Explorations - May 2008

[Pola Galie]

Restoring the Cathedrals of the Pine Barrens In the New Jersey Pinelands, not far from the Garden State Parkway and the Jersey shore, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is engaged in a partnership with the New Jersey Forest Service to restore historic stands of Atlantic white-cedar to their former glory. Called “the cathedrals of the Pine Barrens” by noted Pinelands author and naturalist Howard Boyd, groves of Atlantic white-cedar were once commonplace in the Pinelands and also along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from southern Maine to Florida. Today, centuries of improper logging, hydrologic changes, flooding from beaver, development and wildfire have reduced the number of stands of white cedar and as a consequence, habitat for imperiled species and breeding birds.  < Read the rest > Days of the Peregrine A Distance Learning Adventure The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ is proud to announce a new educational website, Days of the Peregrine.  This new website highlights the peregrine falcon, the world’s fastest animal and one of New Jersey’s endangered species.  Days of the Peregrine will bring New Jersey’s wildlife into classrooms around the state and engage local children in studies of an endangered species living with them in their community.  The new website will provide structured lessons for teachers and interactive sections for students to engage them in the lives of a peregrine falcon family.  < Lots more and photos here > Go Batty This Summer 43 bats in a bat box Don’t know what to do this summer?  How about helping some of our most endangered wildlife residents?  Volunteer and participate in the Summer Bat Count!  We are looking for volunteers to help protect one of the most endangered land mammal groups in the United States, bats.   < Check out more > Towns Making a Difference in Amphibian Conservation! This year, Independence Township of Warren County, implemented the difficult and not-so-widely-accepted road closure in an effort to save hundreds, possibly thousands, of frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts as they made their way from the upland wintering grounds to their lowland breeding pools.  The Endangered and Nongame Species Program and the NJ Audubon Society worked with over fifty dedicated volunteers to monitor this site (and others) and collect data on the migration.  Unfortunately, due to quickly warming temperatures, the first migration occurred very early (March 4; normally occurring mid-March – 3rd week of March), and volunteers individually went to the site over the course of a 3-hour period observing approximately 60 amphibians along a 100 meter stretch of road (the study area)…these were the early migrants…eager to get to the breeding pools!  < Read more > Fifth Graders Catch a Glipse of New Jersey's Rare Wildlife The Species on the Edge Art & Essay Contest is our largest education program. Created in 2003, to raise awareness for New Jersey’s endangered and threatened wildlife species among New Jersey fifth graders, it is now 5 years old and adopted by teachers and schools across the state. Using art and writing as a focus, the contest encourages educators to teach about NJ’s endangered and threatened species across disciplines such as science, reading and writing, art, and technology.  Student’s research a species of wildlife considered threatened or endangered in New Jersey. With guidance from their teachers, they write an essay detailing the needs of the species and the challenges to its future existence. They then create artwork depicting the species in its natural habitat.  < Here's the rest of the article > Vandals Put New Jersey's Largest Bat Population at Risk Once a source of iron ore, Hibernia Mine in northwestern New Jersey should have been left to slumber peacefully as a forgotten industrial site. Instead, over the years it became an important  winter home for thousands of bats – one of our most vulnerable and beneficial small creatures. It also attracted vandals, who persist in disturbing the bats as they hibernate. An entire population of 10,000 bats is at risk. We have tried to close the mine entrance, but youthful vandals keep breaking in, mindless to the destruction they cause to animals seeking only a safe place to spend the winter. These animals will survive, but only if we raise enough money to install a tamper-proof gate at the entrance to Hibernia Mine.  < More info and learn how you can help > Editorial – For what it’s worth In the last edition of Explorations MacKenzie Hall gave us some excellent examples of resolutions to start the new year in an environmentally friendly way and if you have kept those resolutions at least part of the time, the world is already a better place.  Why?  You were aware of something that could easily be done that helped to create or support wildlife habitat and it wasn’t too hard or too expensive.  By now, it may have even become second nature as the spring brings its special rewards as birds don their breeding plumage and appear spectacular at the feeders or baths; even as butterflies and other small animals seem to appear out of nowhere.  < You can help ~ read more > Member of Donate Directly to CWF via PayPal