Nature and Wildlife
The term “ecotourism” was originally conceived with regard to far-away, remote areas with an intact ecosystem, unaffected by industrial human presence. Recently, the word has gained favor in describing a wide range of activity that would also come under the umbrella of “nature-based” recreation. Still, there is an implication of passive interaction with the environment. Whether ecotourism is meant to include active recreational use such as biking, horseback riding, or fishing is questionable. But even if we are engaged in plain old outdoor recreation, an increasing awareness of our place in the ecology can be nothing but healthy. Really, the more we know about it, the more fun it is.
There is a big difference between what we want to do here and traversing the jungles of Costa Rica. There is hardly an inch of space in New Jersey that has not been under human management for some economic use. A large part of northwest New Jersey’s forests weren’t even here 100 years ago, when the hills were stripped bare for fuel to run furnaces or for room to plant crops and feed dairy cows. With the exception of Hutcheson Memorial Forest, a 65-acre tract of old growth forest in Somerset County, our woods tell largely human stories. Even the most pristine tracts in Stokes, High Point or Waywayanda are filled with invasive species, foundations, holes and ditches of unknown origin, fences, and rock walls. In fact, that is what makes our woods special. An old railroad spike or a barely recognizable tie, a piece of barbed wire, a rotten fence post, an old insulator or bottle… these are treasures for many searching for a pieces of New Jersey history and heritage.
While you enjoy a wide range natural phenomena - watchable wildlife, bird species, wild flowers, whatever – don’t miss the rest of the story.
The pursuit of birds in view appeals to lots of people for lots of reasons. Beyond the activity’s obvious natural allure, “chasing” birds keeps watchers physically fit. Learning and identifying hundreds of species on the fly challenges the intellect and intensifies awareness. And for photographers and illustrators, there is no better subject. The concentration of ridges, valleys and wetlands in our area holds a fortune of interaction with the avian experience any time of year.
- General Birding Guide
- The pursuit of birds in view appeals to lots of people for lots of reasons. Beyond the activity's obvious natural allure, "chasing" birds keeps watchers physically fit. Learning and identifying hundreds of species on the fly challenges the intellect and intensifies awareness. And for photographers and illustrators, there is no better subject. The concentration of ridges, valleys and wetlands in our area holds a fortune of interaction with the avian experience any time of year, but especially in spring.
- Birding on Farms
- Wildlife viewers and local farmers can now benefit from a new and innovative partnership that enhances both the ecology of Northwest New Jersey and the economies of our still-rural communities.
- Butterflies
- Flying jewels they are sometimes called. Butterflies come in many sizes and colors, from delicately small and hard to spot, to Monarch orange and yellow bouncing about the garden for all to see. Once the weather starts to warm up and nectar plants begin to bloom, butterflies become more and more evident from woodlands to suburban flower gardens.
- Dragonflies
- Did you ever notice those large insects zipping over streams and ponds all summer long, skimming the water, then shooting about in zigzag patterns that make your head spin watching them? Dragonflies and damselflies, collectively belonging to the taxonomic order Odonata, are named for their prominent biting mouthparts and predatory nature.
- Duke Farms
- Green Think at Duke Farms.
- Eagle Nesting
- In the spring of 2006, once again bald eagles nested along the Delaware River less than a mile below Portland PA. But a year has made a big difference in what this offered to eagle watchers.
- Owl Spotting in Winter
- Winter opens up a whole new opportunity for the nature lover. Since the canopy of leaves is gone, there is visibility for spotting owls.
- Portland Eagles
- Eagles generally prefer to shun civilization and distance themselves from humans, especially while raising a brood of eaglets. But last breeding season, a pair of bald eagles bent those rules, choosing a former osprey nesting platform near Warren County's western border, just south of Portland, PA, as the place to raise a family
- Raptor Ridge
- For those in New Jersey that fancy the habits of our wild avian friends (such people are know as "birders"), fall is the season to head for the hills to observe the annual raptor migration. A raptor is a bird of prey--a general descriptor that includes eagles, hawks, falcons, and vultures.
