Spring Bird Migration is Underway

There are many wonderful aspects of springtime -- the emergence of long-dormant plants in forests, meadows and gardens; the sounds of Spring Peepers and other frogs and toads calling one another in wetlands; the flowering of trees and shrubs that colors the landscape in shades of pink and white...  One that almost everyone counts as truly special is the re-appearance of birds that migrated south for the cold winter months.

Spring migration is well underway, and there are some great web sites that have been created to help people learn what species are travelling through any given area at a particular time.  These web sites also contain loads of intersting information about how birds use the stars and magnetic fields to navigate, how scientists (both formally trained scientists and citizen-scientists) track them, and what are learning from migration studies over time.

Here are a few of our favorite web sites about bird migration.  We encourage you to check them out!

Following Spring Migration 
This site from ENature includes maps that show the winter range of many birds, their migratory paths, and the dates when you might expect to see the first arrivals of each species in our watershed.

Clemson University Radar Ornithology Laboratory
This web site explains the work of CUROL and explores how radar is used to track birds as they migrate.

Migratory Stopovers
This site from the Chipper Woods Bird Observatory provides information about the importance of stopover sites, the places where birds rest and feed as they make their long journeys north and south each year.

Bird Migration on Nexrad
The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology hosts this site which allows you to track birds in real time or through a five day archive.

Woodcreeper
The folks at this web site are tracking bird migration over New Jersey using Doppler radar and a community of diehard birdwatchers.

Dim Your Lights and Support Earth Hour on Saturday, March 27th

Climate change is happening all around us and its pace is accelerating. From melting glaciers to increasingly intense weather patterns, climate change is already impacting life on Earth. Urgent action is needed now to save our planet for future generations.

Luckily, there is an easy action step all of us can take. In a bold statement of collective concern, millions of people around the world will turn off their lights for one hour—Earth Hour—on March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. local time. We urge everyone to take part and support this effort by committing to turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour in their home and workplace.  Learn more about this effort at http://www.earthhour.org/.

At URWA, we’re taking our involvement one step further. We are taking a close look at actions we can take to operate more efficiently, waste less and reduce our environmental footprint. We encourage fellow organizations in this region to do the same. Earth Hour is the perfect time to reassess, recommit and take responsibility for our planet.

Sponsored by World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour is the largest event of its kind in the world. In 2009, nearly one billion people from 4,100 cities in 87 countries turned out their lights, as well as international landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower and Great Pyramids, and the city skylines of Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv.

We have the power to make Earth Hour 2010 even bigger.

This is a critical moment for our planet. On March 27 at 8:30 p.m., let’s all turn out and take action.

Herbicide Causes Sex Change in Frogs

The herbicide atrazine, heavily used in agriculture, is once again being implicated in the sexual mutation and decline of worldwide frog populations. The most recent study conducted by University of California Berkley professor Tyrone Hayes seems to point to this herbicide as the definitive cause for male frogs developing the physical characteristics of females.

The 40 young African Clawed frogs in the test were exposed to a water environment that contained 2.5 parts per billion (ppb) of atrazine for three years. Seventy five percent were chemically castrated by the exposure. Ten percent of them grew to be females, and were able to mate with males, but because they were genetically males, all of the offspring were males. In a population, these genetically male females can wipe out a population because they skew the sex ratio so badly.

Over 80 million pounds of this herbicide are applied annually in the United States to corn and sorghum crops to control weeds and increase yields. This intense use makes atrazine the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water according to various studies.

The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing its regulations on the use of the product. The European Union currently bans the use of atrazine. Several states are considering banning the product. Incidentally, the current standard set by the EPA for atrazine in drinking water is 3 parts per billion.

For more information on this topic, please visit http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180882.php, or http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/03/01_frogs.shtml.

Watershed Association Helps Bernardsville Map Shade Trees

Communities across the nation recognize that a healthy and expanding tree canopy improves the quality of life for their residents. In addition to making streets, neighborhoods, parks and commercial areas more attractive and improving property values, shade trees lower energy costs as they help keep homes and other buildings cool in summer months. They provide privacy, emphasize views, and screen out objectionable views. They improve air quality by removing dust and other particulates and by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. They buffer high winds, absorb and filter stormwater runoff and stabilize soil. They provide food and shelter to native wildlife.

The Bernardsville Shade Tree Advisory Committee was created several decades ago by the Borough Council, whose members understood the value of the community forest long before it became fashionable to “go green”. The committee has been working ever since to promote effective stewardship of shade trees.

