AUDUBON AGENDA 
EDUCATION  2003

 FALL 2003

• NJAS CONTINUES TO PRESERVE OASES ALONG THE FLYWAY

• EXPLORING RARITAN’S SHORES

• SANDY HOOK BIRD OBSERVATORY’S MIGRATION WATCH

• BIRDS AND BOY SCOUTS FLOCK TOGETHER

• NEW JERSEY’S COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

SUMMER 2003

• SONGBIRDS AT THE CROSSROADS OF MIGRATION 

• NJAS KICKS OFF ITS LIBRARY STEWARDS PROGRAM

• PARTNERSHIPS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION…JUNIOR INTERN PROGRAM

SPRING 2003

• CMBO RECEIVES AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

• NJAS HONORS EDUCATORS WITH THE PATRICIA F. KANE EDUCATION AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE - 2002

• BARNEGAT BAY SENIOR CITIZEN WATERSHED SEMINARS A SUCCESS!

WINTER 2003

• NJAS SCHOOL OF ECOLOGY – 
  A HIT WITH THE STUDENTS & STAFF

• NJAS HOSTS AN INTERNATIONAL INTERN 
  FROM PANAMA
  

FALL 2003

NJAS CONTINUES TO PRESERVE OASES ALONG THE FLYWAY

NJAS received a grant to continue its work about how NJ’s habitats support the needs of migratory songbirds.  Preserving Oases Along the Flyway – Phase II was made possible in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation through the generous support of American Airlines, a Proud Partner of America’s National Parks and in conjunction with the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route.  During this phase of the project the research department will continue to gather radar, weather surveillance, and acoustic data to determine when nocturnal migratory songbirds are moving and which habitats are most important as stopover sites to these birds.  In addition the education staff will interact with three high schools to involve students and teachers in the monitoring process.  They will learn about the natural history of these nocturnal migrants and how to interpret the radar and weather data.  They will also learn how to identify the flight calls of the nocturnal migrants so flock composition can be determined.  Student observation and data will become part of the growing body of research that helps NJAS identify key stopover habitats in the state. 

Click here for more information on songbird migration and the Preserving Oases program.

  - Dale Rosselet

EXPLORING RARITAN’S SHORES

The habitats along Raritan Bay’s shoreline have long been popular birding spots for serious birders, but it was not until NJAS’s Raritan Bay Wildlife Habitat Report, published in 1994, that we documented the wildlife diversity present in this highly populated area.  And we wanted to share some of those wonderful treasures with our members and the public. NJAS’s Sandy Hook Bird Observatory received a grant from the New York / New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program to conduct Exploring Raritan’s Shores, a series of family oriented walks.  Close to 60 people registered to join us on these forays that focused on bird watching and natural history interpretation.  Said Dale Rosselet, VP for Education, “This was a great introductory program for people to get to know the habitats in their own backyards as well as gain an understanding how valuable these habitats are to maintaining the diversity of plants and animals along the Raritan Bay.”

 - Scott Barnes, Sandy Hook Bird Observatory and Tara Miller, Plainsboro Preserve

SANDY HOOK BIRD OBSERVATORY’S MIGRATION WATCH

At this writing, SHBO’s migration watch is in full swing with close to 800 people having already visited the platform overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.  Besides the wonderful view, with sand dunes reaching to the shoreline and distant looks at Manhattan, it is also a great place to watch birds as they wing northward.  Bird numbers were not extremely high last season but much of that can be attributed to relentless northeast winds.  Even with less than perfect conditions, over 2,000 Northern Gannets were tallied, as were two Northern Goshawks, numerous Bald Eagles, and large flocks of waders and other large diurnal migrants (such as Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorants, Brant, etc.)  Besides counting migrating species, Dan Hegarty, the 2003 Migration Watch Counter, spent a good portion of his time being an education ambassador.  Among the visitors were many people from other states and countries and it was a great opportunity to talk with people about the mechanics of migration, the role that New Jersey’s habitats play in successful migration, and NJAS’s mission.  We hope to see you all there in Spring 2004!  The Migration Watch runs from March 15 to May 15 each year.

