November, 2005

Delaware Bayshore Birding and Wildlife Trails Guides Now Available!
By Lillian Armstrong, Director of Birding and Wildlife Trails

Thanks to funding from the NJ Department of Transportation, the full supply of some 25,000 Delaware Bayshore Birding and Wildlife Trails guide is now available free of charge via the NJ Office of Travel and Tourism (800-visitnj), the New Jersey Audubon Society centers, and several other visitor information locations in southern New Jersey. 

The 116-page, spiral bound guides feature nine driving routes in Salem, Cumberland and Cape May counties.  The routes visit 82 wildlife viewing destinations from State Parks and Forests, Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), National Wildlife Refuges, environmental centers owned by New Jersey Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy, and other private lands that are open to the public, such as the Harold N. Peek Preserve and the Glades Wildlife Refuge, both of which are owned by the Natural Lands Trust.

Birding, nature and wildlife-viewing trails either exist or are under development in as many as 30 states across the nation.  Why?  Because nature-based tourism, a.k.a. low-impact tourism, is one of the fastest growing outdoor recreation activities in the country – and trails are a great way to “package” a wildlife viewing opportunity and make it easily accessible to a broad audience. 

Most importantly, wildlife-watching is BIG business.  If NJ wildlife-related recreation were a single business, it would be ranked in the Fortune 500.  In 2001, 1.9 million people watched wildlife in New Jersey creating a $2.4 billion total ripple effect on the economy.  Watching wildlife is enjoyed by millions of NJ residents from all incomes and races in rural to urban settings.    And that means job creation and tax income for the State as well.

The new guide was over a year in development, and was created in three distinct phases.  From November 2004 through the end of March 2005, the Trails team conducted extensive outreach throughout the three counties.  They held a press conference in Cape May in January, in addition to public meetings in each county.  Staff made presentations before gatherings as diverse as League of Women Voters meetings, property owners associations, tax payers associations, and meetings of like-minded environmental organizations.  They also met individually with tourism professionals, Boy Scout representatives, freeholders and others active in the community.

The goal of the outreach meetings was to generate public involvement in the form of nominations for specific wildlife-viewing sites in the area.  The effort succeeded in generating some 150 nominations for approximately 120 sites. 

Once the sites were identified, the trails team engaged members of the local naturalist community to conduct assessments, which were designed to screen the sites for safety and access issues, in addition to verifying wildlife viewing opportunities and providing input on potential sightings throughout the seasons.  This phase of the project lasted from April through early June.

Then, it was time to put the book together.  The sites needed to be connected by existing roads, and the assessments had to be translated into actual copy for the guide.  Expert local photographers provided the stunning visual impact of the guide.  Of course, the directions had to be tested and tested and tested. 

In the end, we met our deadline and launched the book at an event called the Nature Tourism Rally on October 11th, at Wheaton Village.  The book and the event were extremely well received, and we are currently finalizing the distribution infrastructure.

This Trail guide is the first in the country to feature business brochures for each of the three counties, highlighting businesses that can be reached when a visitor is on the trails.  From restaurants, to gifts, to historic sites, and wildlife-viewing boat rides, visitors will be encouraged to mix in other activities while they visit the trails. 

The Delaware Bayshore Birding and Wildlife Trails guide was funded by the NJ Department of Transportation, and was created by New Jersey Audubon Society with assistance from the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Protection and Office of Travel and Tourism.  You can pick up a guide at your local NJAS center or by calling the New Jersey Office of Travel and Tourism at 800-visitNJ.

Senator Leonard Lance (23rd – R), Assemblyman John McKeon (27th – D) and NJAS President Tom Gilmore celebrate national landmark conservation legislation.

State Legislators Pass Landmark Legislation to Fund Wildlife Conservation In New Jersey
By Eric Stiles, Vice President for Conservation & Stewardship

On June 30, 2005 New Jersey became the first state in the nation to pass legislation specifically to match federal challenge grant funds for wildlife conservation.  New Jersey Audubon Society would like to thank state legislators Assemblyman John McKeon, Assemblyman “Kip” Bateman, Senator Leonard Lance, and Senator Bob Smith and federal Congressman Jim Saxton for their efforts to secure this funding.  During the last five years, the federal State Wildlife Grant (SWG) program has provided between $1 million and $1.5 million to New Jersey for protecting the “Noah’s Ark” of wildlife.

NJ Audubon along with its partners at Sierra Club, NJPIRG, NJ Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, and NJ Environmental Federation have worked intensively to educate federal delegates about the need for these funds.  SWG provides three federal dollars for every state dollar.  In previous years, New Jersey had used funds from wildlife license plate sales and income tax donations as the match.  However, no funds remain in these accounts.  Absent strong bi-partisan support for this state appropriation, we would have lost all funding for conservation of non-game and endangered species in New Jersey. 

