This week, Shell Oil announced it will end oil exploration off of Alaska's Arctic Coast "for the foreseeable future. Groups such as the Sierra Club see this victory as showing that even the most powerful corporations in the world can be changed when faced with grassroots pressure united to protect the wildlife and wildlands.
Shell abandoned its Arctic drilling plans in part because strict regulations required to drill made it untenable, and summer drilling just one well with disappointing results, combined with low crude prices.
Everything from tweets, Facebook posts, calls, comments, protests and kayaktavist actions shined a spotlight on the corporation and the Obama administration.
But another oil company, Hilcorp Alaska, is working to obtain permits to drill in the Arctic Ocean.
The mating strut of a male sage grouse near Rawlins, Wyo. Fish and Wildlife Service officials in America
have determined that the number of birds and the extent of its habitat are sufficient to assure their survival.
Credit Jerret Raffety/Rawlins Daily Times, via Associated Press and the nyt.com
The greater sage grouse is a bird that’s been at the center of a major conservation fight the past year. Today, it was announced that it will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act by the Department of Interior.
Is this a good thing? In a video announcement, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell called the decision a “milestone for conservation in America” and a point of pride for the department.
She said that the decision not to list the bird — a designation that would have meant that the greater sage grouse was “in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range,” and would have subjected it to certain federal protections — came because of an “unprecedented” conservation effort in 11 western states over the last few years.
Once seen in great numbers across the West, greater sage-grouse have declined in number over the past century because of the loss of sagebrush habitats essential for their survival and had been candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
This "unprecedented effort" by dozens of partners across 11 western states included state leaders, ranchers, conservation groups, and other stakeholders. Each for their own reasons, they have made enough progress that the bird’s future looks bright enough to leave it off the endangered species list.
Perhaps, the hopeful message here is that it may offer lessons for conserving other threatened species,
Not everyone is happy with the decision. Some groups will still point to the decision being made in order to allow energy development on public lands.
Brian Rutledge, Central Flyway conservation strategy and policy adviser for the Audubon Society’s Rockies office, said that as long as the federal government sticks to its plan to preserve sage grouse habitat on public lands — a plan that includes limits on oil, gas, solar, and wind development inside the sage grouse’s habitat — he doesn’t think additional drilling will be a major threat to the bird.
There are many articles now online about the decision - a few listed below.
What is your reaction to the decision? Is it a good sign for the future?
It only takes a few crisp and cool morning and nights to make us feel like autumn. Officially, the season arrives on September 23 but natives know that there will still be a good number of hot days remaining mixed in with the cool ones.
All across the northeast people go on fall foliage walks, hikes and drives. Trees change color based on several factors but temperature and rainfall are critical. We had a very dry summer which doesn't help us have a long and colorful fall. But it is quite localized. For example, trees at higher elevations turn color before ones at lower elevations.
There are websites to track the color change from Maine heading south but Leaves usually change color starting from Maine and working their way south. The average peak color in NJ is usually listed as October 19 – 29, but that's as accurate as the first and last frost dates - just an average. The foliage is sometimes peaked in North Jersey when it is just starting in South Jersey.
But it is a good time now to plan a foliage excursion.
Sunfish Pond – Delaware Water Gap
If you are into hiking or even just a decent walk in the woods, the www.NJhiking.com website is probably the best source of information.
For example, you can get some wide views of rural Northern New Jersey from Sunrise Mountain and along the Appalachian Trail as it follows a ridge if you hike Sunrise Mountain.
The foliage is great along the Black River (trees near water usually turn earlier) in the small, easily hiked and very popular Hacklebarney State Park.
A short but very steep hike up Mt. Tammany will give you a terrific view of Mt. Minsi on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware Water Gap and nice panoramas of the area.
Best Easy Day Hikes New Jersey has a good selection of easy day hikes.
Because New Jersey is located along the Atlantic Flyway, we are in a great place to observe hawks heading south to their wintering grounds. This is the time when migrating birds of prey come through NJ in greater concentrations as they follow our ridges and coastline.
Raptors migrate from late summer through early December, but the numbers peak between mid-September and mid-October.I have read that the best days usually occur after a day that featured a cold front with northerly winds, and mornings and early afternoons are better than later in the day.
It is pretty awesome to watch them ride the thermals, wind currents and updrafts along the Hudson River Palisades to the Kittatinny Ridge along the Delaware River and down to Cape May.
This week, I walked up the stairs to the Montclair Hawk Watch (Essex County) a observation platform that is maintained by the NJ Audubon Society. From there, you can watch migrating birds move south along the first ridge of the Watchung Mountains. On a clear day, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty are also in view.
The site is interesting atop a 500-foot basalt ledge on the First Watchung Mountain. There is a stone-filled platform at the top of a long staircase. They have recorded sightings of broad-winged hawks, bald eagles, American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, ospreys, merlins, sharp-shinned hawks, northern harriers, peregrine falcons and Cooper's hawks.
