Upcoming at Sandy Hook

Gateway National Recreation Area, which covers parks in in NY and in NJ, offer programs to the public throughout the year - but as the weather improves they certainly get more visitors.

There are three geographic units: Sandy Hook, New Jersey; Jamaica Bay and Staten Island, New York City. The NYC units include Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Fort Tilden, Riis Park in Queens, Floyd Bennett Field and Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn. Staten Island has Great Kills Park, Miller Field and Fort Wadsworth. These sites and others make up the 27,000 acres of Gateway, one national park.

Two events upcoming this weekend at Sandy Hook:

Surf Fishing Clinic
Building #18, Littoral Society Headquarters
Saturday, April 21, 8 AM - 3 PM
Join Jeff Dement, Tagging Director, for a day of surf fishing and instruction on the beach. He will cover the basics of casting, knot tying, lure/bait selection, and "reading" a beach. All skill levels are welcome. Rods, reels and tackle will be provided. Children under 18 are welcome with a supervising adult. Bring lunch. This is a fee-based program. Call (732) 291-0055 to make a reservation.

Clean Ocean Action's 33rd Spring Beach Sweep
Parking Lot D
Saturday, April 21, 9 AM - 12:30 PM
Clean Ocean Action's Beach Sweeps is a biannual, statewide beach cleanup that occurs at over 70 locations throughout the state of New Jersey. Each beach sweeper becomes a citizen scientist for the day as they record each piece of debris that they collect. This turns a one-day, cleanup event, into a legacy of data that impacts research and legislation. For more information, please visit Clean Ocean Action's website:www.cleanoceanaction.org or call (732) 872-0111.

Earth Day 2018

Next Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day 2018 and this year the day is dedicated to providing the information and inspiration needed to fundamentally change human attitude and behavior about plastics.

From poisoning and injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, from littering our beaches and landscapes to clogging our waste streams and landfills, the exponential growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of our planet.

If you have ever walked a beach in almost any part of the world, including our beloved Jersey Shore, you have seen evidence of plastic pollution.

I have written here about pollution in the air and water and on the ground, and plastic pollution actually affects all three area although its presence in water gets the most attention.

To look at it locally, consider micro-beads which cannot be filtered from household waste water by sewage treatment plants. Eventually, these very small pieces of plastic end up in the ocean.

Take this globally and you can look at the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and the North Atlantic Garbage Patch (trash vortex). These two areas (and there are other areas too) are made primarily up of trash fragments ranging from a millimeter to the size of a pencil’s eraser.

The highest concentrations of plastic were found roughly from the latitude of Virginia to the latitude of Cuba. Scientists have gathered data from 22 years of surface net tows to map the North Atlantic garbage patch, which lies to the east of Bermuda. It is estimated that the average concentration of plastic in this area is about 4,000 pieces per square mile, though it is as high as 250,000 pieces per square mile in some places.

The size of the Atlantic trash vortex compares in size to the area of France. This micro/fine trash, poisons fish and marine mammal and kills seabirds.

We know that balloons and plastic bags and larger pieces of plastic are also floating out there and are a danger, but the micro-beads are easily swallows along with other food and water and clog the guts of creatures with indigestible beads that make them unable to eat and so they starve to death.

The Great Pacific garbage patch (also described as the Pacific trash vortex) is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean discovered between 1985 and 1988. The patch extends over an indeterminate area of widely varying range depending on the degree of plastic concentration used to define the affected area.

These patches include concentrations of plastic, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. It has a low density and so it can't really be detected by satellite imagery, or even by casual boaters or divers in the area. The suspended, often microscopic, particles are in the upper water column.

But that probably sounds far away from you and your daily life.

The EarthDay.org website offers three paths to get involved in the pollution that exists in your neighborhood.

1. Individual: learn and act to End Plastic Pollution for yourself and your close communities.
2. Organization: organize for Earth Day and beyond.
3. Educator: resources to teach and help others organize to End Plastic Pollution in your school or university.

How About a State Amphibian and a State Reptile for NJ?

Look up the New Jersey state amphibian and state reptile and you will find - nothing. We don't have them. Well, we have amphibians and reptiles, but none are officially designated.

That may change soon.

Bills to make the Pine Barrens treefrog the official amphibian of New Jersey and to make the bog turtle the state reptile were approved by a state Senate committee this year.

a puffed up Pine barren Treefrog

According to S2297, the Pine Barrens Treefrog (Hyla andersonii) was listed by New Jersey as an endangered species in 1979 due to habitat loss and upgraded in 2003 to threatened “based on improved population numbers and a determination that its habitat in the state is well protected by the New Jersey Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan.” The bill says designation as the state amphibian would further help in conservation of the species and its habitat by raising its profile among the public.

Populations of the Pine Barrens treefrog are found in only three places worldwide. They are the New Jersey Pinelands, the panhandle of Florida, and the sandy hills of North Carolina and South Carolina.

Then we have bill S1925, for the bog turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii). It is one of the smallest turtles in the world. It has a distinct orange patch on either side of its head and a brown to black shell, and it is one of the rarest in North America.

bog turtle

The bog turtle can be found in wet areas in 12 New Jersey counties. It was listed as endangered in New Jersey in 1974 and threatened in the U.S. in 1997. Designation as the state amphibian should also give it more exposure and help conserve it by raising public awareness.

If the bills get past the state Senate and Assembly and are signed by the governor, these two species will join other official species such as:

• the eastern goldfinch as the state bird
• the horse as the state animal (the U.S. Equestrian Team is headquartered in New Jersey)
• the brook trout as the state fish
• the honeybee as the state “bug”
• the black swallowtail as the state butterfly
• Hadrosaurus foulkii, the fossil of which was discovered in Haddonfield, Camden County, as the state dinosaur

Free Tree Seedlings This Week at Pequest

Seedlings Available In celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day, the NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife will be giving away up to 20 free tree and/or shrub seedlings per person to promote native landscaping and wildlife habitat in your backyard. Trees will be dispensed on a first-come, first-served basis April 16-20 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Pequest Trout Hatchery in Warren County. Plant selection includes: White pine, flowering dogwood, arrowwood viburnum, and mixed oaks. Trees are provided by New Jersey State Forestry Services.  Directions to Pequest