New Jersey Wineries

Renault Winery, Egg Harbor City   renaultwinery.com

New Jersey has a growing wine industry with more than 40 wineries producing over 225 different varieties of wines from dry and semi-dry to sparkling and fruit and dessert wines.

Most people think of taking winery tours in the autumn, but there are New Jersey wine festivals, special events, wine-tastings and new wine releases all year.

The Garden State Wine Growers Association as information on all of them.

For example, the “Blues & Wine Festival” is May 28 & 29, 2011 at Natirar Park in Peapack-Gladstone, NJ.

There's also a “Mother’s Day Wine Trail Weekend” on May 7 & 8, at participating wineries across the state.

For a list of NJ wineries and their websites, see http://www.state.nj.us/jerseyfresh/wine.htm

White-Nose Disease Has Killed A Million Bats So Far

White-nose disease was first discovered in a single bat cave in upstate New York in 2006. Since then, the fatal fungal illness, which shows up as white patches on the faces and wings of hibernating bats, has spread to 16 states and crossed the Canadian border. The fungus, Geomyces destrucans, is now killing bats in caves, mine shafts, and abandoned buildings as far south as North Carolina, and as far west as Oklahoma. Biologists say that a million bats have died so far, and they add that, unless a way is found to stop the disease, within two decades bats may be entirely extirpated from some regions of the country.

The little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) has been hardest hit by the sickness—but that’s only because the little brown is the most common of our bat species. There are 22 other species of American bats that also hibernate in caves, and many of those bats are being affected as well...

Bats apparently spread the disease to one another when they gather in groups to hibernate. Biologists note that damp, cool caves are ideal places for a fungus to grow. According to scientists, people may also unwittingly be spreading the disease on their shoes and clothing when they travel from one cave to another. As a result, wildlife biologists recommend that people stay out of caves where bats are hibernating.

Another way people can help bats is by using as few pesticides as possible. Each night, bats eat up to two-thirds of their body weight in insects, and when the insects they eat have been exposed to insecticides, the poisonous chemicals can quickly build up to levels that cause reproductive problems, or even death, in the bats.

White-Nose Disease Has Killed A Million Bats So Far: —And There’s No Cure On The Horizon

Coyotes

Coyote sightings in NJ will probably increase in the next month or so. Coyotes bear litters during April and May, and this is when encounters with humans is more likely to occur. Females deliver between three and nine pups, and they are most likely to cross paths with humans (and their pets) as the adults forage for food for the pups in the spring and summer.

Coyotes are very adaptable and though their preferred prey is rabbits, mice, birds and other small animals, they will use whatever is available, such as garbage, pet food and domestic animals that are left unattended and carrion that they find. And, like our Jersey black bears, they are learning to be quite tolerant of human activities and allowing both species access to human food and garbage can lead to problems.

Although attacks on humans are extremely rare in eastern states, as with any predatory animal they can occur and in suburban and urban areas, coyotes have occasionally attacked small pets.

Coyotes play an important role in the ecosystem, helping to keep rodent populations under control.

"Blonde" coyote

The coyote is a wild member of the dog family. This resourceful mammal has expanded its range significantly in the recent past, colonizing the entire Northeast and now found throughout the Garden State.

The coyote was never introduced or stocked in New Jersey, but has firmly established itself in our area through its extremely adaptable nature.

Eastern coyotes differ from their western counterparts with a larger average size and various color phases, including blonde, red and black.

photos via http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection recommends that residents

• put garbage in tightly closed containers that cannot be tipped over to prevent bear and coyote foraging. 
• reduce the protective cover for coyotes by clearing brush and dense weeds from around homes.
• be more cautious about children and pets being on their own even in their backyards. 
• in response to a coyote encounter, do not  run, because that initiates the "prey instinct" in the animal and the coyote will go into pursuit mode. Rather, act aggressively - "yelling, waving your arms, stamping your feet, or throwing stones” until it leaves.

Endangered New Jersey Two Years On

Today is the two year anniversary of this blog. That's a toddler in the blogosphere. It's one of about a half dozen blogs that I write on.

