Tag: 2012

Be Terrapin Aware this summer!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Last Thursday there was a flurry of activity throughout coastal New Jersey. It was one of the peak days of the beginning of the northern diamondback terrapin nesting season. I had scheduled myself to be off to work on projects around my house but ended up working for half the day on our Great Bay Terrapin Conservation Project. Female terrapins were everywhere! They were crossing all over Great Bay Blvd., a 5 mile long road that bisects pristine terrapin habitat. The shoulders of the road are suitable nesting habitat as well, so at times as many as 10-15 terrapins could be seen in one small section of the road. There were so many that one terrapin bumped right into another one on the shoulder of the road!! They were digging nests and laying eggs all over the place. It was certainly a rare sight. Luckily traffic was mild and  the weather was clear so there were little road kills. One female fell victim to a Little Egg Harbor Twp. mower who was mowing the edges of the road. This certainly wasn’t the best day to mow the shoulders! Before more terrapins could be killed we contacted LEHT public works and they called off their mower until further notice. On a side note, we have asked the township and the environmental commission to adopt a delayed mowed regime in the past and unfortunately one terrapin died because of this. I even emailed the public works director early last week about nesting activity picking up and I asked for him to please let me know when they were planning to mow so we could have someone walk in front of the mower to be sure no terrapins were hit. On the positive side, we were able to salvage 7 eggs from the terrapin, and they were successfully placed in a hatchery in Loveladies on LBI. We have our fingers crossed that they’ll hatch later this summer!

Finally, we have had more of a presence on Great Bay Blvd this year with the assistance of our new intern, Kristin Ryerson. She is collecting data (size, age, weight, and other data) on terrapins that she encounters while conducting road patrols on Great Bay Blvd. We’ll be using this data to compare it to some collected in Barnegat Bay and past studies that were conducted on the road. Her position is a volunteer position so I really appreciate all of her help so far! We also have volunteers who are acting as “Terrapin Stewards” where they also conduct road patrols to collect sightings of terrapins, educate visitors to the road about terrapins, and they also make sure terrapins safely cross the road. Without their help this project would not be successful!

Be aware while driving this summer!

By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Roads are a necessary component to human survival. Since New Jersey is such a densely populated state we have a lot of them. Many of them have a negative effect on wildlife. One of these impacts is how they block or impede the natural migration of amphibians and reptiles as they search for mates or expand their territories.

During the summer I am always a little more aware while driving. In the next week many terrapins will begin to emerge from coastal waters to find nest sites. Box turtles and other freshwater turtles are seeking mates and nest sites. Snakes often bask in roadways to help them thermoregulate. Last week while I was driving down one road in the Pinelands I saw two cars pass me in the opposite lane. After they sped by, on the shoulder, I noticed something odd but I knew exactly what it was. A tail was flinging crazily in the air. I thought it was a snake but was’t 100% sure so I stopped and turned around to check it out. It turns out it was a snake and it was an endangered timber rattlesnake. This is only the second timber rattler that I’ve ever seen in the wild and they are quite a rare occurrence. It was still alive but severely injured. I pulled it off the road before another car hit it. I called Dave Golden a zoologist with NJ Fish & Wildlife and took the snake home with hopes that it would survive long enough to be transferred to the Cape May County Zoo. Unfortunately, it died an hour after I got home. As you travel our many roads this summer please be aware of your surroundings and watch out for any snakes or turtles that enter the roadway.

Timber rattlesnakes are a very docile snake, however they are still venomous and you can die if bitten. If you encounter a rattlesnake do not attempt to pick it up!!! I was extremely cautious of this snake even though it was injured. Please call 1-877-WARN-DEP immediately if you encounter a timber rattlesnake that is near your home and/or if you or it are in any kind of danger. Record information about your sighting and report it to the Endangered & Nongame Species Program here.

• Learn more about our Roads & Wildlife Working Group
• The image in this blog is available for other organizations to use under the Creative Commons license with proper attribution. Click here to view and download on Flickr.

Volunteers help install innovative new barrier to reduce terrapin road kills

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Last week volunteers from CWF and Exelon-Oyster Creek Generating Station helped to install 1,000 feet of barrier “fencing” along the first stretch of Great Bay Blvd inside Great Bay Blvd Wildlife Management Area. The new barrier is a new design and concept for reptile conservation here in NJ and possibly the rest of N. America. While many other types of barriers have been used by other organizations this type has not. It is a corrugated rigid plastic drainage pipe that was cut in half. It was made in NJ by ADS (Advanced Drainage Solutions) and was purchased through Caterina Supply, a local supplier of the pipe. Funding was provided through a Partners Agreement between Little Egg Harbor Twp. and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (who purchased the pipe). The pipe came pre-cut from ADS and was transported by Eric Schrading with USFWS. To install the pipe we trenched a ditch and then hand dug it to the width of the 10″ pipe. It was then backfilled and screwed together where two pieces met. The main reason from switching from a traditional fence type barrier to this was to reduce future maintenance. Fences are easily damaged by motor vehicles and posts have been stolen or ripped out of the ground, so they take more time to repair throughout the year. This pipe should be maintenance free and hopefully if a car drives over it only minor damage will occur…we hope!!

