Student Conservation Association (SCA) has a mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities. They do this by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.
This is year #61 for SCA. New Jersey is newer to the program but there are several NJ SCA summer high school job programs in areas throughout the state including Hunterdon County, Newark and Camden.
Their first community based conservation program was in Hunterdon County in 1999, partnering with the Hunterdon County Parks system. Since then, they have enlisted 300 high school students in conservation job opportunities in Hunterdon County and the impacts on the county’s trail system have been enormous.
In 2003 SCA expanded its New Jersey programming by establishing high school programming in the Newark area in partnership with Prudential. SCA has Camden community crews that are run from their Philadelphia office.
The New Jersey Community Program provides paid summer job opportunities (July through August) for high school students in the Hunterdon and Essex county regions of New Jersey. This 6-week summer program runs Monday-Friday and incorporates environmental education and job readiness training into the conservation service experience. Participants build trails and restore habitat while exploring green career opportunities, building leadership skills, and learning about the local environment through field trips, outdoor recreation, and service projects.
It is not too early to consider these opportunities, though you need to submit applications by May 16th. Check out the how to apply section of their website.
Showing posts with label conservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservation. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
New Jersey Conservation Foundation
NJCF is a voice for conservation in NJ politics. They offer a number of ways to donate and help their efforts.
Many of New Jersey Conservation Foundation's preserved properties are open to the public for hiking, bird-watching, bicycling, picnicking, nature photography and family outdoor activities. Some preserves have spots for fishing, kayaking, canoeing and other non-motorized water sports. Preserves are open during daylight hours.
To learn more about individual preserves, go to njconservation.org/preserves.htm
Since 1960, NJCF has been working to preserve mountains, fields, farms, streams, forests
and meadows, and has saved over 125,000 acres since then. (2014 - 17 minutes)
and meadows, and has saved over 125,000 acres since then. (2014 - 17 minutes)
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Before They Are Endangered
A recent article from the Press of Atlantic City, reminds us that protecting New Jersey's snakes, birds, frogs and other animals and plants BEFORE they are endangered is really the goal of conservationists.
In that article, the focus is on effort in the far-from-barren NJ Pinelands. The post online includes a video and follows Emile DeVito, an expert on endangered species in the 1.1-million-acre Pinelands National Reserve, who studies the rarest plants and animals.
Those species include the Pickering’s morning glory and the iconic Pine Barrens tree frog.
The Pickering's morning glory is not currently listed in NJ and so its rarity makes it the kind of species that needs attention (and will not get as much federal or state funding support) so that it is not overlooked and it moves to a threatened or endangered status.
The Pine Barrens treefrog is another kind of species case study. In 1979, iy was listed as an endangered species in New Jersey due to its restricted range, declining population, habitat loss, and pollution of breeding ponds. But conservation efforts moved the treefrog population to a point that it is currently considered stable.
New Jersey serves as a stronghold for this species throughout its entire range. In areas of suitable habitat, they may seem abundant. However, protection of this species is warranted, as quality habitat is limited to specialized Pine Barrens ecosystems patchily distributed throughout its range.
Conservationists have long known that addressing species in decline before they reach the the stages of being threatened or endangered is the real goal.
As members of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, New Jersey Audubon and the NJDEP track species, they can identify important habitat for that species.
For example, the docile pine snake can be tracked using implanted transmitters that allow us to discover winter dens and nesting sites.
We have more than 80 species of wildlife from mammals to birds to insects in New Jersey that are considered endangered or threatened. (See list at www.state.nj.us) There are also dozens of plants that are in danger that probably get less attention than the "sexier" wildlifr.
Some habitats that need protectionare less than intuitive spaces. For example, Ryan Rebozo, director of conservation science at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, says that the edges of roads in the Pinelands could replace some lost open areas, such as those lost by dousing fires that naturally create suitable habitat. But too often road departments are mowing these areas at inopportune times when some rare plants are flowering. He estimates that 11,000 acres of road edges could be suitable habitat for some of our rare plants, such as the the Pine Barrens gentian, which needs direct sunlight and flowers later in the fall when mowing is common.
As important as education and information, such as this post, can be, it alone isn’t going to save species. People, especially volunteers and the general public, need to take action.
In that article, the focus is on effort in the far-from-barren NJ Pinelands. The post online includes a video and follows Emile DeVito, an expert on endangered species in the 1.1-million-acre Pinelands National Reserve, who studies the rarest plants and animals.
Those species include the Pickering’s morning glory and the iconic Pine Barrens tree frog.
