Field Trips and Classroom Programs for Students Available

TEACHERS: Pequest Natural Resource Education Center is now accepting group reservations for 2026 field trips and classroom programs.

Fish and Wildlife offers year-round programming for schools and organized groups at the Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center. All programs are designed to support most major subject areas in grades pre-K – 12 while teaching about wildlife and the environment, and can be used to meet state standards for core course proficiencies as well as scout badge requirements.

For example, hikes focus on wildlife habitat and natural resources, sessions on river ecology, fishing, biology. From a hatchery tour to fishing basics or exploring trout habitat along the Pequest River, there might be a field trip that fits your grade level and curriculum.

All programs are geared to be fun, hands-on learning experiences that participants are sure to enjoy.

Bring your students, scouts, or homeschool groups to the trout hatchery and education center for a field trip they'll never forget! Learn how trout are raised on a hatchery tour, explore the Pequest River, or have your students learn to fish. 

Get information and schedule your field trip to Pequest at dep.nj.gov/njfw/fishing/freshwater/group-programs-at-pequest/ 

Can't manage a field trip to Pequest? NJ Fish & Wildlife also offers classroom programs. Looking for an engaging classroom presentation? NJDEP Fish & Wildlife offers those too!

Have your students learn about wildlife, conservation, and more! 

Educators are available for in-classroom and public presentations, community fairs and festivals. Fish & Wildlife staff can conduct presentations live at your facility on request. There is no charge for this service, and hands-on activities can be included with the presentations. Programs can all be adapted to grade-level and specific interests. All programs run from 45 to 90 minutes. Please note groups may only schedule one to two programs per year.

Check out the list of programs offered and request a presentation today.

dep.nj.gov/njfw/education/speakers-and-exhibitors/

Bear Cubs in Winter and Spring

We have a few months before we are going to see any bear cubs wandering around New Jersey. But on another blog, I wrote about the February Full Moon as being the "Bear Cub Moon."

It may seem like some kind of magic to most people that a mother bear goes into a hole she dug in the ground in the fall and emerges in the spring with a couple of new, fuzzy, walking cubs. This magic trick is some very amazing biological engineering. 

The hidden-from-view birth of a bear cub is fascinating. Bears actually mate in the late spring or early summer, but the mother doesn’t technically become pregnant right away. Through a process called delayed implantation, the fertilized egg remains as a tiny ball of cells (a blastocyst) floating in her uterus for months. 

It only implants and begins to grow in the late fall, and only if the mother has gained enough weight. If she didn't eat enough berries or fish to survive the winter, her body would simply reabsorb the embryo, ensuring she doesn't try to raise cubs she can't support. 

Cubs are typically born in January or February, right in the heart of winter. While we call it hibernation, the mother isn't "dead to the world." She is in a state of light dormancy. She is alert enough to wake up, give birth, lick the cubs clean, and nudge them toward her belly to nurse. 

Because the cubs are so tiny, labor is relatively quick and much less physically taxing than it is for humans. 

Newborn cubs are incredibly primitive—often described as "fetal-like." They weigh less than a pound (about the size of a stick of butter or a teacup) and are born blind, nearly hairless, and totally helpless. 

newborn bear cub      nps.gov

Because they are so small, researchers often call the time in the den an "external pregnancy." Once the cub is born, it soon begins to nurse. A newborn cub’s physiology changes from one that couldn’t survive on fat in the womb to a system that can better metabolize fat. The mother provides all the nourishment that the cub needs, and the den offers warmth and protection. 

For the next several months, the den acts as a surrogate womb for the rapidly growing cub. Instead of growing inside the mother where they would drain her protein and mineral stores, they grow outside her body, fueled by her fat-rich milk.

Perhaps, the most amazing part is how they survive for months without a snack or a bathroom break: Mother bears produce milk that is incredibly high in fat (up to 30% fat), which allows the cubs to grow from less than 1 pound to about 5–10 pounds by spring. 

The mother bear does not eat, drink, urinate, or defecate for months. Her body is a closed loop; she recycles her own urea (waste) back into protein to maintain her muscle mass while she sleeps. 

The den acts as a giant incubator. The mother curls around the cubs, using her body heat to keep them at a steady temperature while the snow piles up outside.

Whales and New Jersey: Sperm Whales

Although New Jersey probably isn't the first place that comes to mind when people think of the home of whales, our 127 miles of coastline certainly sees many of them offshore.

If you have witnessed firsthand a whale surfacing from the deeps of an ocean, it is surely memorable. With their tremendous size and sometimes surprising gracefulness, whales are still somewhat of a mystery to even scientists who study them.

Whales are still hunted globally, but they are also protected in some parts of the world, including the Atlantic Ocean off the NJ coast. Six species of whales are protected when they are in New Jersey waters because they are Federally Endangered.

Whale, North Atlantic right**	Eubalaena glacialis**
Whale, blue**	Balaenoptera musculus**
Whale, fin**	Balaenoptera physalus**
Whale, humpback**	Megaptera novaeangliae**
Whale, sei**	Balaenoptera borealis**
Whale,sperm**	Physeter macrocephalus**
**Federally Endangered

Cetaceans is the order that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. It is divided into
two suborders: Odontoceti and Mysticeti.

Odonoceti have teeth and a single blowhole, or nostril, at the top of the head. The sperm whale is in this suborder.

The Mysticetes, or baleen whales, have no teeth and two blowholes. Instead of teeth, great plates of horny baleen, which extend from the upper jaw, are used to strain
food from large mouthfuls of water. The other five species listed here are in that suborder.

I will take a brief look at those whale species in posts over the next few months as we head to the Jersey shore and gaze into the Atlantic - and maybe even do some whale watching.

