Across New Jersey, more than 80 species—from birds to bobcats—are imperiled by loss of habitat and other man-made threats. Wildlife advocates and state agencies are rushing to their rescue, but funds are limited.

1. PHOTOGRAPHS:(SUBJECT)NAMEHERE;(SUBJECT)NAMEHERE
Across New Jersey,
more than 80 species—
from birds to bobcats—
are imperiled by loss
of habitat and other
man-made threats.
Wildlife advocates
and state agencies
are rushing to their
rescue, but funds
are limited.
By Breanne McCarthy
48 JULY 2016 NJMONTHLY.COM
STRANDED
Horseshoe crabs—a
key component of the
Delaware Bay ecosys-
tem and essential for
the survival of dozens
of species—are often
washed ashore upside
down. Unless righted,
they die.
ENDANGERED
ZONE

2. PHOTOGRAPHS:(SUBJECT)NAMEHERE;(SUBJECT)NAMEHERE
Photographs by STEVE GREER Illustrations by JANICE BELOVE
JULY 2016 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 49
pity the poor horseshoe crabs.
Despite 450 million years of evolution, the
marine arthropods have never developed a
foolproof way to flip themselves over when
they’ve been turned upside down on a sandy
beach. That leaves them vulnerable to sun ex-
posure and birds of prey.
To assist the prehistoric creatures, who en-
ter New Jersey bay beaches to mate and lay
their eggs each spring, the Wetlands Insti-
tute helped launch reTURN the Favor. In late
April, Lisa Ferguson, director of research and
conservation with the Stone Harbor-based
nonprofit, carefully explained to a group of
first-time volunteers the proper technique for
turning the crabs right side up.
Throughout the spring and early summer,
the volunteers and dozens of
others probed miles of
sand along the Dela-
ware Bay to aid the
crabs,ensuringthat
as many as possible
survived to spawn
millions of eggs.
The crabs are not the
onlybeneficiariesoftheprogram.
Their eggs support dozens of species and are
essential for the survival of one in particular:
the rufa red knot, one of more than 80 species
listed as endangered or threatened in New
Jersey.
The rufa red knot, a medium-sized shore-
bird, embarks each year on one of nature’s
longest migrations. For some of the birds,
the annual journey stretches an astounding
18,000-mile round-trip between their breed-
ing grounds in the Canadian Arctic to their
wintering quarters in Tierra del Fuego, at the
southernmost tip of South America.
When the birds head north, they follow a
path along the Atlantic Flyway, with a cru-
cial stop on the Delaware Bay, halfway to their
destination. Some of the birds will have flown
nonstopforsixdaystofeedonthebay’sfat-rich
horseshoe crab eggs.
The knots arrive at the bay weighing about
120 grams (just over 4 ounces). “They come
completelydepleted,”saysStephanieFeigin,a
biologist with the Conserve Wildlife Founda-
tionofNewJersey(CWF).“Theyactuallystart
digesting their own intestinal tract.”
Some birds rest for two days
before they can even begin
eating. Once they start
feasting on crab eggs,
they refuel in a frenzy
for about two weeks.
Theymuststoreenough
fat to reach their average
normal weight of 180 grams
(about 6 ounces) before taking off—
thousands at once—for the Arctic.
In a ritual of nature that has taken place for
morethan10,000years,thespawningofhorse-
shoecrabeggsinearlyMayissoonfollowedby
the arrival of the knots. The dance in the bay
had unfolded in perfect balance for centuries.
Then, in the 1990s, the red knot population
began to plummet. The number visiting the
Rufa red knot

3. JERSEY’S BATS: HANGING ON
The invasive fungus Pseu-
dogymnoascus destructans
is believed to have entered
the United States in 2006
after hitching a ride from
Europe on the boot of an
unsuspecting spelunker
(cave explorer). The
spelunker inadvertently
deposited the fungus in a
cave in Albany, New York,
where it proliferated in
the cold and damp den.
While the hibernating bats
slept, the fungus crept
among them, leaving white
markings around their
muzzles and eating away
at their wings—symptoms
in bats affected by white-
nose syndrome (WNS),
a disease caused by the
fungus.
