One Million and Counting

It was very nice to see that this Endangered New Jersey blog site crossed over one million page views this summer. We are at 1,046,828 and counting as of today.

Thanks to all who read my posts, commented and sent their observations, photos, and questions.

I appreciate your interest in the diverse things about New Jersey that interest me whether they are endangered, threatened, or just interesting animals, plants, places, and other aspects of the state.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Another year has passed for us here at Endangered New Jersey. 

We began as a student project in 1999, became a standalone website a few years later and then transitioned as a blog to allow for more interaction on March 27, 2009. So, we are between 13 and 23 years old depending on what you count as the start.

This post is #1,217 in the archive. We continue to post about not only the endangered and threatened wildlife of New Jersey but also larger national and global issues. We also keep an eye on threatened natural resources, historical preservation and any environmental issues with a special focus on New Jersey and our region..

Thanks for stopping by the site!

Ken at a conference representing
the Wildlife Conservation Corps

Follow Endangered New Jersey

This blog had used Feedburner to allow you to get email updates when new posts appear, but recently Feedburner discontinued their email service. 

We are now using follow.it and if you were already subscribed or would like to subscribe now, please use the subscribe form below,

Thanks for following the blog!

Get new posts by email:

Powered by

Another Endangered New Jersey Year

This blog passed another birthday (or is it an anniversary?) last month. That always gets me to look at the stats and analytics to see what people are reading. 

Below are the top 20 posts from the past year's stats. (use the search bar for this site and you can find any of them). Some have been perennial favorites. Posts about the more exotic species (not necessarily threatened or endangered) are always popular. Those posts always get the most comments, mostly from people who believe they have spotted a wolf or mountain lion in NJ. I continue to say that there is no evidence that these species or others (like moose) exist in our state. That doesn't stop reported sightings. People also like to report that they have seen a less obvious species. No one reports that there were four deer on their lawn. Seeing a fisher, porcupine, coyote, beaver or maybe a fox is still a thrill to many urban and suburban residents.
 

1. Is That a Mountain Lion I See Wandering New Jersey?" has more than 25,000 visits (and hopefully reads) since it was posted. 
2. Otters in New Jersey
3. Seeing Wolves in New Jersey 
4. Fishers Return to New Jersey 
5. New Jersey's Wild Cat 
6. The Eastern Garter Snake
7. "New Jersey's Two Venomous Snakes" has had more than 35,000 visitors 
8. New Jersey's Watchung Mountains
9. Have You Seen a Coywolf in New Jersey?
10. New Jersey Furbearers
11. Foxy New Jersey
12. Snakes in New Jersey
13. Nutria
14. Busy New Jersey Beavers
15. Invasive Species
16. Jersey Owls
17. New Jersey: Have You Seen Spotted Lanternflies?
18. Carnivorous Pitcher Plants
19. Hiking a Haunted Trail
20. Golden Eagle Rescued and Released

Blog Anniversary (or Birthday)

I guess it's typically called an anniversary when a blog celebrates another year. Endangered New Jersey started as a blog on March 27, 2009, so today is the anniversary. Personally, I prefer a birthday because it suggests that there will be cake, ice cream, and presents!  (No balloons - especially the mylar ones - that usually end up in the ocean and endanger animals!)

Today is birthday 11, but the idea and original version of the site goes back 21 years old having begun as a website in 1999 that I helped three sixth grade students (one being my son) and their teacher put together. You can read about the history of the site here.

This blog was my way to keep the mission of the original site going - to keep people in NJ and beyond informed about what was happening in our state around things threatened and endangered. I broadened the scope to include other topics about the diverse environments and species found in New Jersey, plus the challenges we face, and what you can do to enjoy and protect them.

A Decade of Endangered New Jersey

Today this blog reaches the decade marker, double digits birthday or anniversary.

As I have written before about our history, the concept of it is actually 20 years old having begun as a website in 1999. That site was for the ThinkQuest student website competition and built by three sixth grade students (one being my son) and their two teacher-coaches (one being me).

