Saturday, September 2, 2017

The Heart of the Pinelands


Here is a video from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation on New Jersey's Pine Barrens. NJCF has preserved thousands of acres of land in this home to many rare and plants and animals.

Of particular focus in this video is the harmless and threatened Northern Pine Snake.





According to NJCF:

"Northern pine snakes face a variety of threats in New Jersey. Habitat loss and alteration are the greatest threats to this in New Jersey. However, illegal collecting and off-road recreational vehicle use also have harmful effects on pine snakes.
The development of Pinelands habitats leads to a loss of pine-oak forest habitat and an increase in human encounters with pine snakes. Too often, such encounters prove fatal to these snakes, and reports of pine snake road kills are common. Some forestry practices may also have negative impacts on pine snakes. For example, forestry practices that favor oak-dominated systems with closed canopies or dense shrub layers probably decrease the amount of suitable pine snake habitat in an area."

More on the pine snake at conservewildlifenj.org

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