Our state is fortunate to have one of the top wildlife conservation programs in the country.  Thus, this funding is critical to all wildlife conservation in the state!!  On the road to passage of the state legislation, NJ Audubon and its partners spent hundreds of hours educating state legislators about NJ’s wildlife, the threat of losing funding and the economic importance of nature-based tourism.  NJ Audubon, its partners and legislators hosted a celebratory press event on October 25 to celebrate this wildlife funding.

Gylla MacGregor (NJAS Conservation Ecologist) and Michelle Knapik (Geraldine R. Dodge Environment Program Director) locate a state threatened Wood Turtle on a NJ Audubon sanctuary.

NJ Audubon is not Just for the Birds - Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) Research Yields Important Findings
By Gylla MacGregor, Conservation Ecologist

Since 1999, New Jersey Audubon Society has been marking wood turtles as a means of understanding the extent of the local turtle population.  In May, 2005, New Jersey Audubon Society began a focused study, incorporating radio-telemetry, on the State Threatened wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta).   The purpose of the study was to obtain more detailed information on the wood turtle population at one of our preserves, and increase scientific understanding of wood turtle movement patterns and habitat use.  Research suggests that the general decline in turtle populations can be attributed to habitat loss and human activities. 

The study site has produced 16 wood turtles, and four (3 females, 1 male) were outfitted with radio-transmitters.  The turtles were located 3-4 times per week.  At each location site, information was recorded on the turtle’s microhabitat (i.e., stream temperature, canopy cover, vegetation density, general habitat type).  Turtle behavior was also noted (for example feeding or mating) and the position is recorded spatially using a GPS unit.  Data of this type can provide important information on habitat preferences and use, including preferred feeding areas, nesting locations and hibernacula.

Preliminary data suggests that some individuals spend a significant amount of time in the upland, more than 200 meters from the stream corridor.  This finding is important inasmuch as current stream buffers of 150 feet (45.7 meters) are clearly not sufficient to protect this threatened turtle and it habitat.  Another particularly interesting finding is the level of site fidelity.  Individual turtles spend all of their time moving back and forth between 2-3 locations.  Site fidelity of this magnitude implies that the turtles could not be easily relocated to areas outside their activity range even if the habitat is suitable.  Such relocation efforts have proven unsuccessful in other species and the movements of the wood turtles suggest the same. 

New Jersey Audubon staff will use this information to advocate for conservation of this rare species through better land use decisions and stewardship efforts.

Conservation Groups Call for Emergency Endangered Listing of Red Knot, A Rapidly Declining Shorebird
(Courtesy of Defenders of Wildlife Press Release developed with NJ Audubon Staff)

In response to the 80% decline in Red Knot population over the past ten years, leading conservation groups filed an emergency petition in July 2005 asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Red Knot as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.  The listing request comes from an alliance of wildlife groups including Defenders of Wildlife, New Jersey Audubon Society, American Bird Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, Delaware Audubon Society, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Audubon New York, Audubon Maryland-DC and Virginia Audubon Council.

“The science is clear and compelling that emergency listing is desperately needed to protect the Red Knot,” according to Thomas J. Gilmore, President of New Jersey Audubon Society. “Only by listing the Red Knot can we safeguard New Jersey’s Serengeti – the Delaware Bay – for future generations.”

The petition targets the rufa subspecies of the Red Knot, a migratory shorebird that makes an 18,000 mile roundtrip journey each year from its winter home at the tip of South America to the Arctic and back again.  The birds stop just a few times on the way to refuel.  Their final critical stop is at Delaware Bay, which is the most critical because it is the last major refueling spot before completing the journey to their Arctic breeding grounds.  At the Bay, the starving birds must feast on fat-rich horseshoe crab eggs in order to restore the reserves necessary to complete their migration and to provide energy for the first several days or weeks in the Arctic as food there can initially be scarce.  But, in recent years, Delaware Bay’s horseshoe crab population has rapidly diminished and the number of birds able to successfully reach their breeding grounds and successfully reproduce has dramatically declined.

The birds visiting the Delaware Bay, once numbering more than 100,000, now number around 17,000.  If nothing is done to ensure the bird’s survival, recent scientific models predict extinction as early as 2010.

The petition details reasons why the Endangered Species Act’s emergency listing provisions are needed to save the bird, including:

• Its primary food source in the United States -- horseshoe crab eggs -- is threatened due to over utilization of crabs for commercial purposes.

• The birds’ inability to properly refuel at Delaware Bay reduces rates of survival and recruitment and increases their susceptibility to disease and predation.

• Existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate as the Red Knot receives only minimal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and no protection for its habitat or food source.

