped out most of the bats in the Myotis genus: little brown bats – once our most widespread species – and northern long-eared bats.
A volunteers handles a spotted salamander. Photo by Mackenzie Hall
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation has been partnering with NJ’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) since 2002 for the annual Amphibian Crossing Project. On warm, rainy nights in the early Spring, we work with a fleet of incredible volunteers to hustle amphibians across the road at three key rescue sites. Still groggy from their winter hibernation, roads can be incredibly dangerous for the slow moving frogs and salamanders trying to reach their breeding grounds.
Over the course of this project, we’ve crossed an estimate 14,000 individuals at the Byram Township site alone!
Commenting on last Thursday’s crossing, the first of 2021, Amphibian Crossing Project Coordinator Christine Healy had the following to say:
“We were a little unsure of what to expect, since the temperature was a little on the cold side, but we crossed 1,215 amphibians at Byram Twp., 1,132 at Stillwater, and 963 at Liberty Twp.
I’d call that a success! Really proud of all the volunteers who made it happen.
Conditions look like they could be good toward the end of this week for round two!”
Bruce A. Scruton of The New Jersey Herald recently spoke with Christine to discuss the Amphibian Croosing Project and its storied history.
You can read the profile over on NJHerald.com to learn more about what it takes to help hundreds of our amphibian friends hop and meander across dangerous roadways.
A resting coyote with typical coloration. Photo by John Picken.
The expansion of Eastern Coyotes (Canis latrans x lycaon) throughout the northeastern United States has been a cause for alarm in some communities, but are they as dangerous as some fear?
A particularly adaptable wild canid, the eastern coyote is distinct from their western cousins and is considered to be a hybrid species, created when western coyotes and other wolf species, like the eastern wolf, interbred in the early 1900s. This new larger coyote species has been able to expand its territory out from its central/western roots and can now be found along much of the eastern coast of the United States.
The eastern coyote’s presence on our coasts now finds itself at odds with the humans who call these more cosmopolitan coastal areas their home, like on Long Beach Island where increasing coyote sightings over the past few years are beginning to worry residents.
Monique M. Demopoulos of TheSandpaper.net reached out to Conserve Wildlife New Jersey for a conservationist’s perspective.
CWF Habitat Program Manager Ben Wurst and Executive Director David Wheeler gave their thoughts in the article published on March 11th.
