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May 10th, 2012
RELEASE: May 10, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 19
When it comes to wildlife, New Jersey is well positioned. Not only does the Garden State have highly diverse geography – from the mountains of the Highlands to the ocean beaches, from the Pine Barrens to the tidal marshes of the Delaware Bayshore – but it’s at the sweet spot where northern and southern ecosystems overlap.
That adds up to great wildlife viewing opportunities close to home. With 325 resident and migratory bird species, 90 mammal species, 79 reptile and amphibian species and over 400 species of fish, New Jersey beats most of the 50 states, even Alaska, on species per square mile!
Invertebrates, especially insects, are spectacularly diverse. Insects make up three-quarters of the world’s species, and New Jersey has tens of thousands of species of butterflies, moths, beetles, damselflies and other insects. Hundreds are rare, and there are even more species awaiting discovery.
Now’s the time to get outdoors and see bald eagles plucking fish from the water, beavers building dams, black bears foraging for berries, red foxes running through meadows and butterflies alighting on wildflowers. Here are some tips for watching wildlife.
If you’re looking for a particular animal, do your homework. Each one has its own specific habitat requirements. Before you set out, learn when and where the animal feeds and nests. Dawn and dusk are the best times for mammal activity; warm, sunny afternoons are best for butterflies and dragonflies.
Pick your vantage point carefully, and don’t let the animals know you’re there. Use hills, hollows, ridges, gullies and tree lines to blend into the landscape. Cars make great blinds, if there’s a place where you can park and watch.
Go for camouflage: Wear muted, natural colors and unscented lotions, and avoid clothes that rustle. Leave your pets at home!
Keep your distance: Use binoculars and scopes; you’ll see greater detail. Don’t try to sneak up too close. If an animal reacts to your presence, back off and leave it alone.
Move like molasses: You’ll have a better chance if you move slowly and quietly. Just as you can spot wildlife by looking for movement, they spot you the same way.
Use all of your senses: Take in sounds and smells, as well as sights. In fact, closing your eyes for a few minutes can heighten your sense of hearing.
Respect the environment: Stick to marked trails, and don’t disturb plants, bushes or branches around nests or dens. Pick up litter and report vandalism.
Chill out: Unlike humans, wild animals don’t follow schedules. Allow plenty of time. Successful wildlife viewing takes patience, a relaxed pace and a little luck. It’s a lifetime learning experience, so the more you practice, the better you’ll get!
For detailed descriptions of more than 100 of the Garden State’s best places to view wildlife, pick up the New Jersey Wildlife Guide, published by the state Division of Fish & Wildlife; it’s available through most online book sellers. You can also find out more through the Division’s “Watchable Wildlife” webpage at www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/watchabl.htm.
And for more information on conserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, go to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: Michele Byers, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, outdoors, viewing tips, wildlife
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May 4th, 2012
RELEASE: May 4, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 18
This past winter was the mildest in recorded history. While this was a plus for many – no plowing, no shoveling! – it wasn’t good for our honeybee colonies.
Instead of staying snug in their hives, expending little energy and consuming little food, the confused honeybees buzzed out into the warm weather, searching for pollen and nectar. Not finding much, they returned to their hives hungry and quickly depleted the stores of honey they needed to survive.
Beekeeper Shaun Ananko, who teaches beekeeping courses for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey and Grow It Green Morristown, says some colonies actually starved.
While lots of folks may be more apprehensive than appreciative toward honeybees, everyone should be concerned about their health and wellbeing.
If there’s one thing sweeter than honey, it’s the service honeybees provide: pollinating the food crops that make New Jersey the Garden State.
New Jersey is a big grower of cranberries, blueberries, melons, pumpkins, squash and other fruits and vegetables. All of these plants need pollinators to carry the pollen from blossom to blossom, ultimately resulting in fruit.
Honeybees, although not native to North America (they’re a European import), have become heavy lifters in pollinating our crops. They’re responsible for about a third of our food production. But honeybees have been under stress in recent years. Colonies have collapsed due to parasitic mites, and researchers believe that pesticides have also taken a toll.
In addition to carrying pollen from flower to flower, honeybees sip nectar from the flowers and use an enzyme within their bodies to produce delicious honey. Ananko says a healthy hive can produce up to 60 pounds of honey in excess of what it needs to store for the winter … that is, barring a winter like the last.