As part of the team now working to help Bernardsville achieve certification through Sustainable JerseyTM, the committee is responsible for recommending a municipal Tree Canopy Goal with a defined, measurable outcome in relation to historic data. Unfortunately, the committee did not have the type of data necessary to begin developing such a goal, so it turned to the Upper Raritan Watershed Association (URWA) for assistance.

URWA has been utilizing computer-based Geographic Information System technology to create, edit, analyze, manage and display spatial data for nearly two decades. The organization frequently works with municipalities, private landowners and conservation groups to analyze scientific data and produce maps to help them protect and preserve important natural resources.

For the Bernardsville tree canopy project, URWA’s GIS Director Melissa Mitchell provided an analysis of twenty years of data from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Land Use-Land Cover files. Ms. Mitchell then used the information to generate maps that depict the forest cover that existed in Bernardsville in 1986, 1995 and 2002. These “snapshots” and the data from which they were created have given the Shade Tree Advisory Committee the tools it needs to craft a goal for the expansion of tree canopy and measure progress toward the goal over time. Louis Matlack, the committee member who secured the pro bono assistance from URWA, has drafted a goal statement that will be considered when the committee meets on March 18th.

Start Thinking Summer (Camp)…

What better thoughts could be drifting through your head on a grey winter day than hopping on rocks to catch tadpoles in the warm summer sun?  Or finding a cicada, freshly emerged from its underground slumber, stretching its wings on a dewy morning in July?  Or watching a snapping turtle’s slow downhill descent back to the cool pond, after laying her eggs in the green grass near the barns?  Well, I don’t know about you, but just thinking about the summer goings-on of Fairview Farm is like soul-food for my cold, cabin-fever stricken self.

While these thoughts might seem way too cheerful and exciting for a February afternoon, they will be reality in just a few short months for all of the lucky nature explorers and adventurers that attend URWA’s Nature Day Camp program!  What a great time to start planning all of the scavenger hunts, stream walks, water races and nature crafts that we have in store!  This year will be full of all new activities for our campers, including raising monarch caterpillars, mushroom hunting and orienteering activities.  Probably the most exciting part about this year’s camp will be the free exploration time we’ve set aside for campers to tromp through the streams, forest and meadows with URWA’s trained Naturalists, looking for whatever nature has in store for us!

We are so excited to have expanded our day camp to include a session especially for “big kids” ages 10-12.  This is our new Pleasant Valley Mills Farm Camp, which will be at the farm of the same name along Roxiticus Road in Mendham.  In addition to the Day Camp Educators, every day we will be learning from the farm’s operators about how they take care of their animals and farmland.  We will also be exploring the habitat surrounding the farm which includes part of Patriot’s Path and a beautiful section of the North Branch Raritan River!  This is something brand new for URWA and we are sure that it will be so much fun!

One of URWA’s Nature Day Camp Educators this year is Suzanne Skrzenski, a graduate of East Stroudsburg University with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and Biology. After college Suzanne worked at South Mountain YMCA Residential Camp in Wernersville PA as an outdoor educator for 3 years, and completed a full term of service in the Americorps Watershed Ambassadors program through the NJDEP.   She is now a substitute in the Phillipsburg School District and a swim coach at East Stroudsburg University.  She was one of URWA’s Nature Day Camp educators last year and we are so excited to have her back for another fun filled summer program!

Lauren Theis is URWA’s Stewardship Program Manager and will be the second Nature Day Camp educator for 2010.  She graduated from Cook College (Rutgers University) with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, and has been active in teaching extracurricular dance, art and Spanish classes in Mount Olive Township.  Just like Suzanne, Lauren completed a one-year term of service in the Americorps Watershed Ambassadors program through the NJDEP.  Since then, she has been organizing educational programs with scouts, families, volunteers and schools in our area through URWA’s Natural Science program.  She is so excited to be a part of Nature Day Camp this year and can’t wait for all of the adventures in store!

We hope you will join in the fun at URWA’s Nature Day Camp this year!  We invite you to stop by any time to explore Fairview Farm’s 170 acres of wildlife habitat, 5 miles of trails, bird and butterfly garden, and Nature Classroom.  If you have any questions or would like to sign up, visit URWA’s website at www.urwa.org, call Lauren Theis at 908-234-1852 x12 or email ltheis@urwa.org.