A few observations so far...

The most popular (based on views) posts are, nor surprisingly, older ones. They have been around longer, so they have more hits. Although some older ones are not so popular and the oldest ones are not the most popular.

The top ones are Wolves in New Jersey , Are Bees Endangered?, Successful Comeback for Bald Eagle in New Jersey, Encountering Bobcats in New Jersey. The top post from 2010 is about Lyme Disease.

Most folks who find us come by way of Google, Bing or Yahoo  (in that order). WE also get a fair amount of traffic from the fine and like-minded site WildJersey.tv which compiles lots of environmental stories from all over the place about NJ (including our little site).

When people do search and end up on our site, the most likely terms lately seem to be: bees, the Jersey Devil, ocean plastic, wolves, habitat, coyotes, and bobcats.

The majority of visitors are from the United States, but we do get a lot of traffic from Canada. From beyond North America, the top visiting countries are Germany, the United Kingdom,Australia, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Philippines, and France.

Over these two years we average about 1300 visitors a month, but it's very encouraging that the past few months the number is closer to 4-5000 visitors.

Hollywood on the Jersey Side of the Hudson

This site occasionally moves outside its usual domain of the environment to examine some of New Jersey's historical preservation for other thing endangered in our state.

I have long been a film fan and used to teach some film courses. Too many people (in and out of NJ) don't know about our state's important early role in the American motion picture industry.

Thomas Edison invented his motion picture system in New Jersey in the 1890s, and within a few years most American filmmakers could be found on either side of the Hudson River.

New York City offered actors, artists and financial backing. New Jersey provided settings and Thomas Edison.

Hollywood on the Hudson is a book that that explains that even after much of the film industry had moved to California, this area was still an economic and administrative location, and that many writers, producers, and directors continued to work here.


Fort Lee, NJ: Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry is a good book about a favorite location of film pioneers like D. W. Griffith and Mary Pickford. Fort Lee was the first center of the American motion picture industry and studios lined both sides of Main Street. Film laboratories produced thousands of reels of film for the nickelodeon market. Broadway stars and producers came across the Hudson to make many of their first feature-length films.

By the end of the 1920s, much of the business and stars like Theda Bara, Fatty Arbuckle, and Douglas Fairbanks had gone west. But a local film business continued for quite some time with some of the many behind the scenes roles such as printing, storage, and the distribution of movies being made in Hollywood.

One milestone of film from NJ is the first "Western" – "The Great Train Robbery" in 1903. It was directed and photographed by Edwin S. Porter, a Thomas Edison Company cameraman and director.

Movie Poster via http://wikimedia.org

It is a one-reel (10-12 minutes) action picture. It has 14-scenes that were filmed in November 1903. The settings included Edison's New York studio, Essex County Park (NJ) and along the our Lackawanna railroad tracks.

It may look amateurish and primitive to an audience today, but some of the cinematic techniques were new because telling a story on film was new. Narrative storytelling, parallel editing, any camera movement, and location (rather than studio) shooting was groundbreaking.

The story's inspiration was with the real Butch Cassidy’s 1900 train heist, and the film includes blowing open a safe and escaping with the cash. (A scene done more grandly in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1969.) The film was originally advertised as "a faithful duplication of the genuine 'Hold Ups' made famous by various outlaw bands in the far West."

Porter worked for Thomas Edison's motion picture company and saw, perhaps more than Edison, the potential for film. In 1899, he joined the Edison Manufacturing Company and was soon in charge of motion picture production at Edison's New York studios. He operated the camera, directed the actors, and assembled the final print.

He was arguably the most influential filmmaker in America then. His earlier experiences as a touring projectionist gave him a good sense of what audiences enjoyed.

He borrowed techniques in his earlier films such as "Jack and the Beanstalk" (1902) and "Life of an American Fireman" (1903) from the French filmmaker Georges Méliès.

The first cowboy star, Gilbert "Broncho Billy" Anderson played several roles in TGTR including a bandit, a wounded passenger, and a tenderfoot dancer.