The Endangered Species Act emergency listing petition comes after the groups had worked for many years with the states and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the agency that regulates the horseshoe crab fishery, to reduce the take of horseshoe crab eggs in Delaware Bay and neighboring areas.  In June, the groups asked the Commission and the states of New Jersey and Delaware for an emergency closure of the horseshoe crab fishery to stop the further decline of available horseshoe crab eggs. New Jersey closed the harvest for an additional two weeks due to the presence of a late arriving flock.

Although some states have taken additional actions such as closing key feeding areas to the public during spring migration and reducing competition for eggs between knots and gulls, these efforts are not able to reverse the bird’s severe decline. New data showing that the Red Knot population continues to decline at a rapid rate suggests that a complete closure of the horseshoe crab fishery is the most important action that can be taken to stop further decline of this species. A listing under the ESA would require the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to consult with the Service on the impacts of the horseshoe crab fishery on the red knot and lead to the development of a coordinated recovery plan, a potential closure of the crab fishery and funding for implementation of various conservation measures.

The petition concludes:  “In the absence of an Endangered Species Act listing for the Red Knot, protection efforts to date have failed to address site-specific threats to the Red Knot (i.e. habitat loss and availability of food at Delaware Bay) and also have not led to the development and implementation of conservation and management strategies on the multi-state regional scale that are necessary for the preservation of the species.”

NJ Habitat Incentive Team Launched
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

In early 2005, New Jersey Audubon Society co-founded the New Jersey Habitat Incentive Team (NJHIT) along with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, Natural

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  NJHIT is a coalition that unites a diverse group of sportsmen’s groups and environmental organizations that effect land stewardship for common conservation and habitat restoration goals.  A $100,000 grant co-authored by NJAS from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provided critical start-up money to kick-off this project.  After a successful year-long campaign raising awareness of grasslands in NJ starting with the February 2004 Grassland Symposium, the formation of this Team is a welcome outcome for NJAS. 

NJHIT is modeled after highly successful programs in several other states including Pennsylvania and Kentucky that seek to increase the total acreage of lands enrolled in Federal and State conservation programs.  Like the programs in other states, NJHIT will implement a proactive approach to habitat creation in targeted landscapes in the state by directly contacting and working with landowners, especially farmers.  NJHIT will greatly emphasize grasslands and early successional habitats but other habitats including wetlands and forests will also be targeted.  The NJ Endangered and Nongame Species program is working on a statewide analysis rooted in the Landscape Project that will identify the largest and most significant patches of certain habitat types throughout the state.  For example, the analysis that identifies the most critical grasslands is currently underway.

Private lands biologists that work cooperatively for the Division of Fish and Wildlife and NRCS will be hired to be the primary point-of-contact with private landowners within focal areas. The grant co-authored by NJAS will allow the hiring of one of the two biologists that will work as part of NJHIT as well as provide start-up money to monitor the overall success of the program.  NJAS will tailor its conservation and stewardship programs to parallel the goals and objectives set forth in this initiative.

New Staff to Lead the Important Bird and Birding Area Program
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

Cristina Frank has joined us from the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program to take over as coordinator for the Important Bird and Birding Area project.  Elizabeth Ciuzio also joins NJAS from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife where she was the wetlands biologist for the Wildlife Diversity Program.  Beth becomes Conservation Planner/Restoration Specialist for the IBBA program.  In this capacity, she will be selecting focal areas identified by the IBBA program that overlap with focal areas identified within NJHIT.  NJAS will work on establishing demonstration stewardship projects within these areas.  Funding for the IBBA program has been provided by grants from the William Penn Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and State Wildlife Grants provided by the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program. 

Agricultural Heritage and Habitat Conservation Plan Takes Off for Harmony Township, Warren County
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

Grassland Natural Areas at Franklin Township, Somerset County Serve as State Model
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

NJAS continues to work with Franklin Township in Somerset County to implement the management plan written in 2004 for two natural areas in the Town.  The Franklin sites where NJAS has been working for the past two years also lie in the core of one of the critical grassland habitats identified by the NJHIT.  In the coming year, NJAS will work with the Town to try and expand the habitat restoration onto other parcels within the focal area.  Gylla MacGregor, NJAS Conservation Ecologist, will take over as project leader in Franklin.

Approximately (we need an number of acres here) of native warm season grasses and wildflowers were planted at the Negri-Nepote site, one of the two Township natural areas, and on a neighboring landowner’s property in April 2005.  Despite extremely dry weather, these grasses were 6-8 inches tall by late summer.  The site is already serving as an important demonstration site for grassland restoration and has been used to garner support for other projects elsewhere in the state.  An additional third of the property will be planted this year and the final third will be completed in the spring of 2007.  When complete, the habitat patch including the private land will be nearly 200 acres of contiguous grassland, one of the largest managed patches in the state.  Approximately 40 acres of native grasses will be planted at the Griggstown site in 2005.  Both sites are now open to the public and can be located from the directions provided in the Franklin brochure on the NJAS Conservation page of the NJAS web site.