“It attacks the wing
membrane so they’ll actu-
ally have shredded wings,”
says Stephanie Feigin,
biologist with Conserve
Wildlife Foundation of
New Jersey. “It hurts, so
it kind of wakes them up,
and that costs them fat
reserves and water stores
that they worked all spring
and summer to build up.”
Incapable of flight,
the affected mammals
sometimes fall to the floor
of the cave, where they
starve or freeze to death. If
they can still fly, they may
leave the cave to look for
food. Outside, they are ex-
posed to cold and struggle
to find food to refuel their
depleted and dehydrated
bodies.
Since the initial
outbreak, the fungus has
radiated across the east-
ern United States, north
to Canada and southwest
to Mississippi, killing more
than an estimated 6 mil-
lion bats. The fungus ar-
rived in New Jersey caves
in 2009. Among the state’s
affected species: the
northern long-eared bat,
which was listed as endan-
gered last year. Once so
abundant its population
was not tracked here, it is
Delaware Bay decreased from 90,000 in
1980 to about 50,000 in 1998. The follow-
ing year, the rufa red knot was added to
the state’s threatened-species list. Yet the
threatcontinued.By2007,therufaredknot
reached a nadir of 13,000.
Biologists scrambled to explain the de-
cline. It wasn’t long before they realized
the crisis was tied to the overharvesting
of horseshoe crabs. Beginning more than
a century ago, crabs had been taken by
the millions to be ground up and used as
fertilizer. That use slowed, but was re-
placed by another threat in the mid-20th
century, when the eel-and conch-fishing
industries began using the crabs as bait.
Then in the 1970s, the discovery of the
compound limulus amebocyte lysate
(LAL) in crab blood, led to harvesting by
the biomedical industry, which markets
the compound to test injectable drugs
and implantable medical devices for
biological contamination. Over the past
four decades, the bleeding of crabs for
LAL has become a multimillion dollar
industry; hundreds of thousands of crabs
continue to be captured each year on the
Atlantic shores as raw material.
After conservationists fought for half
a decade, a moratorium was placed on
crab harvesting in 2008, limiting the
number that can be taken from the bay.
Currently, no crabs can be harvested for
bait in New Jersey, but an unspecified
number can still be taken for biomedi-
cal use. (About 500,000 crabs were
harvested at biomedical facilities from
Maine to Florida in 2014, according to
the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission.)
Despite the moratorium, red knot
numbers remained low and the species
was recategorized from threatened to
endangered in 2012. Such designations
are determined on a state level by the
New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
Endangered and Nongame Species
Program (ENSP), and on a federal level
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service or the National Marine
Fisheries Service.
Horseshoe crabs are not
currently listed, but some
reports estimate the Delaware
Bay population, while still
numbering in the millions, has
declined; one study shows a 90 per-
cent decline from 1990 to 2005. That’s
why it’s so important for scientists and
volunteers to do everything they can
to help both species until they begin to
rebound—even if it entails something
as unscientific as walking the beach in
search of overturned crabs.
The efforts have helped stabilize the
red knot population, but the birds are
still at only 26 percent of their historic
numbers. The overharvesting of crabs is
not their only problem, says ENSP chief
Dave Jenkins. Threats to the bird include
habitat loss due to sea level rise; coastal
development; shoreline obstructions like
seawalls and jetties; intensified competi-
Northern long-eared bat
50 JULY 2016 NJMONTHLY.COM
Timber rattlesnake
SPRINGFLING
Horseshoe crabs
pile up on the Dela-
ware Bay beaches
in New Jersey to
breed each spring.

4. tion with other species for food; distur-
bances by vehicles, people, dogs, aircraft
and boats; and climate change.
The red knot is a prime example
of what an endangered species looks
like. According to the ENSP website,
an endangered species is one “whose
prospects for survival in New Jersey
are in immediate danger due to various
threats.” Assistance is needed to help
prevent extinction.
Threatened species are those that
may become endangered if conditions
affecting them begin or continue to
deteriorate. A third designation—species
of special concern, which includes over
100 additional species—indicates popu-
lations that warrant special attention
because of conditions that may result in
their becoming threatened.
like the red knot, almost all of
New Jersey’s endangered or threatened
species face multiple threats. Primary
offenders are habitat loss due to destruc-
tion of the natural landscape for develop-
ment and habitat degradation due to
pollution and other stressors on land and
waterways. Habitat fragmentation—the
separation of habitat into smaller units
by roads, development and farming—is
another major threat. These primary
threats are exacerbated by secondary
threats, including disease, human distur-
bance, climate change, invasive species
and the illegal pet trade.
