Will New Jersey Get Its First National Park?

Delaware Water Gap, autumn -- Wikimedia

Might New Jersey get its first National Park? Well, the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Sierra Club are pushing for that. Their nominee is the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. It is currently an area that encompasses 70,000 acres of mountains, forest and, of course, the Delaware River.

The Water Gap is one of the most popular outdoor destinations in the country, with more than 4.5 million visitors annually.

Why become a National park? That "branding" does bring national and maybe some international attention to a place. It also brings more funding for amenities and infrastructure. The Water Gap sees the same amount of tourists as Yellowstone but without a commensurate budget.

Remember that it is already a National Recreation Area so the change is to National Park and Preserve.

As the pandemic began to lift this past summer, you heard people saying they wanted to get back to seeing some of the National Parks. National Recreation Areas - not so much. National parks like Yosemite and Grand Canyon get a lot of attention. There are only nine National Parks east of the Mississippi River.

New Jersey is not alone in lacking a national park. Pennsylvania and New York also lack one. The nearest one to us is Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. (Pennsylvania does have National Historical Parks, including Independence Mall and Valley Forge.)

The proposal to change the Water Gap's status needs to be presented to elected officials, Indigenous leaders, business owners and residents in both states, and then would still need U.S. House and Senate support. So, don't expect it to happen in the next year.

SOURCES

www.post-gazette.com/...

unofficialnetworks.com/...

Water Gap, winter -- Wikimedia

Liberty Water Gap Trail

The Liberty Water Gap Trail is a work-in-progress in New Jersey. It's a unique trail in that it connects two national landmarks at each end: the Delaware Water Gap at the Delaware River and the Statue of Liberty at the Hudson River - and it passes through a third, the Morristown National Historical Park.

It can be seen as a 130 mile "linear park" that runs the width of New Jersey that gives you a cross-section of forest, rural, suburban, and urban life across our state.

There are six distinct trail segments:

1. Hudson River Waterfront Walkway - Liberty State Park, Jersey City
2. East Coast Greenway - Jersey City to Newark
3. Lenape Trail - Essex County
4. Patriots' Path - Morris County
5. Sussex Branch Trail - Sussex County
6. Paulinskill Valley Trail - Sussex & Warren Counties

The idea for the trail originated with the indefatigable Al Kent back in 1999 who wanted to link trails in the state and create the first walking path across New Jersey.

My own hiking days have greatly diminished and my dream of walking the entire Appalachian Trail are pretty much gone - but I think this trail is still a possibility.

A reporter, Brian Kladko, did it in 2002 and wrote about it in The Record. I saved the series of articles and I have penciled the trail in on the retirement list.

Trail Marker

http://www.libertygap.org

Encountering Bobcats in New Jersey

Bobcat by Chris Davidson via http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/

The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is one of NJ's endangered mammals. The are not usually seen by residents because of their habits, but I was not shocked to read an article recently in via The Daily Record that a photographer was able to get a shot of one last month in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

"I was doing nature photography and in early spring, I spotted it numerous times," George Draney recalled. So be began staking out a narrow, scrub-lined path twice a week, for about three or four months. A couple of times the bobcat crept by him but was gone before he could shoot a photo, he said.

The morning he finally got the shot, he was sitting in his car near the path and the bobcat was between 25 and 50 yards away, he said.

"I saw it going up the pathway in a hurry, so I thought to make a noise to make it look my way," Draney said. "So I whistle real loud, and it stopped. When I shot, it turned, and I got two more shots."

He described it as appearing healthy, about the size of a medium dog and weighing about 25 pounds.

The State estimates our population of bobcats to be at least 90, with most living north of Route 80.

They had disappeared from NJ by the early 1970s because of habitat loss. About 20 bobcats (from Maine) were reintroduced from 1978 to 1982 to repopulate them here.

One unfortunate indicator of their return are the dozen road kills found in the past year, including one on Route 46 in Parsippany near the Boonton Reservoir this past spring.

Taxonomically, bobcats belong to the order Carnivora, or carnivores, meaning that they are
primarily flesh-eaters. They are members of the Felidae family and are commonly known as felines. All members of this family look somewhat similar in appearance. (here is a comparative track guide)


Bobcats live in both the northern and southern portions of NJ. In the north, typical bobcat habitat consists of large areas of contiguous forest and fragmented forests interspersed with agricultural areas or early succession vegetation.

Bobcats often use areas with rock outcrops, caves, and ledges that provide shelter and cover for hunting, resting and rearing young. Where rocky areas are not available, swamps, bogs, conifer stands and rhododendron and mountain laurel thickets provide good cover and excellent hunting grounds.

In southern New Jersey, dense thickets of briars and conifers serve as resting and escape cover, so the bobcat have the ability to adapt to a wide variety of habitat types and prey species.


The Delaware Water Gap and other areas of Kitatinny Ridge are the best habitat areas the state has for bobcats, says Mick Valent, a wildlife biologist for the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, who said there's no reason to doubt Draney's account.

State biologists have found bobcat tracks and scat in the Water Gap area, and have photographed them there with motion-sensitive cameras baited with scent, Valent said.

Bobcats are so shy that they pose no danger for people, and are so reclusive that you would be lucky to actually see one.

Their individual territories ranging from one square mile to 25 square miles. Habitat continues to be the major problem in maintaining their numbers. They find a good supply of mice, chipmunks, squirrels and birds in the areas where they exist.

NJDEP document on bobcats

Bobcats in the Conserve Wildlife Newsletter, Winter 2007