Category: Habitat Restoration

by Stephanie Feigin, CWF Program Coordinator

This marks the second story in Shorebird Week! Our first blog post, on Tuesday, introduced the film “A Race Against Time” and directed you to a free viewing of the film on our website. Today’s blog post, will highlight an incredible news story about a resighting of the iconic Red knot B95 on the Delaware Bay! And tomorrow’s blog post, will highlight volunteer’s incredible efforts to save stranded horseshoe crabs!

This story highlights the iconic Red knot, B95, being resighted on the Delaware Bay. B95, nicknamed Moonbird, is at least 20 years old, which makes him the oldest Red knot on record. He received his nickname because he has flown the equivalent of the distance between the earth and the moon and at least halfway back in his lifetime.

One of Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s partners, Manomet Center for Conservation Science, highlights this bird in an fascinating news story about his resighting and the research efforts being done by the CWF biologist Dr. Larry Niles and Amanda Dey, senior biologist with the Endangered and Non-game Species Division of N.J. Fish and Wildlife and their team to restore the Delaware Bay.

To read this news story, click here

For more information on CWF’s Shorebird project and the research being done, visit our website.

And make sure to check out the film about CWF’s efforts to restore the Delaware Bay Shore beaches, “A Race Against Time” as well!

by Stephanie Feigin, CWF Program Coordinator

This week for Animal Week, we will be spotlighting Shorebirds in the Media! Endangered red knots, ruddy turnstones, and other magnificent birds travel from South America to the Canadian Arctic during their migration, and make an important stopover along the Delaware Bay Shore from May to June.

The 2014 Shorebird film, “A Race Against Time” celebrates the Delaware Bay Beach Restoration

The film can now be enjoyed for free on our website:

Click here to enjoy this film! 

Greener New Jersey Productions this spring produced a 30-minute film documenting the ambitious campaign by Conserve Wildlife Foundation, American Littoral Society and other partners to restore Delaware Bayshore beaches decimated by Hurricane Sandy. This project ensures that the at-risk horseshoe crabs and globally migrating shorebirds relying on this habitat can survive.

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish & Wildlife, and New Jersey Audubon have partnered for many years to conduct research on Delaware Bay shorebirds in order to prevent their decline.

 

By Karena DiLeo

Cape May, New Jersey- Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) in partnership with NJDEP, Mosquito Control, Atlantic City Electric and USFWS recently completed construction of a series of vernal pools in Cape May, NJ. This is the second complex in a series of pools along the “spine” of the Peninsula to create sustainable vernal-pool habitat above anticipated sea-level rise.

These pools will also create a migration corridor for assemblages of amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates to increase meta-population dynamics and allow species to move northward off the Peninsula.

Following excavation of the pools, CWF, USFWS, and Atlantic City Electric held a volunteer

planting day to plant native shrubs along the pools to enhance habitat and stabilize berms. Native shrubs including: buttonbush, low-bush blueberry, inkberry holly, sweet pepper bush, and beach plum were generously donated by Atlantic City Electric.

Check out a recent article from the Press of Atlantic City about CWF and partners work to restore habitat along the Delaware Bayshore.

 

MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — Tons of sand were hauled, dumped, poured and shifted Wednesday along Pierce’s Point Beach, part of a massive effort to avoid what biologists say could be a catastrophe.  Read more.

For greater background on the challenges faced by the State-endangered red knot, check out this recent story by Scientific American

The ambitious campaign of Conserve Wildlife Foundation and American Littoral Society to restore Delaware Bay beaches in the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s destruction was documented in the Greener New Jersey Productions video, “A Race Against Time.” This new film will be screened on Earth Day, April 22nd,  at the historic Levoy Theatre in Millville, New Jersey.  Details can be found here

Last week, we released 16 eastern tiger salamander larvae from our headstart program with NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife and the Cape May County Zoo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These larvae were released into newly constructed pools as part of our vernal-pool habitat restoration project to create new vernal pools above anticipated sea-level rise to mitigate for climate change.  This project is part of a larger goal to create a stronghold for eastern tiger salamanders in New Jersey.

See the slideshow from the release

 

It’s been several years since the old Ponderlodge Golf Course was purchased by the Green Acres Program. After being slated for use as a satellite campus for Stockton College the old lodge and other buildings are long gone from the site. Today, the site is managed for wildlife and outdoor recreation. The old paved cart paths make it a magnet for local residents to easily explore it’s features. We’re delighted to be working with NJ Fish & Wildlife to enhance the habitat on site.  This past week we planted over 2,700 native species in an area we call the “Backyard Habitat Demonstration Site.” It’s in an area where the old lodge used to be located. The purpose of the site is for visitors to learn about features they themselves can install in their own backyards to benefit wildlife. We have 6 main features: Forested habitat, Scrub-shrub, Wildflower meadow, Pond (not yet installed), Nectar producing plants, and a brush pile. The features will be highlighted by interpretive signs and we hope to get volunteers to help maintain the site in the future.