New Jersey’s more than 80 threatened
or endangered species come in all shapes
and sizes, from the 1.5-inch bronze
copper butterfly to the 60,000-pound
humpback whale.
The very presence of some of Jersey’s
estimated to have dropped
in number by 99 percent.
The little brown bat,
averaging 3 inches in
length, has also been sig-
nificantly affected. Their
main hibernacula, located
at Hibernia Mine in Morris
County, saw a drop from
approximately 25,000 bats
in 2009 to 462 in 2015.
Biologists worldwide—
including those in New
Jersey—are studying bat
species closely. Feigin says
it’s unclear if affected spe-
cies will be able to survive
or how long it might take
the bats to recover.
“We are seeing it
level off a bit,” says Feigin.
“We’re not seeing as many
dead bats on the floors of
hibernias.” However, she
adds, “we’re not sure why
we’re not seeing an uptick
in the numbers, so that
kind of raises a number of
other questions.”
Bats are essential to
the food chain in New
Jersey. They feed on pests
and pollinate vegetation.
Because of their roles,
they are estimated to be
worth billions of dollars to
the agricultural industry
worldwide.
Feigin says humans
need not fear bats. The
mammals, she says, clean
themselves more than
an average house cat and
rarely carry disease.
“Bats are secretive little
creatures, and all they do
is benefit humans,” she
says. “Less than 1 percent
of bats have rabies. You’re
actually more likely to get
hit in the head by a falling
coconut than get a disease
from a bat.”
Feigin says there are
ways citizens can go to bat
for the bats.
do not disturb:
Bats in New Jersey roost in
abandoned mines, tunnels
and caves, as well as in
dead and dying trees and
buildings. Disturbing bats
can cause them to lose fat
reserves, especially dur-
ing hibernation, or could
result in the spread of
disease like WNS.
hire a professional:
Bats sometimes find
shelter in homes or com-
mercial buildings. Killing
or harming a bat is illegal,
so evictions should be
done by professional bat
excluders who follow
proper guidelines. A list of
companies can be found at
conservewildlifenj.org.
install a bat house:
CWF offers free bat hous-
es that can be installed on
your property to attract a
new or evicted colony. To
build your own, contact
CWF for blueprints and
information.
leave dead trees:
These trees, known as
snags, make great homes
for various species
including bats, who roost
in them during spring
and summer. If you have
snags on your property,
leave some standing as
long as they do not pose a
threat.—BM
ASIMPLEGESTURE
Volunteers with re-
TURN the Favor visit
one of 19 Delaware
Bay beaches in New
Jersey, where they
help stranded horse-
shoe crabs by flipping
them right side up.
JULY 2016 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 51

5. 52 JULY 2016 NJMONTHLY.COM
listed species might come as a surprise
to most residents. Take the bobcat, the
last of New Jersey’s big cats. These wild
carnivores suffered at the turn of the 20th
century when massive destruction of for-
ests for lumber, fuel and charcoal isolated
cat populations. Vehicle-caused mortality
was another factor in the near extinction
of the species in the 1970s. Desperate to
keep the cats alive in the Garden State,
24 bobcats from Maine were introduced
between 1978 and 1982. While the project
appeared successful, the species has been
listed as endangered since 1991. Habitat
loss and fragmentation and death by auto-
mobile continue to take their toll. The shy
cats sometimes avoid crossing roadways,
further reducing their territory to isolated
patches. Scientists are unsure how many
remain in the state today.
Many amphibian species, like the
endangered blue-spotted salamanders of
northern New Jersey, are threatened by
continued degradation of habitat due to
development and decreased water qual-
ity. Roads have split and fragmented their
range, leaving isolated populations vul-
nerable to severe declines and reduced
genetic diversity. Some of these amphib-
ians, like the Jefferson salamander, a
species of special concern, are potentially
subject to 100 percent road mortality
in certain areas each spring when they
try to reach their breeding grounds, says
Kelly Triece, wildlife biologist with CWF.