Other crop pollinators include solitary bees like native mason bees and bumblebees, which live in tunnels or burrows and don’t work as part of a collective. If our Jersey tomatoes are famous, it’s bumblebees who should share the credit! Bumblebees vibrate at a certain pitch that is perfect for releasing the tomato flower’s pollen onto their bodies.
How can we help New Jersey’s pollinators thrive?
First, allow wildflowers – known in less enlightened quarters as weeds – to grow freely on your property. Who really wants to spend time weeding, anyway? Let the clover bloom!
Honeybees and other pollinators require a variety of blooming plants throughout the spring, summer and fall to provide a continuous food source, so keep that need for diversity in mind when planting a flower garden.
Finally, find alternatives to pesticides. We now have enough evidence to know that spraying pesticides is harmful to our pollinators.
So bee kind to pollinators! For more information, visit the New Jersey Beekeepers Association website at http://njbeekeepers.org or the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service website at www.nj.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/whip/Pollinators.html.
And if you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: agriculture, beekeeping, environment, farming, honeybees, Michele Byers, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, pollinators
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April 26th, 2012
RELEASE: April 26, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 17
Have you ever seen a Pickering’s morning glory, an American chaffseed flower or a three birds orchid?
If you have, you’re probably an experienced botanist! They’re among New Jersey’s rarest native plants. But unless action is taken to protect these rare plants and others, you may never get to see them. Without protection, they could disappear entirely!
For centuries, plants have gotten the short end of the conservation stick.
Wildlife and forestry agencies were established around 1900 to manage timber and game. Protecting endangered animals became a popular cause around 1970, but it wasn’t until the late 1980s that a Natural Heritage Program within the state Department of Environmental Protection was created for New Jersey’s rare plants.
Unfortunately, the Natural Heritage Program has never had the resources to implement most of its rare plant protection strategies.
Our state’s Endangered Plant Species List Act of 1989 only requires a list of our endangered plants, as well as those considered “species of special concern.” There’s no real statewide protection for these rare plants.
You may be surprised to learn how many rare plants occupy this state we’re in. Although New Jersey is the nation’s most densely populated state, it is also home to nearly 2,200 native plants. Of those, more than a third – 882 plant species – are considered rare. Fifty-two are globally rare, and a handful is found nowhere else in the world!
Why should we care about plants? One compelling reason is to preserve biodiversity. If a huge chunk of our native plants disappear, so will many rare animals – for example, butterflies like the Arogos Skipper, whose caterpillars feed only upon a particular dwindling plant.
It’s possible to rescue rare plants on the brink, like Pickering’s Morning Glory (Stylisma pickeringii), a native of the Pine Barrens. There were once more than 25 large, healthy populations, but today only three remain.
To address this dwindling population, volunteers from New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the New Jersey Natural Heritage Program began blocking illegal off-road vehicles, cleaning up dumped construction debris, cutting tree limbs that were shading the plants, and collecting data on population size and reproductive success.
Jay Kelly, a professor at Raritan Valley College, is working to save the federally-endangered American Chaffseed (Schwalbea americana) from the brink of extinction. Once found from North Carolina to Massachusetts, the plant now survives in only one small patch in Brendan Byrne State Forest in the Pine Barrens.
Chaffseed must have growing-season wildfires to create its habitat, and its seeds must land amidst the roots of a host plant, usually a native aster. Dr. Kelly figured that out and is now growing seedlings to maturity and painstakingly returning the plant to its former haunts!
Hundreds of other rare species are declining due to development, ill-timed cosmetic mowing of roadsides, hungry deer herds, draining of wetlands, lack of wildfires, logging that lets in sunlight and invasive weeds, and even poaching.
It’s not too late for New Jersey to protect its rare and endangered plants!
The Pinelands Preservation Alliance, Partnerships for New Jersey Plant Conservation and New Jersey Conservation Foundation have drafted a New Jersey Native Plant Protection Act that, if enacted, would legally protect rare plants and rare ecological communities. It won’t succeed without the help of outdoor enthusiasts, naturalists, botanists and all individuals and groups concerned with rare species, biodiversity and natural beauty.
