Information for Franklin Township Inventory Volunteers

Thank you for your interest in the Franklin Township biological inventory project. Volunteers like you will be instrumental in helping identify and catalogue the species present on the Negri-Nepote-Leni Tracts and the Griggs Park Greenway.

This introduction will give you the information you need to get started on your own. Although you could conduct surveys at any time, there are certain periods that are more suitable for specific species groups. We are requesting that volunteers surveying birds attempt to do so between ½ hour before sunrise and 10 am. Birds should also not be surveyed on days with heavy wind or rain. For amphibians, both frogs and salamanders, periods immediately following a heavy rain are most suitable. Surveys for calling frogs are most suitable during this period at dusk or just after sundown. Butterfly surveys are best conducted at midday.                         

Before conducting surveys of the Negri-Nepote-Leni Tract or Griggs Park, make sure to print both a data sheet with definition page and maps of Negri-Nepote-Leni and the Griggs Park Greenway. If you are planning on conducting bird surveys you can also print a sheet of four-letter bird species codes. Both the data sheet and definition pages have been designed in a way to make them easily understood.  (Note: all of these files are in PDF format, which requires Adobe Reader software. If you do not have this software on your computer, you can download a free copy of it at the Adobe website by clicking here.)

At the end of the season, no later than July 5, please send all data forms and accompanying maps to Troy Ettel at New Jersey Audubon Society, P.O. Box 693, Bernardsville, NJ 07924. If you have any questions regarding the project, please e-mail me or call or at (908) 766-5787.