If you’re interested in using this in your own reptile/amphibian conservation project email me and I’d be happy to help in any way possible!

Thank you to all the volunteers, vendors, and partners who help make this project a success!! To name a few: Home Depot of Manahawkin for donating the trencher for an afternoon, USFWS & Eric Schrading for purchasing and transporting the pipe, and Little Egg Harbor Twp. for their continued support of this project.

The 2012 Women & Wildlife Education Award Winner is Dale Rosselet.  Dale has been sharing her passion about the environment and advancing environmental education for 29 years at NJ Audubon.   Join us to honor Dale and other 2012 Women & Wildlife Award Winners on Sunday, April 15th beginning at 2pm.  Click here for tickets and more information.

What is the best thing you get to do?   I LOVE working with teachers and get to do that on a regular basis…I will almost never turn down a professional development workshop.  I LOVE working with other staff at NJ Audubon – we have such an amazing group of creative people and the discourse is great, but I guess the coolest thing I get to do is lead occasional eco-tours to places that I would not otherwise be able to visit.  Getting out of the US and visiting these places, learning a little bit about other cultures and how people live, really broadens one’s world view and helps put things in perspective.

What has been your biggest success in your current job?  I became VP for Education at NJ Audubon after my predecessor Pat Kane retired.  She was (and is) a mentor and friend.  Under her guidance and vision we created a strong foundation for NJ Audubon’s environmental education platform.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with talented people to strengthen the work we do in urban environmental education and reaching people who don’t have access to our vast open spaces.  This part of the NJ Audubon education platform continues to grow and mature, but it is very exciting to be a part of it as that happens.

 What delights you in your daily work?  I really like the diversity of tasks that the VP for Education is responsible for.  I could be planning teacher professional development or working with staff to write a grant to help them realize a programmatic goal or cutting out photos to go on an exhibit board. I could be developing assessment tools or leading a bird field trip or talking to people in our bookstore about bird sightings.  While sometimes this diversity makes me seem schizophrenic, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 What is the one tool or resource that makes your job easier? The resources that make my job easier are the other professionals that I work with – both at NJ Audubon and in the environmental education community.  I am constantly amazed and humbled by the commitment to this field and the broad experience and vision that people bring to the table.

 What wildlife “lives” in your office? I don’t have anything the lives in my office…except for the occasional mouse passing through, but I have a world of wildlife right outside the window.  One of my favorite things is that when I am on a conference call (and those are numerous!), I can stare out over the marsh and watch Osprey or Bald Eagle fly by or pick my binoculars up and see Indigo Buntings or Orchard Orioles in the back trees.
If you could be one animal (that lives in NJ of course!) what would you be and why?  Box turtle!  I have always had a soft spot for box turtles and when I found out that they live so long and their home range is about the size of a football field that just amazed me.  I keep a photo library of “my” box turtles in the yard and am up to about 7 individuals.

 Why did you decide to protect or educate people about NJ’s wildlife? I grew up on the edge of the Great Swamp in Morris County.  The more time we spent outside the better life was…climbing apple trees, catching frogs, picking blackberries, roaming the sandpit nearby, catching toads, getting muddy, building forts.  With this kind of background, I had no choice but to go into the education field. I wanted to make sure that people – especially children – have access to having a similar set of experiences.

The 2012 Women & Wildlife Leadership Award Winner is Laurie Pettigrew.  Laurie has been a biologist with the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife for the last 25 years.  She established the Becoming an Outdoors Women Program and is the author of the New Jersey Wildlife Viewing Guide.  She is an eloquent ambassador for wildlife recreation in our state and has helped to restore hundreds of acres of grassland habitat in southern New Jersey for many endangered bird species such as the American kestrel and Eastern meadowlark.   Join us to honor Laurie and other 2012 Women & Wildlife Award Winners on Sunday, April 15th beginning at 2pm.  Click here for tickets and more information.

What is the worst thing you have to do for your job?  Paperwork.

What is the best thing you get to do?  Play with power tools!

What is the one tool or resource that makes your job easier?  My big girl truck! Just kidding. It is one of my favorite tools even though I hate to admit it. My most useful resource is ArcGIS.

If you couldn’t do what you are doing now, what profession would you attempt?  Cookie baking.

What is the best thing anyone ever taught you?  Always carry a pocket knife.

What wildlife “lives” in your office?  Mice, black snakes, and a few spiders!

 What were you doing before you answered these questions?  Training my dogs to find shed antlers.

A “LIVING FOSSIL” IN DANGER OF BECOMING EXTINCT

By Michael Davenport, Marine Species & GIS Programs Manager

New Jersey’s list of endangered and threatened species increases to 84 this week with the addition of the Atlantic sturgeon.   It is the second fish, along with the shortnose sturgeon, on that list.

