Archive for May 2025

By Alison Mitchell, Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation Once there was a superabundance of horseshoe crabs; armadas of females blanketed the beaches of the Delaware Bayshore. Through the 1990s, New Jersey’s horseshoe crab breeding and coinciding red knot shorebird migration was a spectacular natural phenomenon. “On the sand, there were around 50,000 horseshoe crab…

By Alison Mitchell, Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation The second largest New Jersey wildfire in 20 years broke out in Lacey Township, Ocean County on April 22, 2025. Started by an illegal bonfire west of the Garden State Parkway, the Jones Road Fire burned over 15,000 acres of the Pine Barrens, including much of…

By Alison Mitchell, Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation For a brief but magical window in late April and early May, New Jersey becomes a crucial stopover for one of nature’s tiniest travelers: the ruby-throated hummingbird. As the only species of hummingbird that breeds in eastern North America, these dazzling little birds make an incredible…