Tulpehocken Creek (left), Batsto Lake (right), and Butterworth Pond (below) represent the types of streams, impoundments, and ponds that were surveyed as part of the Commission’s watershed studies.

           The results of the watershed studies revealed that the surface-water quality and biological communities found in forested stream basins generally contrasted with those attributes found in basins with a high percentage of altered land (developed land and upland agriculture).  Acid waters and typical Pinelands biological communities characterized survey sites in forest-dominated stream basins.  Elevated pH and specific conductance and nonnative plant and animal species were associated with stream basins with a high percentage of altered lands.

            Both pH and specific conductance in streams and lakes increased in relation to the percentage of altered land in a drainage basin, and nitrate concentrations were higher in the more heavily altered basins.

Fish Assemblages

            The composition of Mullica River and Rancocas Creek stream-fish assemblages varied along a watershed-disturbance gradient characterized by increasing pH, specific conductance, and the percentage of altered land in a basin.  The percentage of native fish species decreased and the percentage of nonnative species increased along this disturbance gradient.  Similar changes in impoundment-fish assemblages were associated with variations in pH.           

      
  
          Characteristic Pinelands streams and impoundments support native-fish species, such as the  banded sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) on the left and bluespotted sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus) on the right.

      

          Two nonnative fish species often found in degraded waters are the pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) on the left and largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) on the right.

Anuran (frog and toad) communities

          Conditions at Mullica River and Rancocas Creek sites where native anuran species were heard contrasted with those observed at sites that supported non-Pinelands frogs, especially bullfrogs. Compared with the native carpenter frogs, bullfrogs were found at impoundments with elevated pH and specific conductance and a high percentage of altered land in the associated drainage basin.  Strong or consistent relationships between the anuran and fish community gradients and watershed-disturbance variables in the Great Egg Harbor River Watershed Management Area were generally lacking, possibly due to the general absence of minimally disturbed fish or anuran sites and the widespread distribution of nonnative species in the watershed.

      

          The native carpenter frog (Rana virgatipes) on the left and southern leopard frog (Rana utricularia) on the right are usually found in high-quality Pinelands habitats.

     
         
          Nonnative frogs, such as the northern cricket frog (Acris c. crepitans) on the left and bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) on the right, are associated with habitats impacted by land-use-related watershed disturbance.

Stream Vegetation

          In all three major watershed areas, variations in stream-vegetation patterns, represented by a decrease in the percentage of native Pinelands species and an increase in the percentage of non-Pinelands species, were associated primarily with increasing pH, specific conductance, and the percentage of altered land in a basin.  Based on the results of Mullica River studies, several non-Pinelands plants were classified as disturbance-indicator species.

      
         
          Golden club (Orontium aquaticum) (left) is a native Pinelands plant, whereas larger starwort (Callictriche heterophylla) (right) is classified as a disturbance-indicator species.

            Staff scientists are currently completing two other watershed studies.  One study is exploring the effects that abandoned and active-cranberry bogs have on stream-drainage and wetland-landscape patterns, stream flow, and acid-water stream communities, including diatom, macroinvertebrate, fish, and plant assemblages.  The second study is examining the effect of land-use-related watershed disturbance on vegetation, fish, and anurans (frogs and toads) found in Pinelands stream impoundments (lakes and ponds).  Study sites include impoundments in watersheds displaying a range of land-use characteristics.

          The goal of the project is to prepare right-of-way (ROW) maintenance plans that create and maintain relatively stable and sustainable, early successional habitats that reflect characteristic Pinelands habitats, require minimal management, ensure transmission reliability and safety, and minimize the need for individual Pinelands permit reviews.  Rutgers University cooperators will inventory ROW management strategies used by the utilities, characteristic Pinelands early successional reference habitats, and managed habitat types found along transmission-line rights-of-way.  The inventories will provide the basis for evaluating existing management strategies and ROW conditions by comparing functional and structural attributes of managed and reference habitats and landscapes.  Recommendations for low-growth management methods and return intervals for different Pinelands vegetation types will be based on the evaluation.  Based on the recommended approaches, a dynamic Pinelands-wide program that describes the type, application, timing, and return interval of management strategies to be applied to each individual span will be prepared.

          In 2004, Commission and New Jersey Division of fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) scientists completed a three-year study in which they monitored the movements of timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) in the vicinity of a partially constructed residential development in Evesham Township (Laidig and Golden 2004). A major focus of the study concerned the effectiveness of a 2.7-km fence and a culvert system intended to direct the movements of timber rattlesnakes away from the development and toward forested areas.

          Residential development in Evesham Township showing the location of the fence and under-road culvert system.

       
Close up view of culvert and snake fence.

          Five male and four female timber rattlesnakes were radiotracked for various time periods during the three-year study period.  Using a global positioning system, the location of each snake was recorded every other day until it reentered a wintering den, or hibernaculum, in the fall.

       
Male (left) and female (right) timber rattlesnakes.

          Radio-telemetry data indicated that these rattlesnakes used extensive areas of forested uplands and wetlands within a 1500-ha area in and around the development.  The two largest males had the largest activity ranges (the area bounded by the outermost telemetry locations of a snake).  Both snakes had total round-trip travel-distances of greater than 11 km during two separate years.  A pregnant female had the smallest activity range, traveling the shortest distance from its hibernaculum. 

        
Radiotracking rattlesnakes and rattlesnake in culvert.

          Results of the study indicated that several timber rattlesnakes heavily utilized areas that may be developed in the future.  The fences did not prevent any of the transmitter-equipped timber rattlesnakes from entering constructed portions of the development.  The culverts, however, were used by two timber rattlesnakes to move beneath a street to forested lands east of the development.