Become a Wildlife Habitat Program Supporter

New Jersey DEP Fish & Wildlife manages more than 360,000 acres in 122 wildlife management areas throughout the state that protect and conserve fish and wildlife habitat and provide opportunities for outdoor recreation such as fishing, hunting, bird watching, wildlife viewing, hiking, and more.

This holiday season, you can help New Jersey wildlife by joining the Wildlife Habitat Supporter Program!

Donate today to support:

• Management and restoration of fish and wildlife habitat
• Enforcement of fish and wildlife regulations
• Restoring and protecting endangered and nongame species
• Providing educational programs and signage
• Improving public access to recreational facilities on wildlife management areas

Details at dep.nj.gov/njfw/conservation/wildlife-habitat-supporter-program/ 

Check off Line 68 on Your NJ State Income Tax to Help Wildlife

 

You still haven't filed your New Jersey tax form?
Good! You still have a chance to check off
Line 68 to make a donation 
and help protect Bald Eagles, Bobcats, Spotted Turtles, Tiger Salamanders, butterflies, and scores of other rare wildlife
by supporting the New Jersey Endangered Wildlife Fund when you file your state income taxes.

Simply look for Line 68 on your NJ 1040 income tax return and check-off for wildlife! Or remind your tax preparer that you want to make a contribution. Every dollar you donate goes directly to the state's Endangered and Nongame Species Program, enabling biologists to monitor and conserve our rarest wild populations from the Highlands to the Shore. 

And your contribution is matched with an equal amount of federal funding, further strengthening efforts to protect imperiled species.

The Endangered and Nongame Species Program is responsible for more than 600 species of greatest conservation need across New Jersey, including 86 species currently listed as endangered or threatened. Your contribution to the Endangered Wildlife Fund makes it possible for these scientists to protect and manage a diversity of species that bring beauty and balance to our fine state. 

The Endangered & Nongame Species Program receives no dedicated state funding and depends on contributions to do so much of its important work.

Whether you're getting a tax refund or owe this year, you can help keep the wonder of wildlife alive for our children - and for theirs - by checking off for wildlife on your NJ 1040 tax return.

Want to do even more for wildlife? Drive conservation home with a Conserve Wildlife License Plate!

Help Save the Peregrine Falcon Webcam

The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife Peregrine Webcam has been streaming live video from the rooftop nestbox at 101 Hudson Street in Jersey City for a number of years.

Even webcams can become endangered. Unfortunately, there is no longer funding available for the NJDEP Division of Fish & Wildlife to manage and host the Jersey City Peregrine Webcam.

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ (CWF) hopes to replace the old analog system with a new digital high-definition camera and host the webcam. This will allow them to provide streaming video of the nestbox this coming season, but your support is needed to make this happen.

If you would like to help make that happen, you can make a donation,
visit conservewildlifenj.org/education/falconcam/

Since 2001, Nestbox News has chronicled the nesting activity, providing detailed information about each year's activity.

The Peregrine Project has always relied on public support. Much of that support is from The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, a non-profit organization which works closely with the division's Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

Jersey Give Back for Environmental Non-Profits

Via the Dodge Foundation blog, I discovered that they are highlighting this month organizations featured in their Jersey Give-Back Guide. This is an annual, seasonal project of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the guide features some of NJ's nonprofits in the hope that you might consider them in your year-end donations.

The one that caught our environmental eye first is the Bayshore Center at Bivalve which was founded in 1988 to “motivate people to take care of the history, the culture and the environment of New Jersey’s Bayshore region through education, preservation and example.” 

They have restored the 1928 Delaware Bay Oyster Schooner AJ Meerwald as a sailing classroom and created the Bivalve Center which is their Maurice Riverfront home. There, the restored 1904 Bivalve Shipping Sheds and Wharves serve as a maritime center of national significance, homeport to the MEERWALD and the Delaware Bay Museum & Folklife Center . New Jerseyans can experience the heritage, ecology and ship-building and fishing history of the Delaware Bay.

The Bayshore suffered severe economic and ecological damage from Hurricane Sandy, but it was not designated as a region to receive federal assistance, so our private support for the Center at Bivalve helps people living throughout Bayshore area of south Jersey.

You can make a donation to the Center via the Dodge "Jersey Give-Back Guide" at JerseyGivebackGuide.org, and if you click on the Environment category, you will find the Bayshore Center at Bivalve and also:

• City Green
• Clean Ocean Action
• New Jersey Conservation Foundation
• Student Conservation Association

Help Fund Endangerd Species in New Jersey

The Endangered and Nongame Species Program is responsible for protecting and managing nearly 500 wildlife species, including 73 species currently listed as endangered or threatened. When I have talked to groups about the program, one thing that always surprises people is that it is funded almost entirely by the state income tax check-off donations and through sales of the distinctive Conserve Wildlife License Plate. Imagine running a program by relying on people to contribute when they are paying their taxes!

You can help protect New Jersey's bald eagles and all other rare wildlife by supporting the New Jersey Endangered Wildlife Fund when you file your state income tax this year. Jusst look for Line 58 on your NJ 1040 income tax return, and check-off for wildlife or remind your tax preparer that you want to make a contribution.

Every dollar you donate goes directly to the DEP's Endangered and Nongame Species Program, enabling biologists to continue their work to restore, conserve and enhance New Jersey's populations of rare species. What's more, your contribution is matched with an equal amount of federal funding, further strengthening efforts to protect hundreds of imperiled species.

The bald eagle used on the images above is the best example of a species on the brink of extinction in NJ. In 1979, there was just a solitary nesting pair. Residues of the pesticide DDT from the 1950s and 1960s were still causing thin, fragile eggshells that crushed under the weight of the adult eagles.
But volunteers and Endangered and Nongame Species biologists, plus a ban on DDT and other pesticides, has allowed the bald eagles to make a steady comeback over the past three decades.

In 2011, there were 113 nesting pairs and 119 fledged chicks and a January 2012 bird count found well over 300 eagles making their homes in New Jersey.

The Delaware Bay region of Cumberland and Salem Counties' expanses of coastal wetlands provide plentiful fishing grounds, and the species is expanding northward. The nesting range now includes 18 of New Jersey's 21 counties.

They are still an ususual sight for most New Jerseyeans. A bald eagle perched in a tree directly above busy Route 202-206 in Bedminster, Somerset County, created a minor traffic jam recently as motorists stopped and pulled out their cameraphones.

And don't forget our secretive bobcats that were reintroduced 30 years ago and are now living in the northern third of the state.

Peregrine falcons - the fastest of the world's birds - disappeared from New Jersey in the 1960s, but a reintroduction project and intensive management have resulted in a stable population of about 20 nesting pairs, including some in major cities.

 
If tax time isn't the right way for you to help out, how about "driving home" the conservation message showing off your commitment by purchasing a $50 Conserve Wildlife license plate? More than 80% of your payment, or $4 out of every $5, goes directly toward preserving our state's endangered wildlife. That's crucial, because the New Jersey's endangered, threatened and nongame wildlife protection program receives no dedicated state funding and must depend completely on contributions from the general public.

For more information on New Jersey's endangered and threatened species, go to www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensphome.htm. This webpage includes information on how to help these species through both the tax return check-off and Conserve Wildlife license plates.