 - Scott Barnes, Sandy Hook Bird Observatory

BIRDS AND BOY SCOUTS FLOCK TOGETHER

On a beautiful March day the Plainsboro Preserve hosted an amazing event.  Thirty boy scouts and their parents, binoculars in hand, swarmed the Preserve with one thought in mind.  Birds.  Gary Wilson, NJAS Life Member and Bird Study Merit Badge Counselor for the Boy Scouts, combined his creativity and energy to revamp the Boy Scout’s Ornithology Merit Badge.  This new badge is more practical by allowing scouts to attain it in one day.  After morning lectures and identification tips, the scouts crowded around telescopes pointed over Lake McCormack.  They had to identify twenty species of birds, note their field marks and observe their behaviors.  The total species well exceeded the required 20 birds that day. However the sum of the day was not in a species total, nor the number of program participants, but in the brightness of the spark lit in these future birders. 

Click here for more information.

 - Brian Vernachio and Tara Miller, Plainsboro Preserve

NEW JERSEY’S COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

New Jersey always seems to be at the cutting edge when it comes to environmental issues and environmental education.   Part of this is because our state is small and our population is high – things happen here first which give us challenges to overcome on a regular basis.  In 1989, the New Jersey Commission on Environmental Education was created by Executive Order, and in 1993, Environmental Education in New Jersey:  A Plan of Action was adopted as a strategy to help increase the public’s awareness of and involvement with the environment and issues related to it.  Pat Kane, NJAS former VP for Education was one of the original members of this commission and was instrumental in helping to develop the original Plan of Action.  In keeping with New Jersey Audubon’s role as one of the leading environmental education organizations in the state, current VP for Education, Dale Rosselet has agreed to chair the Commission committee that will revise the Plan of Action after 10 years.  It is our intent to continue providing guidance to New Jersey’s citizens, businesses, state agencies, faith organizations, academics, environmental organizations and industries as they encourage their constituents to become aware of the interactions between natural and built environments.

- Dale Rosselet

SUMMER 2003

SONGBIRDS AT THE CROSSROADS OF MIGRATION

NJAS education staff has always tested our curriculum lessons with teachers and students before putting them to print.  It gives us the chance to work out any procedural inconsistencies and to strengthen the assessment portion of the lesson by listening to the questions people ask.  This was the intent at the 2003 ANJEE conference with several of the draft lessons from Songbirds at the Crossroads of Migration.  We anticipated a small group of formal and non-formal educators to attend the 1.5-hour workshop and had selected three or four lessons with which to work.  At five minutes before the workshop, the teachers started coming…and kept coming until there were people bringing in extra chairs, standing in the back, and sitting on the floor.  Mike Anderson counted 66 participants in the workshop!  With such an overwhelming attendance it was difficult to pilot the lessons we had in mind, but better than that was the fact that there was such a high interest in the subject of songbird migration!

- Dale Rosselet

NJAS KICKS OFF ITS LIBRARY STEWARDS PROGRAM

NJAS Members are encouraged to subscribe to the NJAS Magazine for their hometown public or school library, many of which operate on shoestring budgets and are not currently receiving this seasonal link to our phenomenal Natural State. Members are also invited to purchase one or more of our education publications (Bridges to the Natural World, NJ WATERS, Wild Journeys) in the name of their local community or school library.   Contact Dale Rosselet, VP for Education at 609-861-0700 x14 or your local NJAS Nature Center for more information.

PARTNERSHIPS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION …JUNIOR INTERN PROGRAM

The ongoing need for youth to experience and learn about the natural world as a basis for environmental stewardship has been the key to a successful partnership between NJ Audubon’s Nature Center of Cape May and the Rutgers Cooperative Extension – 4-H Youth Development Program in Cape May County. The Junior Intern Program provides innovative programming for the early teen audience and assistance for teacher naturalists conducting the eight-week Summer Science program Nature Center of Cape May.  Additional goals are to inspire junior high and high school youth to consider a career in marine or environmental science education through practical experiences.  It further attempts to encourage youth to spend a portion of their free time in preparation for future employment.

The project, designed in 1998, enrolled 12 students in the initial pilot group and 52 additional youth since then. Each year has a different focus including habitat studies of the Harbor, oyster ecology and restoration, a habitat exchange program with Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and storytelling.

B.J. Jesuncosky, Rutgers Cooperative Extension 4-H Agent provides training for the teen interns, program and teaching materials development, and orientation/training for teachers and naturalists serving as mentors. In 2000, the Junior Intern Program was recognized nationally by the US Department of Agriculture as one of their Programs of Excellence.