For information, please visit the Pinelands Preservation Alliance website at www.pinelandsalliance.org/protection/work/currentissues/ecological/rareplantprotection or contact Amy Karpati at amy@pinelandsalliance.org to sign on as a supporter or to schedule a presentation for your organization.
And if you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org .
Tags: environment, Michele Byers, native plants, Natural Heritage Program, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, rare plants
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April 19th, 2012
RELEASE: April 19, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 16
According to English poet John Donne, “No man is an island, entire of itself.”
Art and Nan Kellam bought an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine in 1949 and lived there for more than 35 years, content with little more than each other’s company. They had no electricity or running water, and heated the house they built with firewood from their forest. To fetch supplies, they rowed a dory several miles to the mainland and back.
New Jersey native and avid conservationist Peter Blanchard III tells the unusual love story of Art and Nan Kellam in “We Were an Island,” a book based largely on journals kept by the Kellams.
For Blanchard, the book holds important lessons about conservation and the way people come to treasure the places they live. “It’s a statement of love for a landscape,” he says.
The isolated kingdom chosen by the Kellams was Placentia Island, a forested 550-acre island a few miles from Acadia National Park. They moved to the island as part of a quest to lead a simple life, free of technology and modern contrivances.
They were pioneers in living “off the grid,” but they weren’t part of any idealistic sustainability movement. Rather, freedom was their cause. “They made a conscious decision to inhabit a world that they had total control over,” says Blanchard.
They aimed toward self-sufficiency – building things rather than buying them, growing what foods they could in their garden – but they seemed motivated more by a desire to stretch a modest income than by serving as a model.
The Kellams weren’t naturalists or conservationists at the outset, but they experienced a growing awareness and appreciation for nature’s power and beauty. In fact, they ended up donating their beloved island to the Maine chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
“They didn’t want to see their land destroyed or built on, so they took the conservation route,” says Blanchard. They retained a “life estate” that allowed them exclusive use of Placentia during their lifetimes.
Blanchard learned of the Kellams when he volunteered for the Nature Conservancy, and was inspired to tell their story. Part of his fascination with the Kellams’ lifestyle came from parallels with his own life.
Peter grew up in Short Hills on a secluded estate surrounded by preserved lands. He is now the primary force behind turning the family home into public open space – Greenwood Gardens – operated by a nonprofit organization.
He is often asked whether it makes him sad to see his family’s private estate become public. His answer: No, not at all. “You want to see a property you love have a life beyond that of the individual owner,” he explains.
Peter also owns two islands near Placentia – Black Island and Sheep Island – that have been permanently preserved, and is part-owner of a third preserved island, Pond Island. But he shies away from the term “owner,” believing that’s not an apt description for a temporary position. “I’m the caretaker,” he insists.
Today, Placentia Island is a public nature preserve. All that remains of the Kellams’ modest homestead are some stone foundations – and a square of cement with their footprints.
The Kellams may have considered themselves an island, but their generous donation proves otherwise. Their conservation gift links them forever to all of humanity, allowing others to share the joy of experiencing the place they treasured.
For more information about “We Were an Island,” published by the University Press of New England, go to www.upne.com/1584658603.html. To learn more about Peter Blanchard’s efforts to convert Greenwood Gardens into one of the Garden State’s most environmentally accessible open spaces, go to www.greenwoodgardens.org.
And if you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org .
Tags: "We Were an Island", Art and Nan Kellam, environment, Maine, Michele Byers, nature, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Peter Blanchard, Placentia Island
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April 12th, 2012
RELEASE: April 12, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 15
On early spring nights with just the right conditions – rainy, over 40 degrees and no frozen ground – huge numbers of frogs, toads and salamanders suddenly respond to nature’s call. Venturing from their winter burrows in wooded uplands, they head to the marshy lowlands and vernal pools of their birth, where instinct leads them to return and mate.
For the luckiest amphibians, there will be no roads along their route. But for those whose paths are crossed by pavement, there’s a hardy and dedicated group of humans who stay awake on chilly, wet nights to shuttle them to safety.
For the past 10 years, this group has helped the amphibians of this state we’re in – including wood frogs, spotted salamanders, spring peepers and Jefferson salamanders – survive road crossings where the mortality rate could otherwise be as high as 50 percent.