The Pickering's morning glory is not currently listed in NJ and so its rarity makes it the kind of species that needs attention (and will not get as much federal or state funding support) so that it is not overlooked and it moves to a threatened or endangered status.
 |
| Current limited range for the Pine Barrens treefrog |
The Pine Barrens treefrog is another kind of species case study. In 1979, iy was listed as an endangered species in New Jersey due to its restricted range, declining population, habitat loss, and pollution of breeding ponds. But conservation efforts moved the treefrog population to a point that it is currently considered stable.
New Jersey serves as a stronghold for this species throughout its entire range. In areas of suitable habitat, they may seem abundant. However, protection of this species is warranted, as quality habitat is limited to specialized Pine Barrens ecosystems patchily distributed throughout its range.
 |
| Flower of Stylisma pickeringii Pickering's Dawnflower or Pickering's Morning Glory, near Batsto, New Jersey. via Wikimedia |
As members of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, New Jersey Audubon and the NJDEP track species, they can identify important habitat for that species.
For example, the docile pine snake can be tracked using implanted transmitters that allow us to discover winter dens and nesting sites.
 |
| Pine snake moving across sandy soil |
We have more than 80 species of wildlife from mammals to birds to insects in New Jersey that are considered endangered or threatened. (See list at www.state.nj.us) There are also dozens of plants that are in danger that probably get less attention than the "sexier" wildlifr.
Some habitats that need protectionare less than intuitive spaces. For example, Ryan Rebozo, director of conservation science at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, says that the edges of roads in the Pinelands could replace some lost open areas, such as those lost by dousing fires that naturally create suitable habitat. But too often road departments are mowing these areas at inopportune times when some rare plants are flowering. He estimates that 11,000 acres of road edges could be suitable habitat for some of our rare plants, such as the the Pine Barrens gentian, which needs direct sunlight and flowers later in the fall when mowing is common.
As important as education and information, such as this post, can be, it alone isn’t going to save species. People, especially volunteers and the general public, need to take action.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Puffins Off the Coast of New Jersey?
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| Photo: Stephen Kress |
Where do puffins spend the winter? Maybe some of them spend it off the coast of New Jersey.
Researchers have been uncertain about where Maine's Atlantic puffins spend the winter. New findings from the National Audubon Society using locators on the birds show that at least some of them winter several states away near New Jersey and New York.
Though an article on nj.com says the birds winter off NJ, the study tracked the birds to an area over underwater canyons and sea mountains on the U.S. Continental Shelf, about 200 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Puffins are seabirds that are less comfortable and at home on land and in the air. In the spring breeding season and summer, they are in coastal areas of Maine but leave for open ocean waters in the autumn and winter.
Puffins are a threatened species and data about their movements are needed to inform conservation efforts. In 2015, scientists and conservationists began advocating for a Marine National Monument around the coral canyons and seamounts near Cape Cod. If approved, it would be the first marine monument in the U.S. side of the Atlantic, and would protect the region against potential future threats like dredging by fishing vessels, undersea mining, and oil drilling.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
At Birthday #350, Some New Jersey Firsts
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| Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge |
New Jersey celebrates its 350th anniversary and Michele Byers did a post on New Jersey "firsts." You might know that Thomas Edison did the first phonograph, incandescent light bulb and the first motion picture projector. (The first town in the world to be lighted with overhead wires was Roselle, NJ.)
Lesser known firsts include NJ claiming the first cultivated blueberries, developed by Elizabeth White and Dr. Frederick Coville in the Burlington County Pine Barrens in 1916. They are our state fruit.
But the part that caught my eye were 4 first in the area of parks and conservation.
- The Morristown National Historic Park, where George Washington's troops spent the winter of 1779-80, is America's first historic park.
- The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge includes the first federally-designated wilderness area east of the Mississippi.
- The New Jersey Pinelands are America's first and only national reserve.
- The Essex County Park System was the first in the country.
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| At the Morristown National Historic Park |
That leads to another first, one that’s not so exciting and fortunately has not yet happened. New Jersey is on track to become the first state to reach full build-out, the point where all land is either preserved or developed. It’s crucial to keep saving parks and open spaces so when the Garden State does reach build-out, most if not all of our most critical lands are preserved rather than paved.
For more information about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Fracking, Forests, and Endangered Species in Nearby Pennsylvania
The Sierra Club Allegheny Group has put out an alert for concerned citizens in Pennsylvania and neighbors to contact your state representatives and senators if you are opposed to the bills HB 1576 and SB 1047.
These bills are part of the push to drill in the Marcellus Shale area. this includes county parks and state forests.