After a lengthy review process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric  Administration (NOAA) listed the Atlantic sturgeon as Endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.  Species which occur in New Jersey and are listed as Endangered on the federal level, automatically become listed as Endangered at the state level as well.

Sturgeon are often referred to as “living fossils” because they are among the oldest groups of bony fishes and have retained primitive characteristics.  Like the shortnose sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon are slow-growing, long-lived fish which mature late in life.  Both species have been overfished both for the eggs and their flesh and their populations have yet to recover.  Despite the current ban on their capture, they continue to face threats due to unintentional catch (bycatch), pollution, dredging of critical habitat, and boat strikes.

While both species of sturgeon inhabit the Delaware and Hudson rivers, the Atlantic sturgeon also occurs in marine waters with Delaware and Raritan bays and along New Jersey’s Atlantic coast.  To learn more about this species, please visit our on-line field guide page.

Ospreys are headed north!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Now is the time to repair, maintain, replace existing platforms and install new nesting platforms for ospreys. Over the next four weeks we’ll be busy doing just this. We have plans to do work in many areas throughout the coastal zone of New Jersey from as far north as Bayonne then down on the Barnegat Bay, Mullica River and south to Avalon.

The cutoff date for nest repairs is April 1st, when the nesting season begins. Over the next few weeks more and more ospreys will be appearing with larger concentrations towards the end of the month. If you see a new nest this year, please let us know so we can include it in our annual surveys.

A CRITICAL CONSERVATION TOOL JUST GOT BETTER

By Michael Davenport, Marine Species & GIS Programs Manager

To coincide with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP’s) adoption this week of revised lists of endangered, threatened, and special concern species in the state, the DEP’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program released an updated version of the Landscape Project earlier this week.

The Landscape Project is a mapping tool, created using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which displays wildlife habitat throughout the state ranked according to the rarity of the species which occur in specific patches of habitat.  The highest rank (5) is used to indicate habitat for those species which are federally endangered or threatened.  Rank 4 is used for state endangered species, rank 3 for state threatened species, rank 2 for species of special concern, and rank 1 is for suitable habitat patches for which no rare species documentation currently exists.

The updated version of the Landscape Project is known as Version 3.1 (V3.1) and it replaces both Version 3.0, which covered the Highlands region only, and Version 2.1, which was applied to the remainder of the state.  Both previous versions were released in 2008.

Several changes have been in the methodology and source data used to create this latest version of the Landscape Project.  First, V3.1 is based upon 2007 Landuse/Landcover data, as opposed to the 2002 data used in previous versions.  Second, over 3,500 new rare species records were used in V3.1 and the newly adopted endangered, threatened, and special concern status changes are reflected.  Also, species not included in previous versions, such as whales, sea turtles, and freshwater mussels, are included.  More detailed information is also available in V3.1 such as the type of occurrence documented (nest, foraging habitat, etc.) and the last year that the occurrence was documented.

Since creation of the first version of the Landscape Project in the mid-1990’s, it has been a valuable tool for conservationists, land managers, state and local governments, as well as others.  Municipalities often refer to it in creation of their Environmental Resource Inventories (ERIs) and land trusts often use it to target areas for open space acquisition.

Continue reading “Updated Version of the Landscape Project (NJ’s Rare Wildlife Mapping Tool) Released”

Results of the Midwinter Bald Eagle Count

by Larissa Smith, Biologist/Volunteer manager

In January 43 states participated in the Midwinter Bald Eagle Count including New Jersey which has participated since 1979. This year in NJ ~70 volunteers surveyed for eagles the weekend of January 14th & 15th.   The purpose of the survey is to monitor bald eagle populations. Since the survey takes place at the start of the NJ eagle nesting season possible new pairs and nests are often found.  New Jersey volunteers also map eagle activity and these data are used to delineate critical eagle wintering habitat.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

• 273 eagles in Southern NJ
•   44 eagles in Northern NJ
• 317 eagles total

This is a great time of year to get out and see some eagles.  Not only are the resident nesting eagle pairs around but also wintering eagles.

For more details on the National Midwinter Bald Eagle count go to: http://ocid.nacse.org/nbii/eagles/history.php

Thank you to all the volunteers who surveyed!

Countdown to spring arrival of ospreys

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

It’s hard to believe that in another 6-7 weeks ospreys will be back in New Jersey and ready to begin another nesting season. Over the next few weeks we’ll be busy making repairs to existing nests, moving platforms to more suitable locations, and installing new nests to replace old derelict platforms. We maintain a huge portion of the available nest platforms along the coast and do so with no state funding! All of our funding comes from private donations from individuals, foundations, or grants. Since our osprey project began in 2006, we have installed more than 100 nesting platforms throughout New Jersey. What’s new? This winter we have plans to install three new structures in Bayonne with local high school students. This will be the furthest north that we have ever worked with ospreys. It’s a new and exciting endeavor for CWF. If you enjoy viewing ospreys during your visits to coastal areas of New Jersey during the summer, please consider making a donation today by sponsoring the placement of a platform or by adopting an existing platform.

• Learn More about our osprey project and how you can help