• LEARN MORE

 

 

 

Since 2009, we’ve been active in helping to restore wildlife habitat to a former golf course in lower Cape May County. In place of the large lodge on the site we are building a “Backyard Habitat Demonstration Site.” It will feature several different habitat treatments that homeowners can use to provide habitat for wildlife in their own backyards. It includes the creation of scrub-shrub habitat, forested habitat, nectar producing plants, wildflower meadows, a pond, and a brush pile.

The site was designed by landscape designer Jeanne Marcucci with greenjean gardens LLC. Last week the site was prepped by NJ Fish & Wildlife. After the site was plowed we laid out paths that run throughout the site. Next compost will be spread to some areas (wildflower beds) and plants will be delivered on October 9th. The team at Planet Earth Landscaping will be assisting us the the compost spreading and planting.

Volunteers are needed to help plant the many native plants that were ordered on October 10-11th from 10-2pm each day. For more information or to volunteer contact Ben Wurst.

New trails open to public!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

I might be a little biased in saying that Bass River State Forest is one of the most beautiful state parks in New Jersey, only because I live in the same town where it’s located. There is so much to explore at BRSF: large pine plantations by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that helped build NJ’s state parks, Atlantic white-cedar swamps galore, sugar sand, and all the wildlife that occupy pinelands habitats. One new and much different portion of Bass River State Forest is Ballanger Creek, pronounced “Baa-lan’-ger”. The surrounding forested habitat is mostly unfragmented and is comprised of mature pine-oak woodlands. There are some very large pitch pines that cover many species that are shade tolerant like, american holly. Two old freshwater impoundments were drained after Hurricane Irene blew out an earthen dam. Now freshwater wetlands have emerged and atlantic white-cedar seedlings are beginning to sprout.

Common along much of the coast of New Jersey, this site has had a lot of use in its history. A saw mill once operated here in the mid-19^th century and in the early 1900s fields along the creek were used for agriculture. It was also used as a dump site for fill and other debris. A house and several out buildings were demolished when the property was acquired by the Green Acres Program in the mid-90s. Since its acquisition the site has not been actively managed for wildlife. That all changed in late 2009 when Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ acquired funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to enhance the degraded wildlife habitat on site. We’re all done with the project and there’s a lot to explore here. We invite you to explore this site and enjoy its natural beauty and its wildlife residents. Click on the map to download or print a copy of it. Here is a link to the site via Google Maps.

Check out some photos from my recent visit:

by Karena DiLeo, Wildlife Biologist

This spring, NRCS introduced Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) a new partnership between NRCS and FWS that offers technical assistance and financial incentives to landowners to enhance wildlife habitat on their property.  WLFW focuses on 7 species whose decline could be offset by managing habitat on private lands.  These species use habitat that is beneficial to other wildlife populations while being compatible with agricultural practices. One of these focal species is the bog turtle.  This habitat specialist is dependent upon open unpolluted wetlands, spring-fed fens, sphagnum bogs, and wet pastures but habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and ditching and draining of wetlands are threatening these habitats and leading to population declines.

In New Jersey over 70 percent of bog turtle sites are on privately owned land, the majority of which are not currently monitored or protected under easement.  CWF in partnership with ENSP and FWS has been working with landowners to increase awareness of these turtles and protect their habitat.   Since 2011, CWF has reached out to almost 100 landowners to conduct habitat assessments on their property which will be used by ENSP and FWS to prioritize sites for restoration.

WLFW has provided a great opportunity to continue our work by incentivizing landowners to manage for bog turtles.  Protecting sites through easements will ensure that NRCS and its partner biologists are able to continue management of these dynamic ecosystems, while monitoring and protecting this rare turtle.

In June, NRCS applied for a second round of funding due to an overwhelming number of WLFW applications and the hard work of conservationists and biologists to enroll these landowners.

 

 

HEADSTARTED EASTERN TIGER SALAMANDERS INTRODUCED INTO VERNAL POOL COMPLEX IN CAPE MAY

Eastern tiger salamander larvae, hatched at the Cape May County Zoo, were released into our enhanced vernal pool complex in Cape May this month.   Continued monitoring and genetic analysis of this population will determine survivorship of headstarted egg masses versus those placed in predator-exclusion cages in the pool.