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DEP to Webcast Banding
of Jersey City Peregrine Chicks
(03/90) TRENTON – Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M.
Campbell invites the public to log on to a live webcast
later this week as biologists band four peregrine falcon
chicks that hatched atop New Jersey’s tallest building.
“This webcast will allow everyone to see first hand
the kind of work our endangered species biologists have
been doing for decades to restore these noble raptors to
our skies,” said DEP Commissioner Campbell.
The hour-long webcast will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June
25, on the DEP web site www.nj.gov/dep
. Joining the commissioner will be Jeff Corwin, host of
the Animal Planet television program “The Jeff Corwin
Experience.”
The peregrine nest to be featured in Wednesday’s
webcast was discovered several years ago atop 101 Hudson
Street in Jersey City, a 592-foot-tall 42-story building
and the highest in New Jersey. During the webcast, biologists
will place identification bands on four chicks that hatched
about four weeks ago. These chicks can walk but are still
flightless.
Peregrines historically bred in New Jersey on cliffs along
the Hudson and Delaware rivers, but they were wiped out
in the East due to a combination of egg collecting, shooting,
development and DDT pesticide contamination.
Starting in the late 1970s, biologists from the DEP’s
Endangered and Nongame Species Program released young peregrines
into the wild. The first successful peregrine nest in the
East was re-established in 1980 at Edwin B. Forsythe National
Wildlife Refuge in Atlantic County, New Jersey. By 1986,
10 pairs were nesting in New Jersey and the population now
remains stable at about 17 pairs.
Peregrine falcons were removed from the federal endangered
species list in 1999. They continue to be listed as endangered
in New Jersey because they remain threatened by contaminants
and human disturbance, and they rely on active management
of their nesting sites.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the New Jersey
Endangered Species Conservation Act and the creation of
the Endangered and Nongame Species Program in the DEP’s
Division of Fish and Wildlife.
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NOTE TO REPORTERS: The DEP welcomes coverage of Wednesday’s
peregrine chick banding and webcast. Please call for details.
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