Information and Education Unit
Dave Chanda, Chief
The Information and Education Unit conducts educational programs and outreach efforts which promote the wise and enjoyable use of fish, wildlife and other natural resources. These programs also focus on safeguarding these resources for future generations.
Programs include involvement in public expositions, hunter education, an urban fishing program, the “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” program, and Project WILD and Aquatic WILD for teacher education and an annual Fishing Essay Contest. Published literature includes the Fish and Wildlife DIGEST which contains regulations affecting wildlife and other information, news releases, a list of handicap-accessible fishing sites and various brochures. The unit also maintains the Division's Website (www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw).
The unit coordinates volunteers in the Wildlife Conservation Corps and presents programs at the Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center. “Fish and Wildlife Conservation Week” was held again in September. The week consisted of biologist-led walks, shooting sports events, lectures and fishing derbies. Project WILD teachers were offered the opportunity to have a conservation officer speak to their classes as part of this celebration. As part of the celebration, the division and cooperating sportsmen’ groups hosted the seventh annual Governor’s Surf Fishing Tournament at Island Beach State Park for more than 1000 participants.
The division was represented at 7 major outdoor shows. The division exhibit includes an interactive BB-gun and archery range. Staff prepared portable exhibits for display at 18 additional events and presented programs at 10 urban fishing derbies. Staff also partnered with the Division of Science and Research in presenting Urban Fishing Programs in communities along Newark Bay.
In addition to school and other public programs, a joint effort with the Division of Parks and Forestry was initiated to educate users of New Jersey’s outdoors on bear behavior and how to avoid conflicts with bears. The “You Are In Bear Country” campaign included production of color brochures for state park users, updating and production of signs and picnic table placards for use in state parks, and bumper stickers and bookmarks for general distribution.
The third annual Fish and Wildlife Conservation Week Essay Contest was held. Winners, their families and teachers accompanied division biologists on a research trip to a black bear’s winter den.
The unit also constructed 61 signs for Wildlife Management Areas, portable displays and a trailer for storing and transporting surf fishing equipment.
Media Relations
Two new film productions on deer and deer management and striped bass continues in cooperation with New Jersey Network. The deer film is slated for release in November 1998 with the striped bass film following shortly thereafter.
Promotion of the Clean Vessel Act included sending information to outdoor writers and newspapers, conducting several press conferences and meeting with audio/visual production companies for future production of public service announcements.
Becoming an Outdoors-Woman Program
The “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” (B.O.W.) program is designed primarily to provide women with a welcoming environment in which to learn outdoor skills.However, anyone, over 18 years of age is welcome to participate. Eight one-day and weekend programs were held for a total of 325 participants. Workshops included: Fly Fishing Weekend; Coastal and Northern Weekend Workshops; Introduction to the Shooting Sports; Surf Fishing Clinic; Pursuit of Whitetails; Canoe and Kayak Ecotour; and Fly Fishing Techniques.
Training and Volunteers
The Wildlife Conservation Corps (WCC), with more than 1,600 members, is the largest natural resource management volunteer group in the state. WCC members are involved in all phases of Division activities from wildlife research to newsletter production. During the year volunteers contributed services valued at more than $1.3 million.
Volunteers assisted in the following Division activities: operation of deer, turkey, beaver and otter check stations; spring and fall trout stocking programs; operations at the Rockport Pheasant Farm; fishing instruction and visitor services at the Pequest facility; the Urban Fishing Program; upkeep of five shooting ranges located in Wildlife Management Areas; and outdoor shows in New York and New Jersey. Volunteers also participated in the Endangered and Nongame Program’s Speaker’s Bureau, conducting more than 60 slide presentations.
Area Representatives continued participation in the monthly meetings of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and the county Boards of Agriculture, providing information on Division programs and activities. Representatives provided input to municipalities considering regulations that would effect hunting; due to their efforts these regulations had little impact. Representatives worked to assure the farming community became aware of the new grant-funded deer fencing program and the application process.
Training efforts were directed at cooperative programs with DEP’s Training Advocate. These programs included: MS Office97, MS Access, First things First and Internet Use for Professionals.
Project WILD and Wildlife Education
In FY98 there were 16 Project WILD workshops for 360 participants. Pre-service teacher training was held at 5 colleges. In-service workshops were held in 5 districts, one of which was for teachers of students with disabilities.
The Wild in the City initiative in Jersey City is progressing slowly due to lack of in-service funding. A WILD School Sites workshop for 20 Jersey City and surrounding area teachers was held.