-BJ Jesuncosky, 4-H Agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension

SPRING 2003

CMBO RECEIVES AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

On September 19, 2002 at the 4th Annual Experience the Estuary celebration; NJAS's Cape May Bird Observatory received the "Excellence in the Estuary Award for Living Resources" from the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.  CMBO received this award for the outstanding educational programming that the Center provides to over 17,000 adults every year.  Pat Sutton, CMBO's Program Director attended the celebration to receive the award on behalf of the entire CMBO staff.

EDUCATION AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE - 2002

At the New Jersey Audubon Society annual fall weekend, two exemplary educators were presented the newly named Patricia F. Kane Environmental Education Awards of Excellence.

This year’s formal education award was given to Steve P. Temple, founder, coordinator, and driving force behind East Side High School’s Environmental Academy for Research, Technology, and Health in Paterson, NJ.  The EARTH Academy advances the idea of using the environment as an integrating context, encouraging students to make daily discoveries and raise questions while examining the quality of life in their communities. When students apply to the EARTH Academy Steve first looks at the student’s demonstrated interest, and then considers his or her past academic performance.  This thoughtful approach to EARTH Academy admissions enables students who may not have excelled in traditional classrooms to take advantage of otherwise unattainable opportunities for learning.  

Jini Gilchrist, Science Educator and Coordinator from the Newark Museum in Newark, NJ received the non-formal award, which recognizes those individuals who do not work in a classroom situation, but still have significant in the education world. Jini works as the coordinator of the Museum’s Science Explorer's (SE) program which has expanded from a club for inner city high school students nine years ago to well-rounded program that introduces students to geology, ecology, and environmental science concepts through a series of workshops, research projects, field trips and partnerships. 

BARNEGAT BAY SENIOR CITIZEN WATERSHED SEMINARS A SUCCESS!

When one imagines environmental education taking place, the image is usually of children with mud streaked faces in the woods, discovering the world around them.  Seldom does the image carry over to adults and rarely to “post adults” – those going into their second childhood.  With support from the Trust for Public Lands Barnegat Bay Environmental Grant Fund, and The Barnegat Bay Estuary Program, the New Jersey Audubon Society (NJAS) has been able to introduce citizens of all ages to the environmental significance of Barnegat Bay and it’s watershed. 

The Barnegat Bay Watershed is home to a large population of senior citizens.  This population plays an enormous role in the shaping of Ocean County; yet when it comes to environmental education, they are terribly under-served.  This fall and winter NJAS ran four workshops at several key locations in the watershed.  These workshops promoted awareness of Barnegat Bay’s ecological importance to this under-served populace, while providing them with a written site guide that they can use to visit places independently and share with family and friends the riches of the watershed.   These educational endeavors have resulted in the type of awareness that leads to the conservation of land, water and wildlife from the headwaters to the bay. For example, a recent attendee to the watershed seminars took part in a mapping activity that allowed her to see the connections of her property and neighboring property to the watershed.  This information was enough to fuel a grassroots effort that not only stopped an unwise development in the town, but also encouraged the municipality to purchase the land as open space.

WINTER 2003

NJAS SCHOOL OF ECOLOGY – A HIT WITH THE STUDENTS & STAFF

The fourth year of SOE began this past August with a four-day summer session in which students from Newark and West Milford participated in activities to learn more about the Passaic/Hackensack watershed.  The program is funded by generous grants from the Victoria Foundation and the Johanette Wallerstein Institute.   This year’s program promises to be the best yet with energetic and focused students as well as a cohesive NJAS staff teaching team. Each year we give a blow-by-blow report of the program, but we thought you’d like something a bit different.  All of the staff involved took time to reflect upon one striking aspect of the program that touched them in some way.  Here are their reflections. Enjoy!   – Brian Vernachio, Director Plainsboro Preserve, School of Ecology Coordinator

SCHOOL OF ECOLOGY - REFLECTIONS

It was 5am, dark and still; the heat was oppressive and another layer of humidity had been laid upon yesterday’s murky blanket. Forty-five minutes later on the mountain summit, 15 School of Ecology participants and myself were enjoying a refreshing cool breeze, a granola bar and the anticipation of sunrise and a brand new day. We started out in the dark, using flashlights to navigate the roots and glacial till along the trails. A few of the participants had never hiked before, let alone ventured out into the pre-dawn wilderness to ascend a 900-ft mountain. As we reached the summit, the first bands of light were washing over the horizon. The hikers “fell out” to explore Wyanokie High Point’s many faces and 360-degree view. Eventually they all settled on the mountain’s eastern face to watch and wait for morning together. The sun never did rise that day, at least not in any dramatic way.  It snuck past the hazy gray mountaintops in front of us, turning the sky blue above our heads, while the group sat together joking, laughing and sharing stories. A new day had begun.