This blog was my idea as a way to update the mission of the original site, and broaden the scope to include other topics about the diverse environments and species found in New Jersey, the challenges we face, and what you can do to enjoy and protect them.

Our most read posts are:

• New Jersey's Two Venomous Snakes
• Seeing Wolves in New Jersey
• Fishers Return to New Jersey
• Is That a Mountain Lion I See Wandering New Jersey?
• Bobcat Sightings More Frequent in New Jersey    
• Are Bees Endangered? 
• New Jersey's Watchung Mountains
• New Jersey's Watchung Mountains
• About Endangered Species

We have almost 600,000 visitors who have found our pages. Our hope is that those visitors have been educated and become more interested in our state and the often surprising diversity of wildlife and geography of new Jersey, and also the challenges we face in protecting them.

Endangered New Jersey Is Nine Years Old

Today this blog is 9 years old. The idea of it is actually 19 years old. It began as a website built in 1999 for the ThinkQuest website competition for students. It was designed to be about endangered and threatened wildlife of the United States with a special focus on New Jersey, and it was built by three sixth grade students (one being my son) and their two teacher-coaches (one being me).

They chose endangered species because it is studied in almost all elementary schools and is popular with kids, but they didn't find any sites online about local New Jersey species. Since I had been a volunteer with the state's Wildlife Conservation Corps for several years, they thought I could help them narrow the website's focus to NJ species.

It went live March 31, 1999, and we notified the State of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection about the site and they provided a link to us on their site. The site was selected by Thinkquest as a Gold Award Winner in the Science and Math category.

The site was featured on New Jersey Search and was included in their search engine database as a "NJ Proud" site. The team presented a program along with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation at their former elementary school and received plaques of appreciation from the association for "promoting wildlife conservation awareness to the citizens of New Jersey."

The team also did a slide presentation on endangered species for the local Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting after a member of the group had seen the site in a newspaper feature and contacted us. The VFW post presented certificates of appreciation to the team members for their "service to the community."

The site was also featured in an article in the magazine New Jersey Outdoors in 2000.

This blog was my attempt to update the mission of the original site, and broaden the scope to include other topics about the diverse environments and species found in New Jersey, the challenges we face and what you can do to enjoy and protect them.

Ou top 5 most read posts over these years are:

1. New Jersey's Two Venomous Snakes
2. Seeing Wolves in New Jersey
3. Is That a Mountain Lion I See Wandering New Jersey?
4. Bobcat Sightings More Frequent in New Jersey     
5. New Jersey's Watchung Mountains

The blog crossed over the half a million visitors mark earlier this year, and I hope that the posts have educated not only New Jersey residents about people outside our state about the tremendous diversity in out wildlife, geography and resources and the challenges we face in protecting them.

Our Popular Posts

Looking at your blog stats at the end of the year is a kind of tradition. It is a good way to get a sense of what people are reading the most and look for trends.

I notice that besides endangered species, the most popular posts are often about rare species - some of whom do not live in our state. Besides the occasional question or comment about seeing a moose, elk or grizzly bear, one popular species brings up the question Is That a Mountain Lion I See Wandering in NJ?  The answer is No in most cases.

Snakes are still quite misunderstood and misidentified by the general population. Since our state only has Two Venomous Snakes, the chances are that the one you saw in the backyard is not dangerous. Still, it is good to be educated about them. And certainly don't kill them! The venomous ones should be avoided, but they serve a purpose in our ecosystem.

A fisher in its full winter coat bares its teeth and looks a bit like a little bear.

The pretty rare fishers have returned to NJ and a post in April about them have probably garnered the most sighting comments in 2017.

Bobcat posts were also generally popular as we see more sightings in the state.

As our state trapping regulations and zones make clear, we have otters, mink, muskrat, coyote, red and gray foxes, raccoon, skunks, opossum and weasel and nutria in New Jersey. Some of those furbearers may be rarely sighted, but not endangered or threatened. You are likely to spot raccoons, skunks, a fox and opossum even in Jersey suburbia. But you are in a select group if you have come upon a Jersey mink. And if you really saw a nutria, that's unfortunate, because we would like to get these invaders out of our state!