Porter used a title which was the same as a popular contemporary stage melodrama. He saw that in this pre-nickelodeon era that a film could be commercially-viable.

Porter used a number of innovative techniques, many of them for the first time, including parallel editing, some camera movement, and location shooting.

The film edits and intercutting (showing two different events happening at identical times but in different places) must have been almost jarring to the new movie audience. Film grammar that even unsophisticated modern viewer understand from experience were innovations. The very early film experiments all had fixed cameras, but this film had the first pan shots where the camera moved right/left while filming. Porter had experimented earlier with dissolves (overlapping scenes) and included an ellipsis in this film as a transition between scenes. A very obvious dummy standing in for the train's fireman is thrown off the moving train marking a kind of "special effect" used before stunt doubles.

All of the film's fourteen scenes would be redone many times in Western films in the 100+ years to follow.





In 1909 Porter left Edison and joined with others in organizing Rex, an independent motion picture company. He sold Rex after three years and became chief director of the new Famous Players Film Company. It was the first American company that regularly produced feature-length films. Porter directed the first five-reel American film, The Prisoner of Zenda (1913), and also directed Mary Pickford, Pauline Frederick, and John Barrymore in feature films.

Black Maria - Library of Congress image

Thomas Edison National Historical Park preserves Thomas Edison's laboratory and residence, Glenmont, in West Orange, New Jersey. From those laboratories came the motion picture camera, improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery.

The Black Maria (pronounced mah-rye-ah, and also known as the Kinetographic Theater) was Thomas Edison's movie production studio in West Orange and is considered America's first movie studio.

The 1893 building was covered in black tarpaper and had a huge window in the ceiling that opened up to provide the tremendous amount of light required for early film stock and cameras. It was built on a turntable so the window could rotate toward the sun throughout the day and supply light all day. The studio was used for eight years and produced hundreds of short films.

Edison built a glass-enclosed rooftop movie studio in New York City in 1901, and stopped using the Black Maria. It was demolished in 1903, but a reproduction was made in 1954 at what is now the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange.  (A previous reconstruction had been built and dedicated in May 1940 when MGM held the world premiere of Edison, the Man starring Spencer Tracy in NJ theaters in West Orange, East Orange, South Orange, and Orange.)




The Centaur Film Company in Bayonne, New Jersey, 1907


History of Edison Motion Pictures at The Library of Congress

The Movies Begin: Making Movies in New Jersey, 1887-1920
Fort Lee: The Film Town (1904-2004)
Fort Lee: Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry
South Jersey Movie Houses
Cinema Treasures: A New Look at Classic Movie Theaters

Great Train Robbery - 100th Anniversay
Landmarks of Early Film, Vol. 1 Thomas Edison
Fort Lee: The Film Town (1904-2004)

Equine New Jersey

New Jersey's Wildlife Management Area System, administered by the Division of Fish and Wildlife's Bureau of Land Management, preserves a diversity of fish and wildlife habitats from Delaware Bay coastal marshes to Kittatinny Ridge mountain tops.

Ranging in size from the 0.68 acre Delaware River Fishing Access Site at the Pennsauken WMA to the 30,000-acre Greenwood Forest Tract in Burlington and Ocean counties, Wildlife Management Areas provide countless outdoor recreational opportunities for New Jersey residents and visitors from out of state.

Did you know that horseback riding is allowed on designated WMAs?

With a permit purchased ($25.00 per person, per calendar year, plus $2.00 application fee) from the Division of Fish and Wildlife's license Web site at www.wildlifelicense.com/nj/, horseback riding is currently permitted in designated areas at:

Flatbrook and Whittingham, Sussex County
Black River, Morris County
Alexauken Creek and Capoolong Creek, Hunterdon County
Assunpink, Monmouth County
Colliers Mills and Greenwood, Ocean County
Great Egg Harbor River, Atlantic County
Medford, Burlington County
Glassboro, Gloucester County
Winslow, Camden County
Bevans, Union Lake and Peaslee, Cumberland County
Higbee Beach and Tuckahoe (MacNamara), Cape May County

Permittees are responsible and liable for any damage which may occur and shall abide by regulations for use of Wildlife Management Areas.