-Philip DeRea Program Director Weis Ecology Center

As I watched the students working together, it became very clear to me that they were very interested in what they were doing and the reasons why they were involved in the School of Ecology in the first place.  It is always rewarding to see teenagers become truly interested and concerned about the environment.  It makes me realize how vital my job truly is and why I decided to follow this path.   Even though I was a bit intimidated working with people from other NJAS centers (being new to the organization), I can say it was yet another rewarding part to the past week.  It was an educational experience for myself observing different teaching styles and becoming familiar with the northern parts of New Jersey, not to mention a great opportunity to get to know staff from other centers. 

-Tara Miller, Teacher-Naturalist Plainsboro Preserve:

By the time we did the evening hike to the iron mine at Weis Ecology Center, I knew we had an excellent group of students.  Staff and students were already getting to know and trust one another through dialogue and sharing of personal events.  It was amazing to watch students from city and suburb who only met hours before stand together in a dark, damp mine, looking with surprise and wonder at giant Cave Crickets, a Leopard Frog, a Slimy Salamander, and understanding geology through reading the face and color of ancient rocks.  Outside the students and staff sat on rocks, watching the moon through the trees, sharing thoughts and ideas.  This was when the kids began to open up to each other, learning about life experiences in different environments while sharing a wonderful common experience called the School of Ecology.

-Scott Barnes, Teacher-Naturalist Sandy Hook Bird Observatory 

As I drove to the Weis Ecology Center I was a bit apprehensive about spending every minute of my nights and days with teenagers I had never met.  Twenty-one strangers stepped off the yellow school bus, collected their bags, and headed inside the building.  As I watched the anxious faces before me, I realized they felt the same way.  When each spoke, they began to take on individual personalities, a process that would last for four days.  I had gone to Weis to teach teens about watersheds and the environment.  What I didn’t expect was how much they would teach me.  They taught me about their enthusiasm, their courage, their fears, and their incredible excitement about learning. At the end of four days, the students loaded on the yellow school bus again.  This time I felt anxious in another way.  They hadn’t even left and I was already looking forward to seeing them all again in November.  I wanted to thank each one for the little moments we shared during our four days together.  I watched their faces with pride as they went by, knowing that these very bright and very special people are our future. 

-Mary Belko Teacher-Naturalist Rancocas Nature Center 

NJAS HOSTS AN INTERNATIONAL INTERN FROM PANAMA

Ms. Belkys Jimenez Ruiz from Panama Audubon Society joined the seasonal staff in Cape May for most of the month of September.  Ms. Ruiz came to New Jersey as part of the National Park Foundation’s Park Flight project entitled “Preserving Oases Along the Flyway.”   This program, funded through a generous grant from American Airlines®, seeks to identify opportunities that connect national parks in the United States to parks and protected areas in Mesoamerica.  NJAS and the National Park Service’s New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route established this partnership to further songbird conservation efforts in New Jersey.   

The goal of the overall project is to study nocturnal songbird migrations in southern New Jersey using Doppler radar and sound recordings.  This use of modern technology enables researchers to identify bird species and the specific stopover areas these birds use during their annual migrations.  Ms. Ruiz worked with the NJAS research staff in the field, learned about CMBO’s interpretive education programs, and spent time with the NJ Coastal Heritage Trail staff.

Ms. Ruiz brought a wealth of knowledge to the project from her extensive experience in conducting bird inventories and scientific investigations, teaching, and promoting natural history through ecotourism.  Likewise her presence during the height of bird migration truly gave an international flavor to our conservation efforts, which concentrate on preserving these songbird species of “two worlds.”

- Dale Rosselet and David Mizrahi

For additional information, call, write or email
 NJAS Department of Education
 Center for Research and Education
 600 Route 47 North
 Cape May Court House, NJ  08210
  (609) 861-0700  

New Jersey Audubon Society (NJAS) is a statewide, not-for-profit, membership organization committed to preserving New Jersey’s habitats and species biodiversity.  We invite your support through membership and participation in our programs.