Our state's beavers are just as busy as in other states.

And when was the last time you saw a porcupine in your NJ wanderings?

People often write to say they think they saw a wolf in their neighborhood, but if you are seeing wolves in NJ, they must be ones in captivity.   But Have You Seen a Coywolf in New Jersey?  That is a real possibility these days.

Though wildlife seems to get the most attention here, when it's not winter in NJ, posts about hiking and places to visit, like the Watchung Mountains, get more traffic.

And please follow us on Twitter @Endangered_NJ  (You can see our daily posts online even if you don't belong to the Twitter community.)  We post many articles there that have been written elsewhere pertaining to NJ and beyond about endangered species, conservation, management and the environment.

Follow Endangered New Jersey on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter for a daily post on news about endangered species and the environment.  You don't need to have a Twitter account to see our posts - just to retweet and interact with us.

twitter.com/Endangered_NJ

Here's a sampler:

Tweets by @Endangered_NJ

Questions on Endangered Species

I occasionally get email or comment to the blog asking about how to report a sighting of a rare species and questions about identifying a species seen. Although I have been a volunteer with the Endangered and Nongame Species program for quite awhile, I'm no expert on all the flora and fauna of the state.

Recently you might have seen a post I put up about a frog species that a reader wanted to identify. I was hoping the "wisdom of the crowd" might identify it.

And this month I also got an inquiry from someone in Hillsborough who sees a peregrine falcon in a nearby woods regularly. "Anonymous" wondered if that might help prevent development of those woods.

I replied that the appearance of an endangered species doesn't immediately qualify an area for protection, though nesting might. I suggested looking at http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/protecting/projects/peregrine/ and trying to use the contact listed there.

Also, there is information from the state about reporting a rare species at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/rprtform.htm

And if you have suggestions about that frog or the peregrine situation, or other people and places to contact about endangered and threatened species, please leave a comment.

Follow Endangered NJ on Twitter

Even if you're not much of a social media follower,
you can follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Endangered_NJ.

You don't even have to sign up for an account (although you'll need one to be social with us!) to see our daily posts with links to additional information and updates on things endangered or just interesting in the environment and nature here in NJ and around the world.

Tweets by @Endangered_NJ

6 Years of Endangered NJ

Late February means that spring is a possibility - although it doesn't feel that way in NJ this week. Back in February 2009, I started posting on this blog, so this is the end of year six and into our seventh blogging year.

Having volunteered in New Jersey's Wildlife Conservation Corps for a lot of years, I didn't have as much free time and there didn't seem to be as many possibilities to volunteer. I had been doing talks for the Speakers Bureau and focusing on the threatened and endangered species.

Those talks with slides made me aware of just how many people in our state did not were unaware of the program or the species that were in trouble. I decided that the blog (a re-purposing of an earlier website that was a student project involving my son) could probably reach a bigger audience than those talks both in NJ and beyond.

As a lifelong New Jerseyean, I tire of the Jersey jokes and like to share some of the many good things in the state. Now, you could say that writing about things that are threatened and endangered in NJ doesn't show our best side. But the blog is really about all the efforts to protect those species. Every state and every country on the planet has endangered species, but not all of those places are making a good effort to prevent and protect them.

When I look at the stats for popular posts here, I continue to see that people in and out of NJ like to read about Wolves in New Jersey (Wolves are popular, but does NJ actually have any?) and people want to know about the two venomous snakes that we do have living here. It's great to write about successful species comebacks - like the bald eagle and to inform people about species that aren't endangered and that we would like to keep that way like the bees.

Over the years, I have broadened the scope of the blog to include some history, like NJ's whaling history,
and things to do (like hiking) or the original people of our area, the Lenape.

I write about some of our state's best features and places. I love the Pinelands that may be called the Barrens but are not barren. They may even harbor a Jersey Devil, or at least a legend of one.