Did you know that the state animal of New Jersey is the horse (Equus caballus)?

The U.S. Equestrian Team headquarters is located in Gladstone, New Jersey.

On the NJ Equine Calendar of Events, you'll find upcoming show horse events in the state.

The Horse Park of New Jersey is a 147-acre facility in Stone Tavern, Monmouth County that is fast becoming a world class equine exhibition facility. It has hosted Olympic Game trials and in March through November, equine events are scheduled for most weekends and many weekdays, including frequent multi-day events.

The New Jersey Equine Facilities site is a way to find a place to board your horse, buy a horse, rent a horse, get riding lessons, breed a horse, or see a horse show.



Horsing Around in New Jersey: The Horse Lover's Guide to Everything Equine

The Great Canal Walk

CrossJerseyWalk.org is the starting place if you plan to walk on your own or join the FreeWalkers on the first of three free organized group walks that in combination will cover the entire 100-mile stretch of the East Coast Greenway (ECG) through New Jersey.

April 9, 2011

The Great Canal Walk (Trenton to New Brunswick)  

Starting from the Delaware River, trace the footsteps of this 175 year old waterway and transportation system across Central New Jersey - from Trenton to New Brunswick. The TR2NB40 - Great Canal Walk, a forty-mile, one -day long distance walk, is a superb physical and mental challenge and the first event in a series of three walking events aiming to walk across New Jersey following the East Coast Greenway.

April 16 is the New Brunswick to Metropark section and May 21 is The Big Walk (Metropark to Penn Station, NYC) 

Free Nature Walk Sunday, Laurel Hill

We posted about Laurel Hill (AKA Snake Hill) earlier this year.

Sunday, March 20, 10 a.m.

First Day of Spring Bird Walk 

with the NJMC and BCAS

This free two-hour nature walk starts at the ball fields of Laurel Hill County Park in Secaucus. We’ll look for the (possibly nesting) common ravens, raptors, waterfowl and herons on the Hackensack River, and any other birds we can find. We meet at the big parking lot by the Laurel Hill ball fields at 10 a.m. We will not also meet at the first parking lot in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst at 9:20. The walk is run by the N.J. Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society. Check meadowblog.net for last-minute weather updates. You will have to sign a standard liability release for this event. To rsvp, contact Don Torino of the BCAS at greatauk4@aol.com or 201-636-4022.

SOURCE: Free Nature Walk on Sunday, Laurel Hill from The Meadowlands Blog

Pequest Open House Is April 2 & 3

2011 Pequest Open House and Fishing Flea Market

April 2 & 3, 2011

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily

FREE!

Every year the Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center opens its doors to the public for the annual Open House, which usually takes place the weekend before Trout Season opens. The Open House allows the Division of Fish and Wildlife to show off the trout raised at the state of the art Pequest Trout Hatchery and it serves as a reminder that spring is just around the corner.

Each year, thousands of people come to the hatchery to experience this event for themselves. And each year, the Division of Fish and Wildlife strives to make this a bigger event than the year before.

This event is great for people of all ages and there are so many things to see and do throughout the day. Bring your family, friends, scout troops, church groups, fishing clubs and anyone else for a fun time in the outdoors.

The Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center is located 9 miles west of Hackettstown on Route 46 in scenic Warren County.

For more information on public or group visitation/programs call 908-637-4125 or see the online schedule of public programs

OPEN HOUSE INFO  http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/peqoh.htm

Not the Way We Want Species Removed from the Endangered Species List

Although the eastern cougar has been on the endangered species list since 1973, its existence has long been questioned. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) conducted a formal review of the available information and, in a report issued today, concludes the eastern cougar is extinct and recommends the subspecies be removed from the endangered species list.
“We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar,” said the Service’s Northeast Region Chief of Endangered Species Martin Miller. “However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.”