The endangered northern long-eared
bat, whose population has declined by
99 percent over the past decade, suffered
drastically due to the spread of white-
nose syndrome (WNS)—a disease caused
by an invasive fungus (story, page 50).
Invasive species—like the fungus
causing WNS or the European starling,
an invasive bird introduced to the United
States by Shakespeare enthusiasts in
the 19th century—can spread disease
among native plants and animals and can
also outcompete indigenous species for
habitat and food.
Pollution affects several endangered
species, including the Atlantic sturgeon
and the bog turtle. Listed species like
WAYS TO GET WILD
State agencies and conservation groups welcome
volunteers to help protect imperiled species. Here
are ways to stay informed and get involved:
1
get educated: Each fall, the state Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) holds its annual New
Jersey WILD Outdoor Expo to connect state residents
with the natural world through outdoor activities, hands-on
education and the latest conservation information. Other pro-
grams and events—including guided nature walks, campfire
talks and even nature-infused yoga lessons—are led by the
DEP and conservation groups and take place year-round.
2
get connected: Conserve Wildlife Foundation
(CWF) of New Jersey is one of several conserva-
tion groups with live webcams offering a birds-eye
view of wildlife like ospreys, falcons, bald eagles and bats. The
Creature Show is a docu-web series at creatureshow.com cre-
ated by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jared Flesher,
a native New Jerseyan. The series is dedicated to conservation
storytelling with a focus on Garden State animals and habitats.
3
report sightings: Biologists from the New
Jersey Endangered and Nongame Species Program
(ENSP) use data from the public to help determine
population and identify the crucial habitat of imperiled spe-
cies. Data can be reported to the ENSP website.
4
support native biodiversity: This means
planting native species and avoiding invasive plant
species—some of which can still be found at garden
centers. A complete list of invasive species to be avoided can
be found on the New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team
website, njisst.org.
5
give back: Support conservation efforts with fi-
nancial donations such as buying a Conserve Wildlife
license plate, which helps fund the ENSP. You can
also symbolically adopt a rare species through CWF.—BM
the bog turtle and timber rattlesnake,
are also decreasing in the wild in part
because of their value in the pet trade.
Native species that are thriving can
also do damage to listed species. Preda-
tor species like red fox and raccoons
that thrive around human populations
are threats to vulnerable species like
the endangered piping plover and other
beach-nesting shore birds.
“Red foxes are good at getting hand-
outs, they’re good at finding food, so their
populations are arguably higher than
natural levels,” says Jenkins. “So in turn,
they prey on piping plovers.”
the threats continue to mount,
but funding for the state agencies
responsible for protecting vulnerable
wildlife is limited. The ENSP—the state
program charged with protecting New
Jersey’s endangered and threatened
wildlife under the New Jersey Endan-
gered and Nongame Species Conserva-
tion Act (ENSCA) of 1973—has a budget
of just $2.5 million to cover its 14-person
staff and all its projects. ENSP must pro-
tect and manage the state’s nearly 500
wildlife species—including those that are
endangered or threatened.
The funds are cobbled together mainly
Blue-spotted salamander

6. PHOTOGRAPH:(BOBCAT)TYLERCHRISTENSEN;(TUNNEL)JONATHANCARLUCCI
from federal aid, including State Wild-
life Grants and Wildlife and Sport Fish
Restoration Program funding, along with
state appropriations, a state income tax
checkoff and revenue from Conserve
Wildlife license plates.
While they make do, Jenkins estimates
the ENSP would need 10 times its budget
to fully implement even 80 percent of
the projects in its Wildlife Action Plan, a
federally mandated outline of the steps
needed to conserve wildlife and habitat.
Kelly Mooij, vice president of govern-
ment relations with conservation group
New Jersey Audubon, says when funds
are tight, allocation is key.
“With the declining revenues com-
ing into the state, and all of the other
significant and overwhelming financial
obligations of the state pensions, with the
transportation trust fund, health care,
schools—we have to really restructure
and reconsider how investment is made,”
says Mooij.
What’s more, some biologists fear an
erosion of public support for conserva-
tion, traced in part to increased urbaniza-
tion, as well as ongoing financial issues
for many state residents. Additionally,
today’s environmental issues—such as
climate change and pollution—tend to be
at once vague and overwhelming.