A recent NPR interview talks about our neighbors in Pennsylvania and the effect on forests due to drilling activity, new roads, and pipelines. Of particular concern is the disturbance of the rare areas of ‘core forests’ deep in the woods. Now the gas industry is seeking to remove restrictions on where they may drill in the forests.
These two bills - HB 1576 and SB 1047 - would move the responsibility of entries on the state endangered Species list from the independent biologists of Game and the Fish and Boat Commissions, to members of the legislature.
Conservationists are also concerned that the bill has a provision to allow environmental permits to be given without consideration of the impact on endangered species.
Friday, January 3, 2014
Student Conservation Association
Their mission is to build the next generation of conservation leaders and inspire lifelong stewardship of the environment and communities by engaging young people in hands-on service to the land.
In New Jersey, chances to serve this past year being a Shorebird Intern at the Gateway National Recreation Area at Fort Hancock, and being a Biological Technician at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville.
These interns may well become the next generation of environmental caretakers from their hands-on service.
To learn more about the Student Conservation Association, visit http://www.thesca.org
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Conservationist Aldo Leopold
Lately, I have written a number of posts about the various hunting and trapping seasons here in NJ. So, today, when I saw on an almanac that it was the birthday of Aldo Leopold, I thought I should post a bit on him to balance the scales.
Aldo Leopold is the author of a key book in the conservation movement, A Sand County Almanac
.He was one of those kids that was drawn to the outdoors. After college, he entered Yale's forestry graduate program (one of the first in the country - not something you'd expect from an Ivy school) and became one of the nation's first professional foresters.
One of his assignments was to hunt livestock predators in a New Mexico national forest. But as he observed the bears, wolves, and mountain lions, he concluded that removing them had a broader impact on the entire ecosystem.
He developed a philosophy that humans should not dominate the land. He popularized a definition of "wilderness" that meant nature in its own, untended state, rather than the conventional idea that wilderness is land for outdoor activity.
Eventually, he developed the first management plan for the Grand Canyon. He wrote the Forest Service's first game and fish handbook. He formed The Wilderness Society with other conservationists in 1935.
His "sand county" farm (worn out land purchased for $8 an acre) near the Wisconsin River, became his real world experiment. He planted 40,000 pine trees and tried to tend the land with his own conservation ethic of peaceful coexistence with nature. He documented this in essays collected in A Sand County Almanac
.The book was published in 1948, one week before he died of a heart attack while battling a grass fire.
(via Amazon) ...A Sand County Almanac has enthralled generations of nature lovers and conservationists and is indeed revered by everyone seriously interested in protecting the natural world. Hailed for prose that is "full of beauty and vigor and bite" (The New York Times), it is perhaps the finest example of nature writing since Thoreau's Walden.
... the heart of the book remains Leopold's carefully rendered observations of nature. Here we follow Leopold throughout the year, from January to December, as he walks about the rural Wisconsin landscape, watching a woodcock dance skyward in golden afternoon light, or spying a rough-legged hawk dropping like a feathered bomb on its prey. And perhaps most important are Leopold's trenchant comments throughout the book on our abuse of the land and on what we must do to preserve this invaluable treasure... a new generation of readers can walk beside one of America's most respected naturalists as he conveys the beauty of a marsh before sunrise or the wealth of history to be found in an ancient oak.
Much more... www.AldoLeopold.org
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Adopt a New Jersey Species
You can help protect rare wildlife by adopting a species. Your symbolic adoption supports Conserve Wildlife's efforts to protect New Jersey’s rarest animals, restore important habitat, and foster pride in New Jersey’s rich wildlife heritage.
Adopting a Species also makes a great gift and it's a gift that gives twice!
Full information is at ConserveWildlifeNJ.org
It's also a good classroom activity. Educator can use the Adopt a Species Educator page.
Animals Available for Adoption
- Bald Eagle
- Blue-spotted Salamander
- Bobcat
- Bobolink
- Bog Turtle
- Checkered White Butterfly
- Indiana bat
- Atlantic Loggerhead Turtle
- Osprey
- Peregrine Falcon
- Pine Barrens Treefrog
- Piping Plover
Friday, December 17, 2010
Trail Work That Doesn't Work
Though volunteers spend many hours each year maintaining trails in NJ and other states, not all "trail work" is useful.
In Essex County, the Hilltop Conservancy has been finding evidence of un authorized trail work that is destroying wildlife food sources and habitats. The volunteer group helps maintain a 240-acre reservation in northwest Essex County that spans Caldwell, North Caldwell Verona and Cedar Grove.
They discovered that someone had cleared a new trail through a meadow that’s part of a 10-acre habitat restoration project the conservancy has been working on since 2005 with the county and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The new and unplanned "trail" would bring increased traffic that will damage or destroy the new native prairie grasses and wildflowers there.