New Jersey Creates Plan to Keep Harmful Plants from Spreading

Last month the New Jersey Invasive Species Council completed a four-year effort to develop a plan to deal with the tremendous ecological and economic problems caused by the spread of invasive, non-native plants and animals across New Jersey. The threats posed to our state by invasive species are real: New Jersey suffers over $290 million in losses every year as a result of impacts from agricultural weeds and other pests. About 30 percent of the plants now growing in our state are not native. Plants including purple loosestrife and garlic mustard, which are widespread across our region, crowd out native plants and alter the composition, structure and function of ecosystems. Water chestnut and Eurasian water-milfoil are literally choking many lakes, ponds and streams right here in the Upper Raritan watershed.

The New Jersey Strategic Management Plan for Invasive Species provides practical, science-based recommendations to delineate control measures for troublesome species, utilize an early detection/rapid response methodology to prevent the establishment of new invasive species, and restore natural and agricultural systems that have been damaged. Furthermore, the plan calls for better public education and improved coordination among government agencies and neighboring states.
This plan needs our support! The Upper Raritan region offers areas of extraordinary natural beauty, wildlife habitat, agriculture, and it provides clean drinking water for all of us who live here and more than one million residents in other parts of New Jersey. To protect and preserve the natural systems on which all this ecological and agricultural productivity is based, we must stop the spread of invasive plant and animal species. URWA recognized this fact a few years ago and recently co-founded the Central Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team with the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space. The Strike Team represents our state's first comprehensive effort toward invasive plant management through a public-private partnership that is pooling its expertise and resources to reduce the spread of invasive plants. In its first year alone, the Strike Team detected 978 emerging invasive plant populations and eradicated 251 of them in the Highlands and Piedmont regions. The Strike Team’s 160 trained partners and volunteers also made presentations to civic groups, business associations and local leaders, reaching over 500 citizens with the message about stopping these plants before they degrade natural habitats and threaten biodiversity. The NJ Department of Environmental Protection cites our Strike Team as a model for what can (and should) be done state-wide.
Happily, implementation of the Strategic Management Plan for Invasive Species will be budget-neutral over the next two years. All of the near-term recommendations it makes can be accomplished by staff already in place and resources that are available now. These recommendations call for the State of New Jersey to implement such common-sense measures as:

• Establish a permanent NJ Invasive Species Council
• Establish ongoing communication channels between NJ and neighboring states
• Pre-screen all new plants proposed for introduction to NJ
• Prohibit the sale of invasive and potentially invasive plants
• Fully implement the statewide deer management program
• Apply Early Detection/ Rapid Response methods to prevent new infestations

Of course, these steps will not resolve all the problems related to the spread of invasive species, but they’ll go a long way before additional staff and resources will be required over the longer term. Please encourage Governor Christie and his Cabinet to implement the NJ Strategic Management Plan for Invasive Species. And, do your part – as you plan your spring and summer landscaping projects, make sure you do some research and avoid invasive or potentially invasive plants. You can get lots of great information about the plants that threaten our state and the ones that truly belong here on our Strike Team web site (www.cjisst.org).

Off Road Vehicle Legislation Update

For those of you who read the Off Road Vehicle article in this newspaper on January 14th, we have some good news to report from Trenton. On one of his last days in office, outgoing Governor Corzine signed into law the Off Road Vehicle (ORV) Legislation. If you are one of the many that called the Governors’ office to voice your support for this set of much needed regulations, “Thank you”.

Following are some of the positive features of the new law as we understand it;

• ORV’s must be registered and display license plates.
• ORV’s must be insured like automobiles.
• The penalties for riding on public lands, and private lands without permission have been increased.
• Fines for a first offense will range from $250 to $500, second offense, $500 to $1,000, and subsequent offenses at least $1,000.
• Damage to natural resources on public lands that require restoration, such as areas of rare plants, would bring fines of five times the cost of restoration.
• If the accused rider is younger than 17, the registered owner will be held liable.

Senator Robert Gordon, D - Bergin, primary sponsor of the senate bill, said “The penalties provision in the bill will assist DEP in strengthening enforcement and paying for natural resources damages caused by illegal off road vehicle riding”.

On the negative side, one feature of the law stands out: None of the above mentioned provisions of the new law will go into effect until the State establishes, on state land, a riding facility for the legal ORV enthusiasts. It could take a long time to find a suitable location for such a facility, when the interests of the environmental community and affected neighbors are considered.