There were 5 additional WILD School Sites workshops for 72 participants this year. In these workshops, competitive grants, sponsored by DEP Green Communities and administered by Ocean County Soil Conservation District, were offered. A new funding source this year was through USDA NRCS. Their “Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program” provided funds to 7 schools with the promise of additional funding in fall, 1999.
A PW, Project Learning Tree and Water Environment and Teachers facilitator reunion was held. A workshop at Island Beach State Park focused on the state core curriculum content standards. An EPA grant was received by DEP to correlate all the projects to the state standards. The grant also funded 8 workshops incorporating the standards, and will fund a facilitator training in August.
The combined PLT and PW newsletter Branching Out was produced twice. We exhibited jointly with PLT at several conventions. The Projects combined all advisory committees this year so that one body now advises the projects. There has been one meeting of the New Jersey Natural Resources Education Cooperative.
Marine Education
Funded by the Federal Aid in Sportfish Restoration Program, this project’s focus is teacher work-shops: 12 Aquatic WILD workshops were held for 239 teachers; assistance provided at the 3-day Facilitator Training for Aquatic WILD and other DEP programs for 8 educators; the 19th annual Coastal Workshop for Teachers was held at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor for 42 participants; and, new this year, 8 over-night workshops were held at our Sedge Island site in Barnegat Bay for 83 educators.
This project distributed 175,000 copies of the Marine Issue of the Fish & Wildlife DIGEST through more than 500 outlets, mostly coastal bait & tackle shops.
Booths were set up under the banner of NJ Marine, Coastal & Aquatic Education at several teacher conferences. Twenty six organizations were invited to display and distribute literature; 13 took advantage of the offer.
Clean Vessel Act Program
The goal of this new program is to reduce boat sewage being discharged into state waters by providing funds to marinas for construction, renovation, operation and maintenance of pumpout stations. A secondary goal is to provide information on the environmental advantages of using pumpout stations.
Staff promoted the program at boat shows and other venues, conducted boater surveys, developed signage and a Web page. Public service announcements, displays and visits to marinas were part of the campaign.
The 1998 Pumpout Station Directory was produced, listing NJ marinas with pumpout stations and highlighting the benefits of using these facilities. More than 14,000 directories were distributed to marinas, libraries, municipal and division offices and the general public.
New Jersey’s first Pumpout Boat, “The Circle of Life”, capable of pumping 300 gallons of sewage from boats in Barnegat Bay, was dedicated in May. The boat helped reduce water quality problems associated with the extreme volumes of boat sewage being released in the bay.
A historical event this past summer was the designation of the state’s first “NO DISCHARGE AREAS” in the Manasquan and Shark Rivers. There are enough pumpout stations to accommodate all boaters on these rivers and absolutely no dumping of boat sewage is allowed. This will improve water quality for fish, shellfish, wildlife and people. Future “No Discharge Areas”, part of the state’s watershed management program, may include the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers and Barnegat Bay.
Pequest Education Program
The Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center offers quality programs to school and organized civic groups as well as the general public. Approximately 50,000 people visited the hatchery including more than 4,500 people in 157 organized groups. With the help of volunteers, nearly 2,300 people participated in 97 fishing education classes at the Fishing Education Pond. This includes the public classes offered on the 2 Free Fishing Days held each year. Fifty-three“Budding Naturalist” programs were presented on a wide range of natural resource topics to more than 1,200 people.
The annual Open House, held the weekend before the opening of trout season, was again a tremendous success with nearly 7,000 people attending.
On opening day of trout season the 12 winners of the Thirteenth Annual Fishing Essay Contest received plaques and fishing equipment at an awards luncheon. Governor Whitman, Commissioner Shinn and Director McDowell made the presentations and visited with the winners and their families.
Staff accompanied stocking trucks from the Hackettstown Hatchery supplying sunfish to 10 of the 45 children’s fishing derbies the division supported. They gave a brief presentation on the fish raised at the Hayford Hatchery and the role of the division in managing the state’s freshwater fisheries resource.
In collaboration with the Division of Science and Research, Fishing Education Programs continued in four locations as part of the Urban Fishing Program. This is a unique example of the efforts made to extend the reach of the division.
Record Fish Program
New Jersey Record Fish are determined by weight alone. There are no line classes. During FY98 records were broken for: White Perch, Bluefish, Tautog and Longbill Spearfish (tiedrecord).