“These amphibians are pretty single-minded,” says MacKenzie Hall, a biologist with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, who leads the amphibian crossing program. “They can sense the water, they really can.” What they can’t sense, of course, is the danger of traffic.
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation partners with the New Jersey Audubon Society and the New Jersey Endangered and Nongame Species Program on the amphibian crossing project, training volunteers to literally stop traffic at certain places in northern New Jersey to help the amphibians cross. At other times, they simply scoop the critters up and carry them to the other side.
Since 2002, volunteers have rescued untold thousands of frogs, salamanders and toads from the perilous treads of rubber meeting the road. While they’re at the crossings, they also collect data on the numbers and species seen. On certain peak nights, there have been as many as 1,800 amphibians counted at a single location!
The New York Times once described these volunteer helpers as “Chaperones to an Amphibian Dance,” but they’re actually more like school crossing guards. They dress in reflective safety vests, carry flashlights and keep a sharp eye out for their charges – in this case, small, shiny creatures appearing along damp road shoulders.
They even place “Frog Crossing” signs in the middle of the road on migration nights. Now, that gets attention!
The program began in Warren County at a particularly ominous spot – Shades of Death Road. (No, it wasn’t named for the frogs that didn’t make it.) This year there are six amphibian crossing locations in Warren, Sussex and Passaic counties, with about 130 volunteers.
Hall says the program may expand in future years to other locations in central and southern New Jersey.
Another idea being considered is building culverts underneath roads in priority locations so that amphibians can cross safely on their own. A feasibility study will be help determine if grants are available to pay the estimated $500,000 per site that it would cost to build culverts.
Why is it so important to save amphibians?
Amphibians are regarded by many scientists as indicators of our ecological health. Harmful environmental changes such as pollutants and higher aquatic temperatures will impact the amphibian population first. And when we see problems with amphibians, it’s just a matter of time before other vertebrates – fish, reptiles, birds and mammals – are affected.
Unfortunately, New Jersey’s amphibians are already in decline, especially those who rely on vernal pools (springtime woodland ponds) for reproduction. Vernal pools are no longer protected by New Jersey’s Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act, since the New Jersey Builders Association prevailed in a lawsuit against the state Department of Environmental Protection.
But it’s great to know that individuals and organizations are lending a hand to ensure the survival of these vulnerable animals. It’s more important than ever to preserve lands with vernal pools, before they get paved for houses, roads and shopping centers!
For more information about volunteering for the amphibian crossing program, visit the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey website at http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/protecting/projects/amphibian_crossing.
And if you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: amphibians, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, frogs, Michele Byers, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, road crossings, salamanders
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April 5th, 2012
RELEASE: April 5, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 14
Does the prospect of paying $5 per gallon for gasoline make you wish you could walk instead? If so, a recent Monmouth University poll shows you’re not alone. People all across this state we’re in are looking for more “walkable” communities.
Neighborhoods within walking distance of shopping, services and mass transit are termed “sustainable communities” in the Monmouth poll. Two-thirds of New Jerseyans said that the Garden State needs more walkable communities, and three-quarters said they would help the state’s economic development.
Sustainable communities aren’t a revolutionary concept. In fact, New Jersey has long tried to adopt these principles by steering growth toward areas that already have infrastructure like roads, mass transit and sewers. But without strong leadership and targeted incentives, development in New Jersey has continued to sprawl across our farms and forests.
The Monmouth University poll demonstrates that it’s not just open space advocates and “tree-huggers” who are disenchanted with sprawl. Over 70 percent of those surveyed felt the past 20 years of development have made New Jersey LESS affordable, and over half feel it’s now harder to get around.
What makes these numbers even more interesting is their historic context, coming on the heels of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
The Monmouth poll asked respondents about 10 state priorities. Not surprisingly, the number of people saying it was “very important” to attract new business and create jobs rose significantly, from 50 percent in 2000 to 88 percent in 2011. Conversely, those who felt slowing the rate of development was very important fell from 51 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2011.
At the same time, though, there was general agreement that the highest priority is still protecting our drinking water supply – 91 percent of respondents, across all party lines, felt this was very important.
So how do we interpret these seemingly contrary trends? Here’s my take: New Jerseyans are savvy; they want economic growth done right, and they understand that sustainable communities are part of the solution.