Directions: from the Garden State Parkway in Bloomfield, take exit 151 for Watchung Avenue and head west on Watchung to its end at Upper Mountain Avenue in Montclair, about 2.1 miles. Make a right turn and go north on Upper Mountain 0.7 miles to Bradford Avenue. Make a left turn and go up Bradford 0.1 miles to Edgecliff Road and make a right turn. Go up Edgecliff 0.2 miles and park on the shoulder (to avoid parking problems, please park well off the side of the road). The lookout path is on the south side of the road marked with a sign at the base of the steps.
Other places for watching:
Palisades Interstate Park, Bergen County, State Line Lookout - 527 feet above the Palisades.
Sunrise Mountain, Sussex County - the pavilion atop the mountain is located in Stokes State Forest in Branchville.
Chimney Rock, Somerset County in Washington Valley Park in Martinsville. This is the southern end of the Watchung Ridge that starts at the Montclair platform.
Raccoon Ridge in Blairstown is on the Kittatinny Mountains at an elevation of 1,563 feet and Scotts Mountain, also in Warren County at the Merrill Creek Reservoir in Washington.
Down at the tip of the state at Cape May Point State Park birds riding air currents from the surrounding Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay head south overhead.
The New Jersey Sierra Club, as part of a coalition, has filed an appeal in the Appellate Court for a stay on the new leghold trap rule in New Jersey because it violates state law.
Leghold traps have been banned in New Jersey for 30 years; however, starting in November, the NJ Fish and Game Council approved a rule for them to come back. These leg hold traps are cruel to the trapped animals, hazardous to other animals and pets and can harm the public including hikers and children.
“We are challenging this rule in court because it is illegal, immoral and inhumane. Leghold traps are dangerous and were banned in New Jersey 30 years ago by the legislature. Now the NJ Fish and Game Council is going to allow them to be used again. They were banned for a reason and there is no reason that they should ever be allowed to be used. These leghold traps maim and harm animals and are indiscriminate. They are dangerous to pets and to people who enjoy the outdoors and nature. Now the Governor is siding with the trapping industry and the hunting lobby as part of his national political agenda and that’s why they are bringing them back. This is unacceptable and against the law and that’s why we are fighting this,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The rules, which were likely proposed at the behest of the trapping and fur industries are inhumane and are illegal under New Jersey law especially since there are other trapping techniques available. This rule violates the law and legislative intent and that’s why we’re challenging it.”
The NJDEP's free sixth annual NJ WILD Outdoor Expo will be held this Saturday and Sunday, September 12-13, at the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine.
This fun-filled family event is designed for visitors to discover new ways to appreciate and enjoy New Jersey's great outdoors. Participants can try a many of the outdoor activities available within the state's forests, parks and natural areas such as fishing, kayaking, hiking, shooting sports, rock climbing, camping skills, compass navigation and wildlife watching. Demonstrations of sporting and tracking dogs, historical re-enactments, SCUBA dives, reptiles and raptors, turkey calling, nature photography and much more await.
Admission and parking are free. All activities are free with the exception of a $3 fee to use the climbing wall.
If you love fishing, and fish the Hackensack River, here's another reason to cast your line out. A Montclair State University student seeks volunteers to assist with collecting fish from the Hackensack River. The fish are being collected as part of a study looking at the transfer of contaminants throughout the aquatic food web. The study area includes the towns of North Arlington, Secaucus, and Lyndhurst with the aim of obtaining 10 fish from each of the species listed below:
Bluegill
Pumpkinseed
Carp
Catfish
Largemouth bass
Chain pickerel
chain pickerel
Volunteers are required to have a valid NJ Fishing License and must abide by all fishing regulations for the specific species and waterways.
If you are interested in volunteering please contact Natalie Sherwood for more details at sherwoodn1 [at] montclair.edu
The nutria is a large rodent that looks like a beaver but with long, thin tails. They are one of the world's worst invasive species and they possibly exist in New Jersey.
They weigh 12 to 20 pounds. They are primarily nocturnal (active at night), with peak activity occurring near midnight.
Although they are native to Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, they have invaded North America, particularly in the southern U.S. They have been seen and trapped in New Jersey in places like Salem County's Lower Alloways Creek Township.
The problem with them, as with most invasive and non-native species, is that they eat vegetation that causes our native animals and fish to lose their habitats.
This large furbearing rodent (Myocastor coypus) was first introduced to the United States in 1899 in California. Between then and 1940, ranches were established in many states to breed them. A crash in the market for their fur occurred after WWII and ranchers, unfortunately, released their nutria or did nothing to recapture those that escaped. They once existed in 30 states and still exist in about 18. Nutrias can tolerate winters in temperate areas only, but the milder NJ winters have allowed them to stay and breed and they were trapped in the salt marshes of the Delaware Bay back in the early 1980s.
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife would rather not get any reports of nutria and as far as I can find few valid reports of nutria have occurred recently by trappers via the annual trapper harvest survey.