- Raptor Watching
- As the autumnal equinox approaches, local residents and visitors to the Northwest New Jersey Skylands gather to watch the raptor migrations as they fly along the thermals created along the path of the world's oldest mountain range the Appalachian Mountains.
- Raptors At Merrill Creek
- Many of the migration observation sites exist along the Kittatinny Ridge along New Jersey's Northwest border with the Delaware River; places like Raccoon Ridge and Sunrise Mountain. Another popular spot is the Scott's Mountain Hawk Watch, located further south at the inlet-outlet tower parking area on the western edge of Merrill Creek Reservoir, about 4 miles northeast of Phillipsburg, NJ.
- Walkill National Wildlife Refuge
- As a major watershed, wedged between the Appalachian Valley and Ridge to the west and the Highland Ridge System to the east, the Wallkill River provides migratory and nesting habitat for waterfowl, which use the valley as a conduit between eastern Canada and the Atlantic coast and between the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
- Winter Bird Feeding
- People have all kinds of special indicators to clue them in on the changing seasons, especially winter, like thickness of onion skins or stripes on a wooly bear caterpillar. I check out the birds at my feeders and their arrival dates.
- Winter Bird Watching
- Hastened by the first blanketings of snow, the shortened days of winter in the Skylands afford a chilly but unequaled opportunity to draw closer to nature and to enjoy the quiet that descends with the withdrawal of activity to the indoors. On these cold days, while local countryside vistas remain open and unshrouded by their canopy of leaves, the fields, forests, and woodlands of our region are prime for the pastime of winter birdwatching.
- Black Bear
- If you have yet to see a black bear up close, you're missing an exquisite example of nature's beauty and majesty. Here in the Skylands region of New Jersey some residents can catch a glimpse right in their own backyards.
- Bobcats in New Jersey
- The bobcat, carrying a freshly killed rabbit, slipped through some mountain laurel. Almost three feet long and twenty inches high at the shoulder, in good years she might weigh as much as twenty-five pounds. If desperate--or lucky--she could take down a small deer.
- Candid Wildlife Photography
- Ever wonder what critters do when you're not around? What are they up to when they're not running away from you? Do they have a night life? You may have a good idea, but how often do you get to watch? Have some fun spying on your neighbors in the wild by getting hold of something called a trail camera.
- Country Veterinarians
- Many veterinarians live and work in northwest Jersey's farm country, but few are solo practitioners working from home without the assistance of other vets or technicians, venturing where they must to serve their paying and non-paying clients and patients.
- Coyotes
- A sharp yip travels across a dark field by Lamington Road. More yips, then howls, then yip-howls follow. People in a nearby lot freeze, car keys in their hands, as the canine version of a devil's fugue increases in tempo. The sound moves west, following a line of woods one hundred yards distant and not nearly distant enough
- Lakota Wolf Preserve
- At the Lakota Wolf Preserve, you can see wolves here in the East in a natural surrounding for the first time in over a century.
- Old Friends at Lakota Wolf Perserve
- It was a beautiful Fall day the first time that I saw my new wolf, Midnight. He was playing in a small enclosure with his three sisters, Willow, Cheyenne and Lakota. They were the most beautiful Timber wolves I'd ever seen, and they would be part of my family for many years to come.
- Rattlesnakes
- A rattlesnake sat on my lap recently. Wrapped in a burlap bag and placed inside an open cardboard box, it rose and swayed as it sniffed the air to determine where it was. Another timber rattler lay beside me, snug and secure in a closed box on the truck's seat between me and the driver, MacKenzie Hall, timber rattlesnake researcher.
- Wildlife Rescue
- The common goal of wildlife rehabilitators is to work in concert with the public and to promote a responsible concern for living beings and the welfare of the environment.
- Wildlife Tracking at Hoffman Park
- You'll have to excuse me, but when I go for a hike in a forested park, it's probably not the same walk many of you would take. That's because I am a tracker.
Guide yourself across the most awesome and beautiful countenance
of New Jersey’s Northwest. For your peace and pleasure,
embrace the wonders of Skylands gardens and find inspiration
as you would at a fine art museum. The sculptures created by
astounding aesthetic combinations of plant, landscape and architecture
awaken and delight every sense in an embrace with nature.
“ A garden’s mission is complex, multi-faceted
and dependent on its stage of development... While plants may
seem to have a low profile in our society, they are the basis
of life as we know it. A garden’s real mission is to
make this fact abundantly clear by serving to improve communications
between the plant world and the human world.”- Shannon
Smith, Why a Botanical Garden in The Public Garden, Jan 1989
- Buck Garden
- Leonard J. Buck Garden in Far Hills is a garden of splendor and inspiration-- a landscape of art, sprung from a love of the beauty of plants and a reverence for nature.
- Champion Trees
- Dedicated arborists tend trees through ice storms, pests, fungus, and an onslaught of pollutants. With time and luck, a tree might become a legacy for generations.
- Duke Gardens
- In 1964, Doris Duke completed one of her life's ambitions when she opened a splendidly enchanted acre of land on her expansive Somerville estate for public visitation.
- Fall Foliage
- The annual fall foliage bloom is dependent primarily on moisture and the first frost, but peak leaf viewing in Northwest New Jersey normally occurs somewhere around the first full week of October.
- Historic Gardens
- What could say "Spring" more than the bright yellow branches of Forsythia shooting outward like hot yellow firecrackers? Or pink tulips and yellow daffodils growing and glowing close together? How about the heady aroma of purple, pink and white lilacs, and saucer-sized pink and white magnolia flowers flouncing against blue sky?
- Invasive Species
- Bio invasions
- Jersey Grown Gardens
- If toxic chemicals don't fit your vision of "green thumbness," look to the following alternatives for making your lawn and garden come alive!
- Wildflowers
- The greatest show in earth!
- Blair Creek Preserve
- Under the shade of oak, hickory, maple and beech, a rutted, over-grown driveway leads to a little cabin by a lake deep in the woods in Stillwater.
- Duke Farms
- Green Think at Duke Farms.
- Great Swamp
- Nineteen years in the wilderness.
- Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
- The Great Swamp is a place where "open space" have been magic words for a long time.
- How Green Can You Get?
- A conservationist's conundrum
- Hutcheson Memorial Forest
- A 65-acre tract of old growth forest in Franklin Township, Somerset County, is a conundrum in time and purpose
- Merrill Creek Recreation Area
- Visitors have the chance to help in environmental studies by merely carrying a turtle or lending a fish on the end of your hook.
- Natirar
- Hiking, horses and fishing outdoors, events, exhibitions and concerts, a museum and interpretive center.
- NJ School of Conservation
- The New Jersey School of Conservation is the Environmental Education Field Campus of Montclair State University. Located 57 miles from the Essex County campus, on a 240-acre tract within the boundaries of Stokes State Forest in Sussex County, it is the oldest university-operated environmental education center in the nation.
- Opening Doors to the Natural World
- Hoffman Center for Conservation and Environmental Education
- Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge
- In 1959, galvanized community activists fought a proposed jetport that threatened the Great Swamp watershed. They raised enough money and support to donate thousands of acres to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was born. This fall a new visitor center, named after Helen C. Fenske, one of the key community activists in the formation of the Wildlife Refuge, will open to the public. The center lies within reach of the Refuge Wilderness Area, where the public can explore the swampy outdoors.
- Schiff Nature Preserve
- The eight miles of trails at the Schiff Nature Preserve in Mendham Township are generous with beautiful vistas, challenging terrain, and a variety of natural habitats.
- Skylands Botanical Gardens
- Confusing (or better, enhancing) the boundaries of where the Skylands can be found, the New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands is certainly quarters for some of the best of what Northwestern New Jersey represents.
- Sourland Mountain Preserve
- Legstretchers
- Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area
- The Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA) lies in Sussex County off Route 517 and Glen Road near the Town of Sparta, and along the Highlands Trail.
- Vernal Pools
- This spring, head for the woods on a special type of hunt. You won't find explicit directions, but if you log any appreciable trail time in the spring, you'll eventually come across a vernal pool.
- Walkill National Wildlife Refuge
- As a major watershed, wedged between the Appalachian Valley and Ridge to the west and the Highland Ridge System to the east, the Wallkill River provides migratory and nesting habitat for waterfowl, which use the valley as a conduit between eastern Canada and the Atlantic coast and between the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
- Wildlife Management Areas
- Guide to WMAs
- Wildlife Refuges in New Jersey
- The year 2003 celebrated the centennial birthday of the National Wildlife Refuge System, a network of public lands purchased, enhanced, restored and maintained by the US Fish & Wildlife Service for wildlife and their habitats, and preserved for the enjoyment of present and future generations.
- Hacklebarney State Park
- Hacklebarney State Park is 892 acres of glacial valley, with gorges carved by the Black River and two tributaries that feed it, the Rinehart and Trout Brooks. There are over 5 miles of trails.
- Lower Musconetcong Valley
- Taking Route 519 south from Alpha through Springtown, the narrow macadam curves west as it enters the lower Musconetcong Valley and joins Route 627. This, 627, is the route to stay with for 519 soon deserts us and goes off to Milford. Route 627 hugs the lower Musconetcong River for its last few miles of existence through a little-known collection of ancient settlements and beautiful farms.
- Musconetcong River
- How have we loved the Musconetcong River? Let us count the ways.
- Pequest River
- When the brooklet reaches Warren County, just a few miles from its source at Stickles Pond, it becomes a respectable body of water. For example, in Sussex County the streamlet is most often referred to as Pequest Crik; in Warren County its name is, without exception, Pequest RIVER.
- Raritan South Branch: Budd Lake to Clinton
- The fledgling river flows south from Budd Lake, under Route 46 where you can follow its general path by turning left on Wolff Rd, right on Flanders-Drakestown, and left again on River Road through heavily wooded residential areas marked here and there by occasional ancient homesteads and antique mills refurbished for family habitation. When River Road meets Flanders Bartley Road, turn right and follow the river as it makes its way, having picked up some steam, into Washington Valley.
- Raritan South Branch: Clinton to Flemington
- A good place to begin your appreciation of the South Branch is at Echo Hill Park just south of Clinton.
- Raritan South Branch: Flemington to Bridgewater
- The water begins to spread across wider ranges of farmland and meadows as it approaches the Higginsville Road bridges that span the river between Hunterdon and Somerset Counties.
- Rockaway River
- Follow its path not an easy thing, since access is often difficult and you can see things that make you want to cheer and weep. In its 40 miles, the Rockaway serves as a précis of the story of all American rivers and their relationship with people who live, work, play, travel, love, care for and ignore them.
- Shad Fishing
- The restless army enters the river proper in smaller divisions; schools clustered densely at the center of the run with advance brigades in front, followed by platoons hanging back at the rear. Their mission is simply to swim, females following males to nesting locations along a journey that, for some, can continue for more than 300 miles.
- The Black River
- The Black River (also called the Black-Lamington) is only about 12 miles long from beginning to end, but on the way it slices through the lives of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans. It hits them where they live, work and play.
- Walkill National Wildlife Refuge
- As a major watershed, wedged between the Appalachian Valley and Ridge to the west and the Highland Ridge System to the east, the Wallkill River provides migratory and nesting habitat for waterfowl, which use the valley as a conduit between eastern Canada and the Atlantic coast and between the Delaware and Hudson rivers.
- Whippany River
- If ever there was a river that expresses New Jerseyans' attitude toward their state's natural resources, the Whippany River is it.
- Worthington State Forest
- Situated along the river, within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Worthington State Forest comprises almost 6,000 acres extending about seven miles along the Kittatinny Ridge.