SOURCE: Northeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Silence of the Bees

via http://www.colonycollapsedisorder.net

In the winter of 2006, a strange phenomenon fell upon honeybee hives across the country. Without a trace, millions of bees vanished from their hives, leaving billions of dollars of crops at risk, threatening our food supply. The epidemic set researchers scrambling to discover why honeybees were dying in record numbers - and to stop the epidemic in its tracks before it spread further.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has wreaked havoc on U.S. beekeeping businesses (and the agriculture industry) since its devastating arrival five years ago.

One of the causes may be the impact of neonicotinoids — a class of widely used pesticides — on honeybees and other pollinators. Scientists have not come up with a definitive answer to the the problem. Possible factors besides pesticide exposure include: invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and a new virus that targets bees' immune systems.

Bees are the most important pollinators in the Northeastern U.S., and there are hundreds of species of bees that live in New Jersey.

Bees are one of the issues for the Natural Resources Defense Council  when seemingly healthy bees were abandoning their hives. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), as it became known, may have caused an estimated one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country to have vanished.

You can watch a very good program on this from PBS Nature free online called "Silence of the Bees."

There are hundreds of hours of award-winning feature films, documentaries, and television shows available at http://video.pbs.org including DVDs whose purchase helps support PBS and their programs.

Further Along on the Watchung Mountains

This post concludes our virtual walk along the parks and reservations of the Watchung Mountains.

We pick up the trail in Washington Rock State Park which is a 52-acre (210,000 m2) state park on top the first Watchung Mountain in Green Brook Township, New Jersey. The park is operated by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry and is currently being managed by the Somerset County Park Commission. It is open daily sunrise to sunset.

It is famous for the scenic overlook which was used by General George Washington in 1777 to monitor British troop movements when the Continental Army was stationed at the Middlebrook encampment. The 30-mile (48 km) panoramic vista covers the eastern plains of New Jersey up to New York City, making it a valuable lookout point during the American Revolution. General Washington used it in June of 1777 when the British army under General William Howe was moving toward Westfield. From the vantage point of this natural rock outcropping, General Washington was able to instruct his troops to circle behind Howe’s troops and cut off their retreat.

One of the oldest state parks in New Jersey, Washington Rock was originally purchased in 1913 to commemorate the historical events of 1777. Situated on top of Watchung Mountain, the park is a popular site for easy walks, picnicking and relaxation.

Closely connected is Washington Valley Park. This 715-acre (2.89 km2) public park is between the first and second Watchung mountain ridge in the Martinsville section of Bridgewater Township. It is also administered by the Somerset County Park Commission.

This partially developed park has a western and eastern section separated by the Bound Brook Gap with the Chimney Rock Road that connects Bound Brook with Martinsville. The terrain is rocky and mountainous and covered with pine and hemlock.

At the center of the western section of the park is the 21-acre (85,000 m2) Washington Valley Reservoir. The reservoir was created in 1920 when the western branch of the Middle Brook was dammed. (Its former name was the Bound Brook/Elizabeth Reservoir.) The eastern section of the park has the much smaller East Branch Reservoir and the Buttermilk Falls of the eastern branch of the Middle Brook.

Adjacent to the park is the Chimney Rock Quarry built atop the old Chimney Rock Copper Mine (a.k.a. Bound Brook Quarry or Washington Mine).  There are still copper mines over 165 feet deep and active mining continues today. Copper from here was used to mold a small brass cannon later used at the siege of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War. There is also still calcite mined from the Chimney Rock Quarry and marble and granite taken from this area.

The reservoirs have no boat access but are of interest to anglers. Species that can be caught include largemouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and yellow perch.

The park contains numerous trails that are used by hikers and mountain bikers.

At an outcropping of the first Watchung mountain ridge is Chimney Rock Hawk Watch. In the fall, the area is visited by birdwatchers to observe the annual southward migration of species including broad-winged hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, bald eagles and golden eagles. Hawk watching lasts from early September into November, the second half of September being the peak time.