Skillful Angler Program
The Skillful Angler Program marked its 15th anniversary in 1997. The program recognizes anglers who catch fish of “not quite record” but nonetheless substantial size. The program began in 1983 with 31 applicants; this year 90 applications entering 23 different species were officially processed. Since the program’s modest beginning 1,362 anglers have attained Skillful Angler status.
The most popular species with skillful anglers in 1997 was striped bass hybrid with 12 entries. Three of the winning entries are state records – white crappie (2 lbs, 10 ozs), muskellunge (42 lbs, 13 ozs) and bluefish (27 lbs, 1 oz).
Hunter Education
The goal of hunter education is to place a safe, responsible, knowledgeable, and involved hunter and trapper in the field. New Jersey law requires that all persons wishing to purchase a hunting or trapping license shall present a hunter education course completion card or a previously issued resident license from this or any state. The curriculum stresses a hunter’s obligations to the resource, to landowners, to other hunters and to themselves. Courses are taught by volunteers selected and trained by professional staff from the Division. The unit also provided remedial sportsman education training to 22 persons convicted of wildlife violations. In fiscal year 1998, 496 hunter education volunteer instructors donated 13,292 hours of time to conduct 273 courses serving 18,775 applicants.
The unit provided instruction to novice and inexperienced shooters about safe handling of firearms, airguns and bows with arrows for various public groups. The unit provided firearms training at “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman” workshops for 113 participants and coordinated the “Take a Kid Hunting” pheasant hunt for more than 400 youth hunters. The unit also provided services to hunters with disabling conditions, including permitting alternative methods for hunting and upgrading the Hunter Training Areas on Wildlife Management Areas for firearm and archery shooting.
Endangered and Nongame Species Program
Larry Niles, Ph.D., Chief
The Endangered and Nongame Species Program manages and protects all forms of non-hunted wildlife. It works to ensure that these valuable creatures remain part of New Jersey’s wildlife resource. The protection and enhancement of endangered and threatened species is a top priority, with restoration of the osprey, bald eagle and peregrine falcon examples of the program’s success. These efforts are supported primarily by public donations through the state Income Tax Check-off and the sale of “Conserve Wildlife” license plates.
The Landscape Project
New Jersey is one of the most diverse and ecologically important regions in the country and is a pivotal meeting ground for many northern and southern species.
Despite the nation’s stiffest environmental regulations, much of this rich ecological heritage has been compromised by unrestricted and poorly planned growth. In the past, the focus has been primarily on protecting individual sites where rare plants and animals occur. Such an approach is often a recipe for costly, time-consuming conflicts with development interests, and is often ineffective.
In 1993 ENSP began developing the Landscape Project to improve upon this piecemeal approach. The goal of the Landscape Project is to maximize protection for rare species by using a multi-species, habitat-based approach in some of the state’s largest contiguous, biologically diverse habitats. The project aims to provide public and private land owners and managers with the tools they need to help preserve habitat that is most critical for the survival of key species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. Our objective is to forge true partnerships of land managers, state regulators, local planners and landowners in protection efforts that address the needs of each community. The project will will promote long-term and large scale protection of New Jersey’s animal biodiversity, reduce conflicts involving endangered species, and increase public understanding of long-term conservation needs.
In a powerful endorsement of the concept, Gov. Whitman last year budgeted $90,000 in general fund monies for the Landscape Project—the first state tax dollars allotted to ENSP since the 1970s.
ENSP now uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) that incorporates species locations and land-use/land-cover data. During 1997 ENSP began developing maps delineating critical areas for the Highlands and Delaware Bay regions to be distributed to local officials.
The Cape May Stopover Project illustrates the usefulness of the Landscape Project approach. The Cape May Peninsula is an important fall stopover for more than 145 species of song birds, hawks and eagles, as well as American woodcocks and monarch butterflies. During the past 20 years, 40 percent of their migratory habitat has been lost.
During the first phase of the project, The Nature Conservancy is working with the owners of key private landholdings that total approximately 900 acres. The Association of N.J. Environmental Commissions is working with county and municipal planning boards to incorporate Landscape Project concerns into ordinances and master development plans. The Land Manager Working Group, comprised of the managers of already conserved federal, state, local and private lands, is working to assure they manage their open spaces to promote high quality migrant habitat. A public outreach program furnished peninsula residents and businesses with pamphlets on wildlife landscaping techniques, and the N.J. Audubon Society was overwhelmed by the response of 130 home owners who attended residential landscaping workshops — the first step in having their properties certified as backyard sanctuaries.