“Environmentalandconservation
issuesareoneofthosethingsthatpeople
feelstronglyaboutbutareeasilydiverted
awayfrombecauseofother[worries],like
havingajob,”saysJenkins.“Andthatdis-
connectmakesithardertobuildthepoliti-
calwillandsupportthatisnecessary.”
The ENSP constantly performs spe-
cies, status assessments. The next round
of updates should be complete by early
2017. Jenkins says the number of endan-
gered and threatened species on the list
will likely increase.
“No one should be surprised that we’re
taking more species on than we’re taking
off,” Jenkins says. “Some are species
that stay in New Jersey and don’t move,
so we’re reflecting on what’s happening
with them in New Jersey. But with other
species, particularly bats or birds, their
numbers are declining globally, and we
are part of that.” Some experts predict
the continuing global extinction of a large
number of species.
Larry Niles, former chief of the
ENSP who currently works on various
wildlife projects all over the world and
throughout New Jersey, says there are
no easy fixes. “It’s worse than anyone can
imagine,” says Niles. “What I tell people
is you’re wrong if you think biologists
[alone] can help you out of this.”
The consequences of extinctions
Atlantic sturgeon
can be dramatic, even hitting the state
economically. The annual migrations of
shorebirds alone bring in tens of millions
of dollars in tourism money to the state,
says Mooij.
The threat to bats can also have a
financial impact. They are one of the
best and cheapest forms of pest control.
One little brown bat can eat up to 3,000
insects in a single night, including gypsy
moths, stink bugs and mosquitoes. Stud-
ies have also shown that bats, who act as
pollinators, are worth billions of dollars
to the agricultural industry worldwide—
an industry that happens to be the third
largest in the state.
The bats’ consumption of mosquitoes
potentially depresses the number of
mosquito-born illnesses like West Nile
virus. With the current focus on Zika
virus, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention recently released maps
showing that the two types of mosqui-
toes that might carry the disease could
be present in New Jersey. Feigin says
she’s sure the bats here would be happy
Continued on page 216
THEIMPERILED
Bobcats sometimes
avoid crossing roads,
which fracture their
habitat. Right: Zoolo-
gist Brian Zarate works
on connecting habitats
for imperiled species
with tunnel and fencing
projects like this one in
Bedminster.
JULY 2016 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 53

7. 216 JULY 2016 NJMONTHLY.COM
endangered zone
PHOTOGRAPH:(TURTLE)BRITTANYDOBRZYNSKI
to eat them.
Each species—whether predator or
prey—has its place in the circle of life re-
sulting in biodiversity and balance in the
state. “A functioning ecosystem includes
all of the parts, and these species are the
parts,” Jenkins says.
To protect biodiversity while develop-
ment continues, Jenkins says his agency
is focusing on habitat management and
restoration. This is especially important
in New Jersey because, while
specific landscapes in the state
are protected, the habitat of
listed species is not directly protected
under the state’s ENSCA.
“There’s no law that protects an en-
dangered species’ habitat,” Niles says. “If
it doesn’t fall in a wetlands, if it doesn’t
fall in the Pinelands, then there’s no law
against destroying [the] habitat.”
One of the ENSP’s main projects
is to identify areas inhabited by the
state’s most imperiled creatures. The
Landscape Project, started under Niles
in 1994, maps the occurrences and the
habitat of these species.
Theprojectpullsinformationfroma
geographic-informationsystemdatabase
calledBiotics,compiledbyCWFbiolo-
gists.Theinformationisamixofdata
fromENSPsurveys,professionalsurveys
andrare-speciessightingreportssubmit-
tedbythepublicviatheENSPwebsite.
“We encourage people in the general
public to submit their observations, be-
cause our biologists just can’t be in every
corner of the state every day,” says the
CWF’s Mike Davenport, who has worked
on Biotics for over a decade. “It’s also
helpful in private lands that we might not
have access to.”
The Biotics data, along with land-use
information, is used to create Landscape
Project maps. The interactive maps,
while not law, can be used “for planning
purposes before any actions, such as
proposed development, resource extrac-
tion or conservation measures, occur,”
according to the New Jersey Division of
Fish and Wildlife website.
