NJAS Opinion: Spring, 1991

Why is New Jersey so important to migratory birds? The answer lies in the state's geography and geology, and its physiographic provinces. New Jersey has two coasts, the Atlantic and the Delaware, which act as barriers to migrant birds and concentrate them at water's edge. Birds going to and coming from New England and Canada and northern New York State congregate annually in coastal migrant traps such as the Cape May peninsula. The Cape May peninsula is one of the world's greatest migrant traps, especially in autumn, when millions of birds of over 330 species arrive. For centuries birds have followed traditional paths along the state's linear geologic features - the Kittatinny ridge, the central Highlands, the Hudson River, and the Delaware River. If we conceive of migration as a transit system, New Jersey is a hub where major flight lines along the coasts, the rivers, and the mountains converge and radiate out to points north and south. In migration, New Jersey is the mainline state.

One reason why the state can support such an array of migrant birds (at least up to now) is the variety of physiographic regions and habitats found in New Jersey, despite its small size. From mountains to Piedmont to coastal plain, birds find forests, fields, lakes, marshes, and swamps for feeding and resting. In our coastal plains, waterfowl and shorebirds find abundant salt marsh and river marshes with rich food supplies, and thousands of warblers, flycatchers, and thrushes seek cover and insects in the hardwood swamps and forests. The Delaware Bayshore with its horseshoe crab eggs provides an irreplaceable food source for most of the world population of three sandpiper species, the second largest spring shorebird concentration in North America. New Jersey's wetlands boast the third largest colonial waterbird population in the East (only Virginia and Florida with much longer coastlines have more). Our coasts and mountains support the largest hawk migration in North America, more than a quarter million hawks, eagles, and vultures each autumn. Some 450 species of birds have been recorded in New Jersey; only a few larger states have higher state lists. Some 350 of these species occur in the state annually, and of those, 328 are migratory. This rich diversity is explained in part by our latitude (we host northern and southern species) and in part by some other startling facts. About 19 percent of our land surface is wetlands (the whole U.S. is only 5 percent); 300,000 acres are salt marsh; 600,000 acres are freshwater wetlands. According to the most recent statistics available, New Jersey is still 42 percent forested. Small wonder then that the state boasts a rich diversity of birds. New Jersey is indeed the habitat state.

One of the greatest problems New Jersey faces is how to protect these critical areas that migratory birds depend upon for their lives. We have a legacy here to pass on to our children. But New Jersey is at another kind of crossroads as we move into the nineties: a crossroads of opportunity vs. threat. On the opportunity side are the Green Acres bond issues; spill compensation monies; the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act; federal monies for National Wildlife Refuge purchases; as well as land purchases and greenway projects initiated by the nonprofit land trusts (Nature Conservancy, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Trust for Public Land, and others). These are the opportunities for protecting bird habitat. On the threat side of the ledger are the high approval rates on projects in the coastal zone; the specter of the "taking issues" [Compensation for landowners for land taken by the state.] lurking behind permit decisions; weakening of the rules implementing environmental laws so that what is won in the legislature is lost in the courts, for example the wetlands law; tremendous development pressure in a small populated state; lack of money and personnel to enforce hard-won state laws protecting habitat; and last, but not least, ignorance and indifference.

As we come to this crossroads of threat and opportunity in the nineties, there are some principles we need to remember, in order to apply sound conservation strategies in migratory bird corridors. First, everyone is wittingly or unwittingly a wildlife and bird manager, from parks, refuges and forests to corporate heads and homeowners. Everyone's practice affects migratory birds. Second, birds do not recognize political and bureaucratic boundaries. Some of the best habitat is in people parks. Third, birds cannot change their traditional migration routes out of deference to development and industrial practice. Urban areas in New Jersey, like the Hackensack Meadowlands and the Arthur Kill complex. often lie on migration routes. Four, refuge, park and forest management plans should be based on a good inventory of existing bird use on the tract. Five, migratory birds produce a significant chunk of recreational income in the state. Birds have a dollar value which needs to be factored in to land use planning. Six, management programs at refuges. forests, parks and preserves should allow for diverse species use; managing for one or two species should not impact adversely forty or fifty others already using the land, Seven, agencies doing acquisition decisions should rank migratory bird use of a tract as a high priority in deciding whether to buy this or that piece given limited resources.

Some strategies for protecting migratory birds flow from these principles:

1. Maintain integrity of wood lots wherever possible. Contiguous woods are better than fragments. Clustering or positioning structures on the fringe may contribute to bird conservation.
2. Replace habitat lost during construction with native trees and shrubs.
3. Keep structures off ridges and out of wetlands. They interfere with bird use of those habitats.
4. Establish tax incentives for landholders (private or corporate) who maintain their property for migratory bird use.
5. Increase research dollars to monitor population changes in nongame bird species at both federal and state levels.
6. Orient management programs for birds toward species communities, not single species (e.g.. managing impoundments for multiple use).
7. Preserve stream corridors and woodland understories intact; don't cut.
8. Develop new formulas for using spill and pollution compensation monies to purchase migratory bird habitat, especially in industrial urban areas.

If we wish to remain at the crossroads of migration in New Jersey, we will need to survive the crossroad of threat vs. opportunity with sound conservation practice.

Richard P. Kane

Director of Conservation