Wildlife Management/Investigations
Bog Turtle
The bog turtle is an indicator species for emerging and calcareous (limestone) fen wetlands. These fragile natural communities support a long list of rare plants and endangered species.
Listed as endangered in New Jersey in 1974 (federally threatened since November 1997), bog turtles have continued to decline. In 1998 ENSP proposed using its Landscape Project model to protect and preserve the headwaters of the Wallkill, Paulinskill and Pequest watersheds. Combined, they harbor one of the four most important remaining populations of bog turtles in the Northeast. The strategy is being coordinated with a similar effort on the New York side of the Wallkill Valley organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Piping plovers
Over the past 11 years, productivity of piping plovers has not been sufficient to contribute to the bird’s recovery on a state or regional level; last year they suffered the lowest productivity since monitoring began. If the trend continues piping plovers could disappear from the state within the next half century.
Attempting to reverse the decline, ENSP and its partners, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service,The Nature Conservancy and ENSP volunteers have fenced nesting areas, educated beach users, monitored and patrolled the sites and erected predator exclosures that provide protection both around the nest and from above.
Exclosed nests produced fledglings at a much higher rate. But the primary cause of exclosed nest failure was the very predation the exclosures are designed to prevent. Foxes and crows appear to be keying in on some exclosures, either waiting for the birds to exit, disturbing them so much that they abandon the nest or, in the case of foxes, digging under the exclosure to get to the birds.
While predation is the overwhelming cause of piping plover failure, disturbance by people also contributes. Beaches with higher levels of human activities, have lower levels of fledgling production and chick survival. ENSP intends to further examine the use of, and possible modification, of exclosures. In addition, the program is encouraging local beach towns to take a more active role in managing and protecting the piping plovers.
Species of concern
One of the program’s goals is to ensure that plentiful but possibly declining species don’t also become endangered, where recovery efforts become much more costly and tenuous. Among the species of conservation concern are beach nesters, migrating shorebirds and neotropical migrants, such as warblers.
Shorebirds
It may seem odd to consider the spring migration of an estimated 1.5 million shorebirds to Delaware Bay as threatened. The peak count on May 27 exceeded 203,000, close to the mean total over the past dozen years. Peak counts of red knots, ruddy turnstones, and sanderlings were all near average.
However, there is concern for the supply of horseshoe crab eggs migrants from South American wintering grounds depend upon for their last refueling prior to a non-stop flight to Arctic breeding grounds. In 1997 horseshoe crab spawning appeared to remain low. Contract biologists documented a drastic decline in the density of eggs laid on the bay shore beaches between 1990 and 1997.
Assisted by ENSP, biologists from Britain, Argentina and Canada banded more than 2,100 shorebirds to ascertain migratory routes and key stopovers. This work determined red knots gain weight more quickly in Delaware Bay than any other stopover during their migration.
ENSP zoologists fitted five red knots with radio transmitters to determine use of both beaches and marshes. Three of the five were located on the Delaware shore feeding among an abundance of spawning crabs. ENSP zoologists speculated the birds temporarily reversed their migration because crab eggs were relatively sparse on New Jersey beaches.
Concerned the apparent decline in crab eggs would impact the shorebirds’ ability to reach and reproduce on Arctic breeding grounds, ENSP convinced Gov. Whitman to impose a moratorium on the commercial harvest of horseshoe crabs. But crabbers, who sell the crabs for eel and conch bait, were free to harvest crabs beyond the three-mile limit and land the crabs in Maryland or Virginia.
Neotropical migrants
More than 195 bird species, many at the southern or northern limit of their range, breed in New Jersey and another 110 migrate through or over-winter here. Biologists have detected alarming declines in many species, particularly those that over-winter in Central and South America and migrate long distances to breed here and elsewhere in North America.
As part of the Landscape Project, ENSP has collaborated with the federal Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Rutgers to analyze bird and habitat data. ENSP is conducting a two-year analysis of forest edge and interior forest species in D&R Canal State Park and the Princeton Institute Woods to determine how to restore and manage habitat.
ENSP is actively involved in the state’s Forestry Stewardship Program. Landowners have a zoologist conduct a survey to determine the property’s potential for habitat enhancement. A conservation plan is then developed by ENSP and the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service advises the landowner on the best methods to carry our the plan.