The eastern part of the park was the site of a military fortification that was used by the Continental Army near the site of the 1777-78 Middlebrook encampment. Remnants can be found in the shape of earth walls. A look-out point is preserved that was used to observe movements of the British Army in the plains towards New Brunswick.

Two more areas to visit that are connected brings our walk to a close. The Leonard J. Buck Garden and the Moggy Hollow Natural Area are our last stops along the Second Watchung Mountain.

The Moggy Hollow Natural Area is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) nature preserve near Far Hills in Somerset County. It's an area of geologic interest. The area was designated a National Natural Landmark in January 1970.

As the Wisconsin Glacier advanced and ancient Glacial Lake Passaic formed, it deepened to 240 feet until it found an outlet to spill over at Moggy Hollow. From here the water drained to the Raritan river.

The ledge of harder basaltic rock at 331 feet (101 m) above sea level served as a spillway for Lake Passaic carving a deep ravine out of the softer soil as the lake drained. Moggy Hollow remained the main outlet as the glacier retreated due to natural debris dams until Little Falls and Paterson (Passaic County) emerged from the ice.

This 20-acre property adjacent to the North Branch of the Raritan River and the Far Hills Fairgrounds is a testament to the beauty of once-unchanged floodplains of the region. The floodplain is forested with a mixture of Oak, Maple, and some outstanding Sycamore trees. It is an excellent place to spot Kingfishers or Great Blue Heron. A trail runs parallel to the river and fishing is allowed in the trout-stocked waters.

The woodland and bog have ecological value, providing a diverse mixture of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plant species. But this is not an especially visitor-friendly site. The terrain is very steep and hazardous. Rocky slopes abruptly meet the bog, and walking is difficult, but worth the challenge for those who are interested in glacial geology.
The property is owned and managed by the Upper Raritan Watershed Association. Most of the current site was donated to the association in 1967 by J. Malcolm Belcher, a former mayor of Far Hills, on behalf of the Belcher family.

The ravine is located adjacent to and above the Leonard J. Buck Garden. Visitors can either ask to cross the Buck garden to reach the lower portion of the ravine, or park above on Liberty Corner Road to access the top of the ledge.

The garden is one of the premier rock gardens in the United States. It features native and exotic plants displayed in a naturalistic setting of woodland, streams, and rock outcroppings. A wooded, rocky ravine is home to numerous wildflowers interspersed among flowering trees and shrubs.

The best and most popular time to visit is in the spring.

The Garden began in the 1930s when geologist Leonard J. Buck, a trustee of the New York Botanical Garden, met landscape architect Zenon Schreiber and the two created varying exposures and microclimates.

The garden is sculpted from the glacial stream valley where waterfalls once cascaded, leaving behind rock faces, outcroppings, ponds and a stream. After Mr. Buck's death in 1974, the garden was donated by Mrs. Buck to the Somerset County Park Commission and was opened up to the public in 1977. A small donation is requested.

The plantings are extensive and include aconite, anemone, azalea, beech, birch, bloodroot, boxwood, Chinese fringe tree, columbine, cyclamen, daffodils, Dawn redwood, dogwoods, enkianthus, forget-me-nots, forsythia, geraniums, grape hyacinth, heathers, herbs, hornbeam, hydrangea, Japanese maple, Japanese painted fern, Japanese peonies, Labrador violets, magnolias, mahonia, maidenhair fern, maples, mountain laurel, narcissus, oak, ostrich ferns, primroses, rhododendron, saxifrage, shagbark hickory, Siberian squill, skimmia, snowbell, star magnolia, sweet woodruff, trillium, viburnum, violets, Virginia bluebells, and wind anemones. You can check their website to see what is in bloom during this season.

Falconry in NJ

  

On NJ.com, I found an interesting article about how a small band of NJ hunters are carrying on the 4,000 year old practice of falconry.

Hunting has its opponents, especially amongst some people who might read this blog. In my years as a volunteer, I worked with hunting programs and fishing programs and have been more often positively surprised by synergies between those groups and environmentalists.

