Partnerships were crucial in the early days of ospreys being listed as endangered in New Jersey in the early 1970s. From public utility companies installing tall nest platforms on coastal saltmarshes to non-profit organizations purchasing land for preservation. Today, they are still the life blood of osprey conservation, fifty years later. One partnership that has been brewing, quite literally, over the past several months was a collaboration and beer from Twin Elephant Brewing Company. They had this small batch beer called: The Osprey and they wanted it to help make a difference for the namesake of the beer, so they decided to partner with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ to support our osprey conservation efforts. Continue reading “Brewing Partnerships: The Osprey”
by Colin Wethered Director of Development Posted on
As we celebrate the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey’s (CWF) 25th anniversary, we reflect on a quarter-century of dedication to protecting and restoring the Garden State’s rare and at-risk wildlife. Over the years, your support has helped us achieve milestones that were once unimaginable—most recently being the recovery and expected delisting of bald eagles and ospreys.
Our new video, “Signs of Hope in a Race Against Time,” encapsulates the heart of our mission and showcases the transformative impact of conservation efforts across New Jersey. Narrated by our founder and first Executive Director, Linda Tesauro, this video tells the story of how CWF came to be and the powerful partnerships that have fueled our work for the past 25 years. CWF has been a leader in field science, habitat restoration, education, and public engagement. Check out the video below and discover why this mission is so close to our hearts.
This year also marked a significant milestone with A Wild Affair, our 25th-anniversary celebration. The event brought together conservationists, supporters, and partners who have been essential to our success. It was a night filled with gratitude, inspiration, and a shared commitment to protecting New Jersey’s unique wildlife for generations to come.
As 2024 draws to a close, we look ahead with hope and determination. Challenges remain, and the need to act has never been more urgent. Together, we can create a brighter future for these species and the habitats they call home. Your year-end donation is crucial to carrying our mission forward. It ensures we can continue vital work like monitoring nesting sites, restoring critical habitats, and engaging communities in conservation. Help us make 2025 another year of progress and promise for New Jersey’s wildlife.
Thank you for standing with us and for being part of this incredible journey. Here’s to the next 25 years of conservation success!
Over the past several months we have been working to get our new website online. Our old site was a good one, with a whole lot of educational content, but it became cumbersome and outdated. Although the site continued to draw tens of thousands of visitors, it was incompatible with current servers and had to be replaced. With generous support from the Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation, Osprey Foundation, Sambol Family Foundation, and invaluable help from contributors, partners, and volunteers, we were able to develop and launch our new site. We hope you’ll become a frequent visitor!
You’ll find the new site is much more user friendly, responsive, and focuses on beautiful photographs of rare and at-risk species of New Jersey. This was a crucial aspect of our new design — showcasing beautiful portraits of wildlife and our biologists working in the field. We also wanted to highlight all the people who help wildlife, so a lot of photos showcase many of our staff and volunteers working in the field. You will find updated descriptions for our various wildlife conservation projects. One new feature includes easy to find links (at the top of our site) to our various live streaming wildlife cameras, like the Union County Falcon Cam, Barnegat Light Osprey Cam, and Duke Farms Eagle Cam. Interactive features are built into each of these pages where viewers can leave comments, post screenshots and interact with biologists who work with these species. Among other things, we have a dedicated page for resources, like annual reports, brochures, guides, and we also have a page where you can report your sighting of an endangered species to NJDEP Fish & Wildlife.
A wild turkey spotted in a Manitoban provincial park. Photo by Vince Pahkala.
Over the years, the wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
has been widely domesticated for food and has become part of this country’s
heritage for Thanksgiving dinner. There is evidence that Native Americans have
been hunting turkeys as early as 1000 A.D. Each year, over 46 million turkeys
are eaten each year on Thanksgiving – but how much do you really know about the
turkey?
Instead of our holiday emblem, the wild turkey nearly found
a drastically different role in American culture. Ben Franklin proposed it to
be the official bird of the United States, and though some say he did it in
jest, he praised the turkey as “a true original native of America…a bird of
courage…and a much more respectable bird” than the bald eagle!
