Endangered
Species Exhibit Travels to Ocean County
DEP Names Northern Pine Snake the Endangered Species of
the Month
(03/125) TRENTON - The New Jersey
Endangered Wildlife Traveling Exhibit, an interactive display
that showcases the history and achievements of endangered
species protection in the state, opens Friday at Tuckerton
Seaport in Ocean County for a seven-week stay.
The traveling exhibit is part of the Department
of Environmental Protection's (DEP) celebration of 30 years
of endangered species protection in New Jersey. Using an
interactive collage of video, audio and graphics, visitors
can view the beautiful and diverse landscapes of New Jersey,
while learning about the critical work necessary to ensure
the future of our state's wildlife heritage.
Today is the exhibit's last day at the
Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor before it moves to the
Tuckerton Seaport, 120 West Main Street in Tuckerton. Lawrence
Niles, chief of the DEP's Endangered and Nongame Species
Program, will speak at the exhibit's seaport debut, 10 a.m.
Friday, Sept. 12.
The exhibit will remain at the seaport
through Monday, Oct. 27.
The DEP and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation
of New Jersey unveiled the New Jersey Endangered Wildlife
Traveling Exhibit in July at Liberty State Park in Jersey
City. It will travel throughout the state before settling
into its permanent home at the Division's Pequest Trout
Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center in Oxford,
Warren County.
Future stops include Somerset County Park
Commission Environmental Education Center in Basking Ridge
(Oct. 29 - Nov. 25); Meadowlands Environmental Education
Center in Lyndhurst (Nov. 26 - Jan. 27, 2004), PSE&G
Headquarters in Newark (Feb. 1 - Feb. 26) and Newark Liberty
International Airport in Newark (Feb. 27 - March 31). Funding
for the exhibit was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's Wildlife Conservation Restoration Program, the
Conserve Wildlife Foundation and PSE&G.
In addition to the traveling exhibit, the
DEP is highlighting a threatened or endangered species each
month on its web site, www.nj.gov/dep.
September's species is the northern pine snake, a threatened
species whose populations are affected by habitat loss due
to development, illegal collecting, and thoughtless killing
of snakes by people. The New Jersey Pinelands may provide
residence for some of the largest populations of this non-venomous
constrictor in the Northeast.
Signed into law on Dec. 14, 1973, the New
Jersey Endangered Species Conservation Act directed the
DEP to protect, manage and restore the state's endangered
and nongame wildlife species. Over the past 30 years, state
biologists have made New Jersey a leader in bringing key
species back from the brink of extinction - species such
as the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and osprey.
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