Landscape Project findings
are also used to identify
land to protect
(and sometimes
acquire) through
state funding ini-
tiatives like Green
Acres, which sets
aside money for
recreation and con-
servation needs.
Another ENSP
initiative, the Con-
necting Habitat
Across New Jersey
(CHANJ) project,
aims to preserve
and restore valu-
able habitat corri-
dors through which
terrestrial wildlife
need to move in order to breed, as well
as find food, shelter, water and other
resources. Often, these corridors are
blocked or interrupted by development
or well-traveled vehicular roads.
“CHANJ is to identify those areas
that we think are the most important
to maintain or restore the ability of
wildlife to move through the land-
scape,” Jenkins says. “We will in some
cases have to secure the habitat and
buy it, or get landowner easements or
agreements. Then it’s restoring… [and]
managing the habitat so that it becomes
more conducive to wildlife moving
through it.”
One way the land can be managed is
through the installation of wildlife road-
crossing structures like tunnels and
bridges. A first-of-its-kind tunnel system
was installed last summer beneath
River Road in Bedminster. The $90,000
initiative—a partnership between the
state DEP, the township of Bedminster
and New Jersey Audubon—included the
installation of wooden fencing spanning
2,000 feet on either side of River Road,
which steers wildlife to one of five tun-
nels. Built with threatened wood turtles
in mind, the tunnels can accommodate
small reptiles, amphibians and mammals
as large as a fox.
Gretchen Fowles, an ENSP biologist
and coleader of CHANJ, says alliances
make such initiatives possible. “We’ve
had partnerships with conservation or-
ganizations, the transportation agencies,
municipalities—whoever has jurisdic-
tion over that roadway—wildlife experts,
they all come together to come up with a
solution,” says Fowles.
New Jersey has about a dozen struc-
tures used by wildlife. ENSP zoologist
Brian Zarate, a CHANJ coleader, says
animals sometimes utilize crossing
structures like bridges and footpaths
meant for hikers and bikers. Structures
designed specifically with wildlife in
mind include three Route 78 overpasses
built in Somerset and Union counties in
the 1970s—the first such project of its
kind in the country, says Zarate.
Two more tunnel projects are planned,
including one for Waterloo Road in
Byram Township, a valuable tract of
land for amphibians like the Jefferson
salamander, a species of special concern.
Highly susceptible to road mortality,
amphibians, who cross in the thousands
during their March migrations, currently
have to be helped across the road by
biologists and volunteers.
“We’ve been working really hard to
find funding to get permanent tunnels
put under the road,” says Fowles, “so
people don’t need to be out there helping
to shuttle these animals across.”
some forms of habitat enhance-
ment and management seem to go
against human instinct. The habitat of
the golden-winged warbler, whose breed-
ing population was recently listed as en-
dangered, generally follows the eastern
side of the Appalachian Trail in northern
New Jersey. The bird needs young forest
habitat to thrive, but in New Jersey, our
forests are all fairly old.
“In New Jersey, all of our forests are
60 to 100 years old because in the 1880s,
the forests were destroyed through ag-
riculture or for fuel,” Triece says. “Since
Continued from page 53
HARDWIRED
Biologists affix
radio transmitters
to endangered bog
turtles in southern
New Jersey to
track their every
move.

8. JULY 2016 NEW JERSEY MONTHLY 217
then, we’ve started preserving land…but
because of that, they’re all the same age.”
Triece says young forests occur after
natural disturbances like fires or floods.
But humans act to stop such natural oc-
currences. In this situation, controlled
burns or the cutting of trees can be used
to create an open canopy—acts that are
sometimes deemed controversial, even
amongst conservationists.
Habitat management and restoration
work go hand in hand. Invasive plants
like phragmites, reed canary grass and
Japanese barberry all commonly take
over the wetland habitats of the endan-
gered bog turtle. To help the species,
biologists attempt to control the invasive
plants and reintroduce native flora.
Conservation groups and state agen-
cies often work together to achieve
common goals. New Jersey Audubon,
for example, recently helped to pass an
amendment to the state Constitution to
permanently allocate 4 percent of the
state’s corporate business tax—or about
$80 million annually—for
land preservation and
stewardship of open space.