Other surveys find the desire for walkable communities particularly strong among younger adults. A survey by real estate advisor Robert Charles Lesser & Co. found that 77 percent of “Millennials” (the 20-something generation) say they want to live where they are “close to each other, to services… and to work, and they would rather walk than drive.”
As the “Baby Boomer” generation morphs into empty-nesters and retirees, many of them will no longer need or want large homes in auto-dependent suburbs.
New Jersey’s diverse cities, towns and villages can easily capitalize on these trends – with walkable downtowns, rail hubs and mass transit connections to major cities like New York and Philadelphia.
You can download the Monmouth university study and find out more about sustainable communities at the New Jersey Future website (www.njfuture.org/2011/10/11/monmouth-poll-nj-development).
And if you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: gas prices, Michele Byers, Monmouth University poll, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, sustainable communities, walkable communities
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March 29th, 2012
RELEASE: March 29, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 13
The box office success of The Lorax, with an environmental message delivered by a hairy orange tree advocate, has renewed interest in the classic 1971 Dr. Seuss book of the same name.
With any luck, The Lorax might give a big boost to other children’s books that promote a love of nature and the outdoors.
A new study in the journal Sociological Inquiry found that if picture books are any indication, children are increasingly isolated from nature. Researchers analyzed the pictures in 296 Caldecott Medal winning books from 1938 to 2008.
Pictures are critical, since the prestigious Caldecott Medal awards go to children’s books with the best illustrations. Caldecott books have strong sales and prominent placements in schools and libraries, meaning winners can have a huge influence on young readers.
The study found that before 1960, illustrations of the natural world and the man-made world were about equal. But Caldecott Medal winners after 1960 were twice as likely to show indoor, man-made environments.
“These findings suggest that today’s generation of children is not being socialized, at least through this source, toward an understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the place of humans within it,” according to the study’s authors.
Is art imitating life, life imitating art – or a bit of both? Doesn’t it seem natural that if a child’s imagination is filled with trees, birds, mountains, valleys, bugs, flowers, animals, sun, rain, snow, moon and stars, that child is more likely to grow up to love the outdoors and care about the environment?
Richard Louv, author of the 2005 Last Child in the Woods, coined the term “nature deficit disorder” to describe the affliction of kids who spent too much time glued to TV and computer screens.
How about getting our kids off to a running start (running through the woods and fields, of course) by introducing them to books that fire their imaginations and inspire a sense of wonder about the natural world?
Here are a few suggestions:
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (the 1964 Caldicott winner) are both classics in which there’s no separation between humans and animals. It’s completely natural for Christopher Robin to wander through the Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh and Piglet, or for Max to become king of the wild forest and sea of his imagination.
The charming Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey was a Caldecott Award winner in 1942. Other Caldecott winners include The Rooster Crows (1946), Song of the Swallows (1950), Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears (1976), The Polar Express (1986), Owl Moon (1988), and My Friend Rabbit (2003) and Flotsam (2007).
It’s not only picture books but stories as well that mesmerize and fire imaginations. Misty of Chincoteague, for example, has inspired many a family to visit Chincoteatue Island, Va., to watch the wild ponies wandering along the beaches. And no one who reads Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little will ever view spiders, pigs and mice the same way again!
There are far too many children’s books about nature to list – some old, some new. Parent & Child magazine recently released a list of 100 greatest books for children, including many about nature, animals and the outdoors – see it at www.scholastic.com/100books. For more recommendations, visit your local library or bookstore.
Read a nature book to a child today, and nurture a new generation that will care about the Earth and its creatures! As that Dr. Seuss says in The Lorax, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
For more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: Caldecott Medal, children's books, Lorax, Michele Byers, nature, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, outdoors, Reading
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March 22nd, 2012
RELEASE: March 22, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 12
In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray lives the same 24 hours over and over again.
New Jersey is having its own Groundhog Day with a law known as the Permit Extension Act, which keeps outdated development permits alive. The act was first passed in 2008, and a new version is now before the state Legislature.
Thanks to work by environmental advocates, citizens and champions in the Legislature, the bill was held just before a vote was to be taken. But that doesn’t means the bill is gone; the Legislature could bring it to a vote at any time.