Mother and baby sperm whale - Wikimedia

Sperm whales (Family Physeteridae) are best known as the nemesis of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. There are not many reports of sperm whales attacking ships these days.

They are in the suborder of Odonoceti, and so they have teeth. They also have a single blowhole, and the sperm whale is the only one in that suborder that regularly produces a visible spout or blow. The whaling ship cry of "Thar she blows" comes from the hunting of the sperm whale for its once very valuable oil. The blowhole is far left of the center and far forward on the head, and emits a distinctive spout that is bushy and angled sharply forward.

Sperm whale spout  - via Flickr

These whales have a distinctive jaw that both recedes and is located directly under the head's center. This huge head extends a quarter to a third of its entire length, which can be as much as 21 m (69 ft.).

The sperm whale's skin, a dark brownish gray, looks corrugated. Two-thirds of the way
back from the snout, the whale has a distinguishing dorsal hump; behind that are a number
of bumps. The sperm whale has a keel on its belly, and the flukes, or sides of the flat tail,
are broad, triangular, and heavily notched at their back edges.

Sperm whales are usually observed in deep waters, far from most coastlines, and are not usually encountered within New Jersey’s coastal waters. According to the New Jersey Endangered and Nongame Species Program, there are no sightings currently documented within New Jersey waters for this species

MORE INFO
conservewildlifenj.org
njfishandwildlife.com/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/whales.pdf

George Washington Drank Here

There are certainly many places in New Jersey where General George Washington stayed during his military campaigns. He certainly ate and drank in those places, too.  

Washington was not a heavy drinker of alcoholic beverages, but he did drink regularly. Madeira wine was his favorite, but he also drank rum punch, hard cider, and occasionally beer or porter. He even ran one of the largest distilleries in America after the war in Virginia.

Washington, with a tavern madeira

Where did he do some of this drinking?

The Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield (Camden County) is probably his most famous drinking connection. Washington visited while traveling through the state. Taverns like this served Madeira, rum punch, hard cider, and ale. The building later hosted the New Jersey legislature. It has been a strong tradition that Washington drank here. It is still standing and preserved as a historic site.

The Nassau Inn's original tavern in Princeton was a drinking spot where Washington as he stayed in town multiple times.  Located near the Battle of Princeton, this and other taverns were meeting places for officers. He probably drank his favorite Madeira or punch during stays. Tavern culture was integral to military life. 

Wallace House / Old Dutch Parsonage in Somerville (Somerset County) was Washington’s winter headquarters (1778–1779). He hosted dinners with his officers and staff, and wine and spirits were part of officer hospitality.  Records show regular alcohol consumption by staff. 

Ford Mansion in Morristown was Washington’s headquarters during the harsh winters of 1777 and 1779–1780. Washington was known to prefer Madeira over harder spirits and there were social evenings including drinks despite shortages. (Within the Morristown National Historical Park)

The Old Barracks, located in Trenton, was where Washington stayed before and after the Crossing of the Delaware. Soldiers were issued rum rations, but officers drank separately, and typically had wine or punch.

Rockingham House in Kingston (near Princeton) was where Washington stayed after the British evacuation of NYC. Celebratory gatherings with wine and toasts were customary

You can't stop by most of these places for a drink today, but you can drink in some history at all of them. Only the Nassau Inn Tap Room still operates as a drinking establishment with direct historical continuity. But if you want to go non-alcoholic, I have another suggestion.

Along the Aqueduct Trail in the Jockey Hollow unit of Morristown National Historical Park, there is a historically significant natural spring that provided water to people long before modern pipes existed. This natural spring is perhaps the most historically documented one in New Jersey. It’s the source of Primrose Brook, one of the cleanest-rated waterways in New Jersey, and is marked by a rudimentary stone wall piled around it and a slate slab canopy.

The Lenni Lenape used it as a water source hundreds of years ago, as can be ascertained by the many artifacts found in the immediate area, showing there was a settlement around it. 

While the late-1800s aqueduct system itself wasn’t around in Washington’s time, the spring that feeds Primrose Brook was a key fresh water source that helped make the Morristown/Jockey Hollow area viable for troops during the Revolutionary War. Washington led his Continental Army to winter encampment in Morristown during the Revolutionary War for a second time in 1779-80, and the spring was documented as being a water source for the patriot soldiers, particularly the Maryland and Pennsylvania brigades. One story tells of Washington visiting the spring after inspecting nearby drills and drinking directly from it with his cupped hands. 

In 1890, an aqueduct system was developed by the Morris Aqueduct Company, New Jersey’s first water company, founded in 1799, and the spring was put into use, bringing drinking water to the growing town. Today, the spring, with crystal-clear groundwater still flowing from it through cracks in the Precambrian bedrock, can be found along the Aqueduct Trail in the park.

A NOTE ON MADEIRA
Madeira wine is a fortified (grape brandy is added) wine originally coming from the Portuguese island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean, and it was one of the most popular wines in colonial America. Madeira is deliberately heated and oxidized during production. This gives it remarkable stability and the ability to survive long sea voyages. Its flavors don’t spoil once opened, and so it became the preferred wine of the American colonies. Today, it is referred to as a dessert wine.

I bought a bottle recently that I'm saving for George's birthday on February 22nd. 

In the meantime, during this winter, I will have some "Newark cider" like the hard cider George thought was the best. Made from a blend of four elite New Jersey apple varieties. The blend was dominated by the Harrison apple and“lauded by George Washington.” Modern NJ cider makers restoring the tradition say that Ironbound’s Newark Cider is “literally the cider that George Washington drank.”