Conservation Groups Form Raritan Piedmont Wildlife Habitat Partnership
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

After a series of meetings with conservation groups and state wildlife biologists at Duke Farms in Hillsborough (Somerset County) throughout Spring and Summer 2005, the Raritan Piedmont Wildlife Habitat Partnership (RPWHP) has been formed.  The goal of RPWHP is to increase the overall amount of habitat being managed for wildlife on public and private lands and to increase the overall connectivity between habitat patches.  The project area is roughly a triangle with Duke Farms and adjacent properties in Hillsborough in the center and the Amwell Valley and Franklin Township in Somerset County on the ends.  These sites encompass focal areas identified by NJHIT and they were identified as some of the most important populations of grassland birds in the state by Wade Wander’s statewide assessment in the early 1980’s.  NJAS will be writing the science-based plan that will set specific habitat and population goals for grassland and grassland birds for the RPWHP.

Atlantic City Airport Growing Greener
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

This summer the NJAS Conservation Department expanded its participation in the grassland habitat restoration already underway at the Atlantic City Airport.  October 2005 marks the second year of grassland habitat management activities in a three-year mitigation project headed by Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. on behalf of the South Jersey Transit Authority.  This mitigation will reduce shrub encroachment and enhance breeding habitat for two grassland birds: grasshopper sparrows (a NJ threatened species) and upland sandpipers (a NJ endangered species).  The grassland habitat at Atlantic City Airport is considered critically important by NJAS.  It harbors one of only two known upland sandpiper populations remaining in the state and has been accepted as an Important Bird Area.  It has also been identified as a focal area by NJHIT.  

In the first year, approximately 80 acres of shrub dominated habitat underwent four different mechanical treatments to enhance grass coverage.  Following treatments, much of the area was reseeded with native warm season grasses and forbs.  Despite a universal reputation for being extremely slow to germinate and occupy a site, germination of the native grasses was exceptional this summer.  Nearly every species of grass planted germinated and set seed in the first year, an outcome typically not seen until year three or four.  For the second year, the Conservation Department has been invited to participate in vegetation surveys of the management area, provide feedback on the initial success of the treatments, and write recommendations for the second phase of restoration activities.  NJAS will be monitoring avian use of the treatment areas in 2006. 

As part of the scope of work, NJAS is also providing management recommendations to reduce and control the spread of the invasive Chinese bush clover (Lespedeza cuneata) in the mitigation area.  This aggressive, nonnative plant is spreading rapidly on the airport and threatening critical habitat for upland sandpiper.  As part of an integrated control plan, SJTA executed a late summer burn on the airport in August per the recommendation of NJAS.  Between October 2006 and March 2007, approximately 100 more acres will be treated to remove undesirable species and enhance warm-season grasses and forbs.

Progress in Restoration of the Liberty State Park Site
By Troy Ettel, Director of Conservation and Stewardship

Liberty State Park (LSP), with its dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline and New York Harbor, is a work in progress.  This 1,121 acre site was once the rail yard of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.  The State of New Jersey has spent the past 30 years acquiring the land, planning and building a park infrastructure that is suitable for public recreation and protecting the associated habitats. NJAS sits on the Liberty State Park Advisory Committee which serves to provide oversight and guidance to the habitat restoration and recreational development on the park.  LSP provides is also critical habitat for wildlife and migratory birds and recreational opportunities for over 5 million human visitors each year.

The current focus of the Advisory Committee’s attention is the restoration of the interior of LSP, a 234-acre section that is now inaccessible, due to a large fence skirting its perimeter.  The four components of the restoration project include the creation of approximately 40 acres of salt marsh, the restoration of 28 acres of freshwater wetlands, the establishment of 60 acres of native warm season grasslands, and the enhancement of 100 acres of hardwoods and maritime shrubs.  The completed project would enlarge the area available to visitors and link current venues as well as developing or enhancing habitat for birds and other wildlife.  Recent project milestones include the following:  The New Jersey Wetlands Mitigation Council awarded LSP a grant of $1.5 million for the restoration of the wetland habitat component.  This grant will serve as “seed money” for the rest of the project, finally allowing restoration to get underway.  Additionally, The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is very close to finalizing an agreement with the United States Army Corps of Engineers that would allow the Corps to develop plans and specifications for the restoration project. 

Public meetings for the review of the conceptual plan have been completed with good attendance and near universal support for the conceptual plan.  In the long run, the LSP project may well serve as a model for the integration of diverse wildlife habitat structure in one of the world’s most urban centers.