Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey

Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey (CHANJ) is a statewide effort to make our landscape and roadways more permeable to wildlife movement.

Whether they’re small like a salamander or big and wide-roaming like a bear, animals need to be able to move through the landscape to find food, shelter, mates, and other resources. Without that ability to move, healthy populations simply will not persist over the long term. Here in New Jersey, wildlife are up against steady urbanization, a dense network of roads, and now a changing climate, all of which put the connectedness of our habitats and wildlife populations in jeopardy.

For example, one project is the Waterloo Road Amphibian Passage System in Byram Twp., Sussex County.

At Waterloo Road in Byram, more than 300 salamanders and frogs per hour have been tallied crossing a quarter-mile stretch on peak migration nights. Their goal is to reach the vernal pool on the other side, lay eggs, and journey back to the forest again. The tiny migrants are up against about 50 vehicles per hour or more - grim odds given that just 15 cars per hour can kill more than 50% of all amphibians trying to cross a road. Even with rescue teams patrolling Waterloo on foot, roadkill rates are always over 10% (Hall and Triece 2012-2017). For Spotted Salamanders, annual road mortality of more than 10% can lead to local extirpation (Gibbs and Shriver 2005).

Another project is creating Bobcat Alley in Sussex and Warren Counties, which we have written about here before. For more information: state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/chanj_bobcatalley.pdf