However, enabling legisla-
tion was vetoed by Governor
Chris Christie. It will likely
take a future governor to
facilitate implementation.
Once implemented, “we
will have consistent, pay-as-
you-go open-space funding
so that we can strategically
invest in preservation and
habitat restoration,” says
Mooij.
Some of New Jersey Audubon’s biolo-
gists recently partnered with the ENSP
on a project to track newfound and
unrecorded bog turtles living in freshwa-
ter wetlands in Salem County. To better
understand the endangered species, the
biologists affixed radio transmitters to
four turtles and so far have found that
the turtles reside in small patches of land
no bigger than half an acre. Determining
which habitat the turtles find favorable
will allow the land to be properly man-
aged in hopes that the turtle numbers
there can increase.
New Jersey Audubon biologists also
work on shorebird banding alongside ex-
ENSP chief Niles, who coleads the Dela-
ware Bay Shorebird Project. The goal is
to collect data on and track shorebirds
like the red knot, ruddy turnstones and
semipalmated sandpipers, among others.
Niles worked over the past few years
to restore vital habitat for red knots and
other shorebirds both in the bay and on
the Atlantic coast. On the bay, he and his
team—in partnership with New Jersey
Audubon, the American Littoral Society
and CWF—have helped restore the habi-
tat of six vital sites stretching over two
miles of beach, where the landscape was
diminished.
Volunteers also help to supplement an
array of projects across the state. Triece,
of CWF, runs
the volun-
teer-based
Amphibian
Crossing
Project in North Jersey. Dozens of volun-
teers show up on rainy nights in mid to
late March to help amphibians cross the
road—literally.
“In one night, on one transect of road
maybe 50 to 100 meters long, we might
get 2,000 amphibians,” she says. “So
we’ve recruited volunteers to basically
walk up and down the road to collect data
on the species and the time, and we re-
cord temperature and weather so we can
quantify what’s going on at that site.”
This past spring, on Waterloo Road in
Byram Township, site of the proposed
crossing tunnel, volunteers assisted the
safe crossing of 1,432 amphibians, in-
cluding spotted salamanders, which are
currently recommended to be listed as a
species of special concern.
A similar project takes place every
summer in South Jersey, where about
a dozen volunteers patrol roads to help
protect northern diamondback terrapins
which are also being considered for the
species-of-special-concern list.
with so many challenges, environ-
mental workers are buoyed by their
success stories, such as the comeback of
New Jersey’s bald eagle population. The
species was down to one nesting pair in
the early 1980s, due largely to DDT use;
today, thanks to an aggressive protection
and reintroduction initiative, the popula-
tion is stable, with 161 nesting pairs. The
horseshoe crab moratorium is another
state conservation win.
Hope also exists in a $1.3 billion
federally funded conservation plan of-
fered by a blue ribbon panel assembled
by the Association of Fish and Wildlife
Agencies (AFWA). The panel, made up
of politicians, representatives from en-
vironmental groups, academic research-
ers, business executives and members of
the oil industry, has called on Congress
to “dedicate up to $1.3 billion annually
in existing revenue from the develop-
ment of energy and mineral resources on
federal lands and waters to the Wildlife
Conservation Restoration Program.”
Aplanlikethat,Jenkinssays,could
meanasmuchas$25million—about10
timestheENSP’scurrentbudget—coming
intothestateforconservation.
For now, volunteers are doing their
part in whatever way they can to support
state efforts and conservation groups.
Gail Hill of Bucks County, Pennsylva-
nia, recruited volunteers and traveled
more than two hours to take part in the
reTURN the Favor program to rescue
horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay.
Hill, who is director naturalist of the
Peace Valley Nature Center in Penn-
sylvania, says she enjoys volunteering
with conservation projects wherever she
can. “Next time we come, we’ll probably
bring half the neighbors in the state,” she
laughs. “It’s just the coolest thing—we’re
really excited about it.”
HELPINGHANDS
Biologist Kelly
Triece runs the
Amphibian Cross-
ing Project, leading
volunteers who
help amphibians
cross the road.
PHOTOGRAPHS:(AMPHIBIANCROSSING)NICOLEGERARD
Bobcat