What they find isn't generally isn't vandalism and may even be done with good intentions, but the group has taken to posting signs to tell the rogue trail workers to stop.
In the case of new trails appearing, mountain bikers often create their own trails and move objects in the way that may have been placed for trail preservation and don't offer a hazard for hikers and walkers. Mountain bikes, dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles are not allowed on many reservations (including the Essex Hilltop) because they can cause significant damage to trails.
For example, fox grape and Virginia creeper vines are being cut out through the woods. They may look "invasive" but they are a food source for deer, birds and other small animals. The group would only remove it when it hinders an established trail.
Anyone who has done trail maintenance knows that logs and branches along steep trails are not "in the way" but often a way to prevent runoff and erosion.
It's a problem in many parks and wooded areas. If you want to volunteer and help maintain public lands, you should always work with established conservancy groups.
In Essex County, the Hilltop Conservancy has been finding evidence of un authorized trail work that is destroying wildlife food sources and habitats. The volunteer group helps maintain a 240-acre reservation in northwest Essex County that spans Caldwell, North Caldwell Verona and Cedar Grove.
What they find isn't generally isn't vandalism and may even be done with good intentions, but the group has taken to posting signs to tell the rogue trail workers to stop.
In the case of new trails appearing, mountain bikers often create their own trails and move objects in the way that may have been placed for trail preservation and don't offer a hazard for hikers and walkers. Mountain bikes, dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles are not allowed on many reservations (including the Essex Hilltop) because they can cause significant damage to trails.
For example, fox grape and Virginia creeper vines are being cut out through the woods. They may look "invasive" but they are a food source for deer, birds and other small animals. The group would only remove it when it hinders an established trail.
Anyone who has done trail maintenance knows that logs and branches along steep trails are not "in the way" but often a way to prevent runoff and erosion.
It's a problem in many parks and wooded areas. If you want to volunteer and help maintain public lands, you should always work with established conservancy groups.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Water Conservation Workshops
Sustainable Jersey™ will be offering a WATER CONSERVATION WORKSHOP to help your municipality conserve water through the implementation of the Water Conservation Ordinance, which is one of the program’s priority actions, and the Water Conservation Education Program. The workshop will be presented in 3 locations throughout the state (northern, central and southern), and a webinar will also be held on the topic.
Water is a critical natural resource that supports essential human activities as well as ecological functions. Shortages can have dangerous and significant implications for public health as well as for the local economy and for ecological integrity. In addition to reduced groundwater recharge from increasing impervious surfaces, demands on New Jersey’s limited water supply due to population growth and development have greatly increased.
WHAT WILL BE COVERED?
Water Conservation Ordinance
A Water Conservation Ordinance can help municipalities curtail unnecessary water waste. The elements of the updated model Water Conservation Ordinance will be discussed in detail and we will be soliciting feedback on the proposed changes.
Water Conservation Education Program
To be successful, water conservation efforts must also include an education program that informs individuals of the need to use water resources in a sustainable manner. Municipal education programs that promote water conservation can serve as a good starting point for a more comprehensive water conservation program.
The Water Conservation Workshop will highlight municipal examples that have achieved water conservation through a variety of education strategies.
Speakers from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection will present an overview of the Water Conservation Ordinance, and Water Conservation Education Action in Sustainable Jersey. Representatives from area municipalities will share municipal examples and talk about their own efforts on this topic. There will be time for Questions and Answers.
To sign up for any of the three workshops visit:
http://tcnj.qualtrics.com//SE?SID=SV_9AyQ39m9VNsxMry
To sign up for the webinar, visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/838782192
WORKSHOP DATES AND LOCATIONS
SOUTHERN LOCATION: July 21, 2010 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. – Council Chambers, Vineland Municipal Building, 640 E. Wood Street, Vineland, NJ 08360.
Directions: http://www.vinelandcity.org/Directory/directionstovld.PDF
NORTHERN LOCATION: July 27, 2010, 7-8:30 p.m. -- Memorial Meeting Room at the Maplewood Memorial Library, 51 Baker Street, Maplewood, NJ 07040.
Directions: http://www.maplewoodlibrary.org/direct.html
CENTRAL LOCATION: July 29, 2010 – 9-11:30 a.m. - Belmar (Courtroom), 601 Main Street, Belmar, NJ 07719. Directions: http://belmar.com/municipal/municipal-court/directions-to-the-court/
WEBINAR: August 3, 2010, from 7-8:00 p.m. Sign up: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/838782192
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