Falconry seems so odd in our modern world. Hunting in NJ is often controversial and the practice of hunting with trained falcons or hawks for small animals like rabbits, squirrels or pheasants must seem even stranger. And yet, it has some kind of appeal and connection with a time of nobles and gentleman hunters.

Check out the article. What's your opinion on the sport of falconry?

READING LIST
Falconry: The Essential Guide
Falconry & Hawking
The Falconer's Apprentice
Art of Falconry; Being the De Arte Venandi cum Avibus of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen
Falconry Manual

Endangered Species and a Tax Check-Off

Did you know that New Jersey residents can help secure the future of the State's threatened and endangered wildlife by making a dedicated donation when they file their State income tax returns this year?

"Despite being the nation's most densely populated state, New Jersey has an incredible diversity of wildlife, including some of the world's most beautiful and rare animals,'' said NJDEP Commissioner Martin. "These are special creatures that need our protection, and which we'd like to preserve in the Garden State for our children and future generations. We can support this important effort by making a simple check-off for wildlife on our State income-tax returns."

Residents should look for Line 58 -- the New Jersey Endangered Wildlife Fund -- on the NJ 1040 income tax form, or remind their tax preparers they want to make a contribution.

Each donated dollar goes directly to the DEP's Division of Fish and Wildlife, enabling its Endangered and Nongame Species Program biologists to continue their work to restore, conserve and enhance New Jersey's populations of rare species.

Each contribution is matched by an equal amount of federal funding, which further strengthens efforts to protect imperiled species.

The Endangered and Nongame Species Program manages nearly 500 wildlife species, including 73 species of birds, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, mammals and fish currently listed as endangered or threatened.

When I have done talks as a volunteer for the ENSP, one thing I have always emphasized is that the program is funded almost entirely by federal grants, which require matching state funds from the state income-tax check-off and sales of New Jersey's distinctive Conserve Wildlife license plate.

No, it's not paid for by your tax dollars. What a way to fund a program!  And what a time to ask for donations - when people are paying their income taxes!

Nevertheless, those two revenue sources, which generated $292,000 in 2010 and $1.8 million over the past five years, help finance efforts by DEP biologists to prevent some rare species from becoming extinct in New Jersey, and to make sure other creatures do not have to be added to the state's list of endangered and threatened species.

What are the "dividends" that your investment makes?

New Jersey biologists restored our bald eagle population from one nest in 1979 to 82 nesting pairs today.

New Jersey biologists have led the international effort to prevent the Western Hemisphere extinction of the red knot, which depends on the eggs of spawning Delaware Bay horseshoe crabs they devour in New Jersey each spring to fuel an epic migration from their South American breeding grounds to Canadian Arctic nesting grounds.

The bobcat was reintroduced in New Jersey 30 years ago, and research and protection efforts since then have allowed this secretive cat to establish a foothold in the northern third of the state.

More than 30 years of intensive management and cooperative efforts with coastal communities have prevented the State extinction of three New Jersey beach nesting birds, the piping plover, least tern and black skimmer.

Peregrine falcons disappeared from New Jersey in the 1960's but through a reintroduction project and intensive management we now have a stable population of 20 nesting pairs statewide.

Learn more about New Jersey's endangered species:
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/ensphome.htm
http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/tandespp.htm

For information on the Conserve Wildlife license plates:
http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensp/plates.htm

Princeton Battlefield Park

General Washington rallying his troops at the Battle of Princeton.

The first inhabitants of the Princeton area were the Lenni Lenape Indians. Europeans founded the settlement in the latter part of the 17th century. The first European to find his home in the boundaries of the future town was Henry Greenland who built his house in 1683 along with a tavern. It was in that tavern that representatives of West and East Jersey met to set boundaries for the location of the township.

Princeton was to be divided into two parts: a borough and township. It was founded from pieces of Middlesex, Burlington, Somerset and Hunterton counties which were divided by the central “King’s Highway.” The King's Highway is today's Nassau Street which eventually turns into Princeton-Kingston Road to the north and Stockton Street to the south.