If passed, the Permit Extension Act would not only tack two extra years onto the life of development permits that would have expired years ago – extending them through 2014 – but would also open up large areas of the Highlands and Pinelands regions to development.
This newly-proposed act is even worse than the 2008 law. It includes a “Dracula clause” that would allow dead development permits – those whose approvals have expired – to be brought back to life.
Most people would agree that land use and development permits should not be based on outdated information and changed conditions.
But if this bill becomes law, stalled and expired development projects could proceed, even if they don’t meet current environmental and public health standards, building codes or local zoning regulations.
In this state we’re in, much can change after permits are issued. Towns increase in population, sewer capacity shrinks, water supplies dwindle, schools fill to capacity, traffic gridlocks, and contaminants are found on former industrial sites. Zoning laws and rules change, new scientific data comes to light, better health and environmental protection regulations are put into place, construction codes improve for safety, and “green” standards are adopted to increase energy efficiency.
But these changing conditions and new regulations won’t matter in many cases if the Permit Extension Act becomes law. A blanket permit extension would allow projects to avoid a new review of public health, economic and environmental impacts.
Supporters of the bill claim it’s needed to help boost New Jersey’s economy, especially the construction sector. By stopping the clock on permit expirations, and not requiring developers to re-apply for approvals, the legislature would save the building industry countless dollars.
But the true cost would come out of New Jersey’s quality of life, with more water pollution, increased sprawl, reduced drinking water supply, more flooding, and loss of local control for municipalities. New “green” building standards couldn’t be enforced.
Permits expire for a reason – to protect public health, safety and environmental quality as conditions change and we learn more. By giving away blanket permit extensions, New Jersey will circumvent a process it should be supporting.
Here in the nation’s most densely populated state, a healthy environment is needed for a healthy economy. People want to live, work and play in communities with clean air and water and parks.
The Permit Extension Act has been put on hold, and should be allowed to die a quick death, including that final wooden stake in Dracula’s heart!
Please contact your legislators and ask them to oppose the Permit Extension Act, A1338/S743. To find your legislators, go to http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp.
If you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: development permits, Dracula clause, Michele Byers, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Permit Extension Act
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March 16th, 2012
RELEASE: March 16, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 11
“Thursday night massacre, kangaroo court, gutless, nasty, dirty politics, and Soviet style governance” are just a few of the terms being used to describe the actions of a majority of the New Jersey Highlands Council members this week when they abruptly voted 9-5 to remove their highly competent and effective executive director, Eileen Swan, without warning or justification. Five members of the Council strongly protested the vote.
The firing is the boldest salvo to date in what appears to be a concerted effort by the Christie Administration to undo the protections of the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (the Act), which was adopted in 2004 to secure the water supply for some six million people – over two-thirds of the residents of this state were in.
The Act to protect the Highlands water and other natural and cultural resources was the outcome of nearly 20 years of hard-fought efforts. The importance of the Highlands Region to provide this water was officially recognized over 100 years ago!
The Act also called for a Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council to create a Regional Master Plan to guide development into appropriate areas and protect the area’s forests, farmland, wildlife, historic sites, recreational opportunities and scenic beauty.
The Council was established as an independent state agency, with its members appointed by the governor from both political parties, municipal and county government, and citizens. Over the past two years, Governor Christie has filled a majority of Council terms, many of them with avowed opponents of the Highlands Act. And on Thursday night, which also happened to be “the Ides of March,” this majority fired Swan.
All of the Council members took an oath of office to uphold the Highlands Act. Nearly all the members had, over the past six months, expressed their confidence in the competence of the executive director. Nevertheless, these Council members voted to oust her, clearly demonstrating that they care more about politics than protection of the Highlands and its water supply.
Removing the executive director in this manner undermines the integrity of the Highlands Council, and, unfortunately, appears to signal Governor Christie’s intent to dismantle and weaken all Highlands protections.
According to Michael Catania, a former Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, “The firing came after literally hours of testimony strongly supporting Swan from a wide variety of representatives of the environmental community, elected officials, and even former Council members. Swan was hailed as an extraordinary and exemplary manager and leader who worked well with local officials, motivated her staff, and successfully guided the council in its efforts to adopt a landmark regional master plan for an area that provides drinking water to almost 6 million New Jersey residents.