You may not think of hiking trails as being endangered, but the land they cross often is threatened by development.

Thanks for reading. Please explore the tags and archives and spread the word about what New Jersey does and needs to do to protect its precious things.

Endangered NJ Birthday

Spring always reminds me that another year has passed for Endangered New Jersey. I started posting in February 2009 and we are entering our sixth year. With almost 700 posts, we get a fair number of visitors (about 157,000 so far) and hopefully they find out more about our state.

When I started it was partially because I have volunteered in the state's Wildlife Conservation Corps, Speakers Bureau for a few decades, especially for things related to threatened and endangered species. Giving talks to groups made me aware of how many people in NJ don't know about what we have here and what we might lose in our natural world.

Of course, I also am happy that this site gets lots of visitors from outside NJ and I hope it has some positive impact on our state's image which too often gets bashed by the national media.

This past year, the most popular posts (old and new) have been:

• Wolves in New Jersey,
• Successful Comeback for Bald Eagle in New Jersey
• Are Bees Endangered?
• ASMFC Horseshoe Crab Board Extends Addendum
• Encountering Bobcats in New Jersey
• The Lenni-Lenape, New Jersey's Original People
• Honey Bees
  
• Bobcat Sighting More Frequent in New Jersey
• NJ's Watchung Mountains
• New Jersey's Two Venomous Snakes
• NJ's Watchung Mountains
• NJ Deer in Their Rutting Period

Our visitors come primarily from this top 10 list of countries (in order):

1. United States
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. United Kingdom
5. Canada
6. France
7. Ukraine
8. Poland
9. China
10. India

Thanks for taking a look at the site.

Endangered New Jersey Anniversary #4

Today is the 4th anniversary of this Endangered New Jersey blog which started on March 27, 2009.

Endangered New Jersey actually began as a website built in 1999 for the ThinkQuest website competition for students. The original site is still online and is outdated and "archived" and was built by three sixth grade students (including one of my sons) and two teacher-coaches (including me).

I maintained a revised version of that site for about ten years, but the updates were infrequent and so in in March of 2009, I set myself the task of starting a blog version of Endangered NJ. The blog format allows for more frequent updates, comments from readers - and free hosting for this non-profit effort.

This blog now has almost 600 posts on a broader scope of "endangered" topics and has attracted more than 100,000 views from around the world.

As a longtime volunteer for the NJDEP Wildlife Conservation Corps and the Speakers Bureau, I have had the chance to work on some projects all over the state, see how the state works at protecting threatened and endangered species and talk to citizens about those efforts. My hope is that this site spreads the word on that work and helps educate people in NJ and outside our state about our diverse species and habitats.

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.

Happy First Birthday Endangered New Jersey

We are now starting our second year online as a blog.

Endangered New Jersey began as a website built in 1999 for the ThinkQuest website competition for students. It was designed to be about endangered and threatened wildlife of the United States with a special focus on New Jersey, and it was built by three sixth grade students and their two teacher-coaches.

An archived version of the original site (that "locked" version is now out-of-date) is maintained in the ThinkQuest library online.

An updated version of the site was maintained by me at another location for about ten years, but the updates were infrequent.

So, in March of 2009, I set myself the task of starting a blog version of Endangered NJ. The blog format allows for more frequent updates, comments from readers and free hosting.

The blog also broadened the scope of the original site to include other topics about the diverse environments and species found in New Jersey, the challenges we face and what you can do to enjoy and protect them.

THE ORIGINAL SITE

I have to give credit to at least one of the original student members of the team, my son, Drew Ronkowitz. He had participated in the ThinkQuest Internet competition in 1998 with an entry title What's In A Name (a web site about the origins of names). That entry was a 1998 Finalist and received several other Internet awards, and in its first year on the still-new World Wide Web, it received over 35,000 visitors. I'll be relaunching that site too as a blog called Why Name It That on April first.