Even though New Jersey's capital is the city of Trenton, the governor's official residence has been in Princeton since 1945. That is when Morven became the first Governor's mansion. It was later replaced by the larger Drumthwacket, a colonial mansion also located in the township. Morven is now a museum property of the New Jersey Historical Society.

Princeton Battlefield State Park is a 200-acre (81 ha) state park located in Princeton Township. The park preserves the site of the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777.

On the night before the battle, George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek in Trenton. That night, he evacuated his position, circled around General Lord Cornwallis' army, and went to attack the British garrison at Princeton. Brigadier General Hugh Mercer, of the Continental Army, clashed with two regiments under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood of the British Army.

Mercer and his troops were overrun and Washington sent some militia under General John Cadwalader to help him. The militia, on seeing the flight of Mercer's men, also began to flee. Washington rode up with reinforcements and rallied the fleeing militia. He then led the attack on Mawhood's troops, driving them back. Mawhood gave the order to retreat and most of the troops tried to flee to Cornwallis in Trenton.

In Princeton itself, General John Sullivan forced some British troops who had taken refuge in Nassau Hall to surrender, ending the battle. After the battle, Washington moved his army to Morristown, and with their third defeat in 10 days, the British evacuated southern New Jersey. With the victory at Princeton, morale rose in the ranks and more men began to enlist in the army. The battle was the last major action of Washington's winter New Jersey campaign.

Princeton hosted the first Legislature under the State Constitution of New Jersey to decide the State’s seal, Governor and the organization of its government. In addition, two of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence—Richard Stockton and John Witherspoon lived in Princeton.

In 1783, Congress fled from Philadelphia to Princeton, fearing a mutiny by some of the soldiers. General Washington took up residency at Rockingham in Rocky Hill, where he wrote his Farewell Orders to the Army.

On September third, he rode to Nassau Hall to receive news that the Treaty of Paris had been signed, which officially recognized America's independence. Princeton, thereby, became the first Capital of the new nation.

The Battlefield Park is maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, and is located on Mercer Road (Princeton Pike), about 1.5 miles south of Princeton University and 3.8 miles north of Interstate 295/95.

Besides the battlefield itself, another stop is the Mercer Oak named after Hugh Mercer, a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. During the Battle of Princeton, Mercer was stabbed by an English soldier's bayonet. According to legend, he was unwilling to abandon his troops, and rested on the tree's trunk while they stood their ground. After the battle, Mercer was taken to the Clarke House where he died from his injuries nine days later.

The tree was about 300 years old when it was torn by strong winds in March 2000. It is the emblem of Princeton Township and appears on the seal of the township and is an element of the seal of Mercer County, New Jersey. For public safety reasons, arborists cut off the remnants of the trunk the day after the tree fell and several scions from the tree were planted around the battlefield. In May 2000, an 8-foot sapling grown from a Mercer Oak acorn was planted inside the stump of the former tree.

The Thomas Clarke House Museum, built in 1772, was built by the third generation of Quakers at Stony Brook. The house is furnished in the Revolutionary period and contains military artifacts and battle exhibits, as well as a research library. During the battle General Mercer was brought to the Clarke House and treated unsuccessfully by Dr. Benjamin Rush.

There is also an Ionic Colonnade designed by Thomas U. Walter (architect of the US Capitol Building)and a stone patio marking the grave of 21 British and 15 American soldiers killed in the battle. A poem was written for the site by Alfred Noyes, Poet Laureate of England.

The park's hiking trails lead to the Delaware and Raritan Canal and to the adjacent property of the Institute for Advanced Study.

The Princeton Battle Monument is located near Princeton University on park property at Stockton Street and Bayard Lane.

The Historical Society of Princeton uses the Bainbridge House which had previously been used once for a meeting of Continental Congress in 1783, a general office and as the Princeton Public Library. The House is actually property of Princeton University and is leased to the Princeton Historical Society for one dollar per year. The house has kept its original staircase, flooring and paneled walls and is 70% unaltered.


Take a virtual tour of the Princeton Battlefield Park

Princeton Battlefield State Park official site