“Despite this overwhelming support – as well as the vociferous opposition from a handful of its own members – the new Christie Council majority flexed its muscle and, citing the ‘need to make a change,’ unceremoniously dumped its executive director of five years without so much as one substantive criticism of her work.
Moments after this dismissal Deputy Director Thomas Borden, who was named acting executive director in the same resolution, calmly submitted his immediate resignation, saying it’s a matter of “conscience.”
In over 30 years of New Jersey’s regional planning history – which includes the establishment of the Pinelands Commission, the Highlands Council, the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission, and the Meadowlands Commission – no agency has handled the removal of their executive staff so poorly. In fact, some of New Jersey’s regional planning agencies are considered national models of successful land use management.
The time has come to speak up for New Jersey’s long-term water supply!
Please contact Governor Christie and urge him to support the implementation of the current Highlands Regional Master Plan, the strong Highlands rules of the Department of Environmental Protection, and to continue funding the purchase of conservation lands in the Highlands.
To contact the Governor, go to http://www.nj.gov/governor/contact to send an email, or telephone the Governor’s office at 609-292-6000.
If you’d like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources, please visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: Eileen Swan, Highlands, Highlands Council, Michele Byers, New Jersey, water protection act
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March 8th, 2012
RELEASE: March 9, 2012 – Volume XLV, No. 10
Ducks Unlimited celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and it’s a great opportunity to learn more about its work. Ducks Unlimited too often “flies under the radar,” yet it is a model of how hunters and anglers have contributed for decades to natural habitat conservation.
Ducks Unlimited was officially incorporated in 1937, but its roots go back even earlier to an organization called the “More Game Birds in America Foundation.” Both groups were fostered by Joseph P. Knapp, an insurance and publishing mogul, and several other influential hunters who were concerned that the destruction of wetlands and waterfowl habitat was causing a dramatic decline in ducks and other water birds.
In his 1945 book, The Ducks Came Back, author S. Kip Farrington Jr. described the sad state of duck hunting at that time: “Duck hunters all over the United States were putting their fowling pieces in mothballs or attempting to sell them… It just isn’t worthwhile to go duck hunting these days—having to get up early in the morning or sit out in hard weather for a shot or two all day.”
Since then, Ducks Unlimited has grown to over 579,000 members from all over the world, and has helped preserve over 12 million acres of North American waterfowl habitat.
Ducks Unlimited uses science-based conservation techniques to save and restore habitat – more than 61.4 million acres so far. Restoration areas include forest, grasslands and watershed habitats. Ducks Unlimited works with landowners to improve wildlife habitat; and it advocates for sound public policies.
As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, Ducks Unlimited is highlighting one project in each state and the “best of the best.” In New Jersey, they have selected New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s Franklin Parker Preserve in Burlington County. This expansive property encompasses almost 14 square miles in the heart of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
Ducks Unlimited partnered with New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service to restore 1,100-acres of cranberry bogs to natural wetlands. It’s the largest freshwater wetlands restoration program in this state we’re in – in fact, in the entire northeast – and it won a 2011 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award!.
As part of the restoration, an extensive, man-made water control system was dismantled. Canals were plugged and dikes were breached to allow the water table to once again fluctuate naturally. Densely compacted earth was broken apart to form hummocks and pools, and more than 35,000 native trees were planted by scores of volunteers. Ducks Unlimited provided expertise in project design and construction to restore the hydrology of the site in a way that will provide rich and productive wetlands and waterfowl habitat forever.
Already, the restored wetlands at Franklin Parker Preserve are a bird-watcher’s delight; there’s no waterfowl hunting. Among the waterfowl that have been spotted there are wood ducks, hooded mergansers, tundra swans, black ducks and mallards. Other wetlands-loving birds at the preserve include bald eagles, great blue herons, kingfishers, harriers and great egrets.
We wish Ducks Unlimited continued success in the next 75 years! You can learn more about the organization – and find Ducks Unlimited events in New Jersey – at their anniversary website, www.ducks.org/75th . You can learn more about the Franklin Parker Preserve at New Jersey Conservation Foundation website – www.njconservation.org/franklinparkerpreserve.htm or by contacting me at info@njconservation.org.
Tags: Ducks Unlimited, environment, land preservation, Michele Byers, New Jersey, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, restoration, wetlands
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