Drew was encouraged by earlier Web success, so he teamed up with his friends, Brandon Lane and James Kegley, and enlisting me as a tech coach and one of their teachers, Barbara Ann Ellert, as their content coach, the team started work.

They chose endangered species because it is studied in almost all elementary schools and is popular with kids. There are many sites about it but there were no sites about local New Jersey species.

I had been a volunteer with the state's Wildlife Conservation Corps for several years and knew that few pages showed up at the time on search engines including the official New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's own site.

As part of the site, the team needed images and needed to get the rights to use them. They first approached the state web site's webmaster and the office of Endangered and Nongame Species Program. Happily, both were enthusiastic about the project and offered their site's information and the graphics found there.

The site had 3 main areas: 1. the species (which would be subdivided into birds, reptiles, mammals, etc.) 2. topics about endangered species in general (definitions, causes etc.) 3. a section that the coaches would concentrate on (teacher links, citations, updates, promotion, permissions etc.)

We also sent out e-mail permission requests to sites we found with useful photos. We told them that we were creating an educational web site for ThinkQuest and asked if we could use any of their photos on our site. We said that we would credit the photos to them and include a link to their site on our sources page. We got a positive response from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and from two other sites. A few never answered. Two told us that they didn't have the rights to the photos themselves. And two others said we could not use their photos but could link to their pages if we wished.

The site was uploaded March 31, 1999, and we notified the State of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection about the site and hoped they would recognize our efforts. They did and even provided a link to us on their site.

So, in some way, this site is actually celebrating its 11th birthday this month!

The site was selected as a Gold Award Winner in the Science and Math category that year.
The Cedar Grove Board of Education presented the team members with a proclamation of congratulations. The Star-Ledger, did a great feature story on the team and site including a color photo of the students under the headline "Masters of the Web." By that September, the team had received e-mail from teachers, students (elementary school through college) , several biologists, and Scout leaders who had visited the site and used our resources.

Frequently, we received technical questions which we tried our best to answer or at least give a link or e-mail address they could try. One biologist contacted us about a species correction and was amazed to discover when we replied that the site was created by three students when they were in sixth grade - "I thought it was the state's official site! I'm very impressed!" he replied.

The site was featured on New Jersey Search and was included in their search engine database as a "NJ Proud" site. The team presented a program along with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation at their former elementary school and received plaques of appreciation from the association for "promoting wildlife conservation awareness to the citizens of New Jersey." We also made a slide presentation on endangered species at a local Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting. A member of the group had seen the site in a newspaper feature and contacted us. The VFW post presented certificates of appreciation to the team members for their "service to the community." The site was also featured in an article in the magazine New Jersey Outdoors in 2000.

Doing the site was a great experience for the students and the teacher coaches. Blogs didn't exist in 1999, so creating and launching a website was pretty unusual.

Hopefully, this latest incarnation will continue to grow and attract new readers and get out information on the natural resources and wildlife in New Jersey.

Back To School Week on Endangered NJ

All seven days this week I will offer some resources for teachers to use to use in their classrooms to incorporate an awareness of endangered species and threatened environmental issues in NJ and elsewhere that can be used across different disciplines and grade levels.

Click out education and classroom links to see all our posts about teaching and learning activities and projects.

Please add your comments about resources on the environment that you use in your teaching - whether you teach in NJ or not!.

About The Content On This Site

Endangered New Jersey contains original content and material from public sources.

Whenever possible, this blog uses images and text in the public domain in the United States because they are the work of United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code or other government agencies.

Photos are also used that carry a Creative Commons license, such as those in the Flickr Commons.

Some images from websites are sometimes hotlinked when the post promotes that site and its activities. Clicking these images will take you to the original image.

Some images used are by the site owner or friends and are noted with the photographer's name and a link when available.

Content holders who wish us to remove their copyrighted work, provided that we are acting outside the laws of "fair use," should contact us in writing.

All such notices should be sent to: the webmaster at endangerednj at gmail.com and should contain the following information:
1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity.
4. The address, telephone number, or e-mail address of the complaining party.
5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA")