Quail habitat restoration planned in Lacey Township
27/01/10 12:38
By
MICHAEL MILLER, Staff Writer
The federal government is restoring habitat at a wildlife refuge in Ocean County displaced, ironically enough, by a former state game farm once dedicated to raising wild birds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to spend about $520,000 to knock down 13 buildings at the former New Jersey State Game Farm in Lacey Township. The state sold the property to the federal government for $3.4 million to expand the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge after the game farm closed in 1985.
The federal government is restoring habitat at a wildlife refuge in Ocean County displaced, ironically enough, by a former state game farm once dedicated to raising wild birds.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to spend about $520,000 to knock down 13 buildings at the former New Jersey State Game Farm in Lacey Township. The state sold the property to the federal government for $3.4 million to expand the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge after the game farm closed in 1985.
Now the refuge hopes to
convert the land into suitable habitat for, among
other things, bobwhite quail, the same game birds the
farm once raised for hunting.
"The area we're doing the demolition and restoration is all upland grasslands," refuge manager Steve Atzert said. "Most of that area had been zoned for high-density residential. So we paid a lot of money for that land."
Atzert said much of the property will be dedicated to forest-interior nesting birds, such as red-shouldered hawks, barred owls, thrushes and warblers.
"The basic concern is to expand the contiguous forested area to make it better for the migratory birds to stop over," he said.
But the agency is also working with a nonprofit group called Pheasants Forever dedicated to restoring native pheasants and quail.
The northern bobwhite quail is No. 1 on the National Audubon Society's list of 20 common birds in decline. Among them are the eastern meadowlark, snow bunting and American bittern.
Audubon estimates that bobwhite populations have plummeted 82 percent to about 5.5 million since 1967. The bird ranges in the east from New England to Texas.
"It's a species of high-conservation concern because their population decline is so precipitous," said Elizabeth Ciuzio, a conservation director for New Jersey Audubon in Middle Township.
Quail rely on grasslands dotted with shrubs that provide ample cover from predators such as hawks. But this land, called "early-successional habitat," is hard to come by in New Jersey, which has vast tracts of mature forest and wetlands but fewer open grasslands, she said.
"If you have a field and quit farming it, grasses and shrubs will take over and colonize followed by trees," she said.
Fields once left fallow for years at a time are now farmed more intensively, she said. Even the former hedgerows dividing properties are gone, she said.
"We talk about quail because people are familiar with them. But the bigger picture is we're concerned about the whole suite of birds that use this early-successional habitat. We make the quail the poster child," she said.
Bobwhite quail are named for the bird's distinctive two-syllable call, a whistle that vaguely resembles "bob-white." For the first time in decades, that sound can be heard in some fields in Cape May and Cumberland counties, where habitat was recently restored for quail flocks called coveys.
In the last three years, the New Jersey Quail Project planted native grasses on about 125 acres in or around the Peaslee Wildlife Management Area, which spans three counties.
"Years ago when I was a kid, there would be coveys of 40 or 50 birds. You could hear bobwhite quail everywhere you went in South Jersey," said William Schemel of Mount Ephraim, a volunteer with the quail project.
New Jersey releases captive-raised bobwhite for hunting each year. Since the birds breed readily in captivity, the state could continue to release captive-raised birds indefinitely.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection released an action plan Dec. 15 with the goal of restoring bobwhite quail to populations from 1980. The report proposes restricting hunting in much of southern New Jersey south of Trenton beginning next year and stocking fewer captive-raised birds in certain areas to give the wild birds a better chance to recover.
Schemel said birds hatched in captivity behave differently than their wild cousins.
"A wild bird is a wild bird. A pen-raised bird is a pen-raised bird," he said. "They don't survive the harsh winters and the hawks."
Schemel said the solution is to provide suitable grassland habitat for native quail. Several companies, including Waste Management, have volunteered land in Cumberland County for quail habitat, he said.
New Jersey would be a poorer place without the colorful birds, Schemel said.
"You have to conserve these things, make sure they're here for the next generation. We can't just leave these things go," he said.
Demolition is slated to begin next month on the game farm buildings. Atzert said.
Contact Michael Miller:
609-272-7247
MMiller@pressofac.com
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_d167d1cb-5dd4-5a6b-ac9f-2e42e123c10b.html
"The area we're doing the demolition and restoration is all upland grasslands," refuge manager Steve Atzert said. "Most of that area had been zoned for high-density residential. So we paid a lot of money for that land."
Atzert said much of the property will be dedicated to forest-interior nesting birds, such as red-shouldered hawks, barred owls, thrushes and warblers.
"The basic concern is to expand the contiguous forested area to make it better for the migratory birds to stop over," he said.
But the agency is also working with a nonprofit group called Pheasants Forever dedicated to restoring native pheasants and quail.
The northern bobwhite quail is No. 1 on the National Audubon Society's list of 20 common birds in decline. Among them are the eastern meadowlark, snow bunting and American bittern.
Audubon estimates that bobwhite populations have plummeted 82 percent to about 5.5 million since 1967. The bird ranges in the east from New England to Texas.
"It's a species of high-conservation concern because their population decline is so precipitous," said Elizabeth Ciuzio, a conservation director for New Jersey Audubon in Middle Township.
Quail rely on grasslands dotted with shrubs that provide ample cover from predators such as hawks. But this land, called "early-successional habitat," is hard to come by in New Jersey, which has vast tracts of mature forest and wetlands but fewer open grasslands, she said.
"If you have a field and quit farming it, grasses and shrubs will take over and colonize followed by trees," she said.
Fields once left fallow for years at a time are now farmed more intensively, she said. Even the former hedgerows dividing properties are gone, she said.
"We talk about quail because people are familiar with them. But the bigger picture is we're concerned about the whole suite of birds that use this early-successional habitat. We make the quail the poster child," she said.
Bobwhite quail are named for the bird's distinctive two-syllable call, a whistle that vaguely resembles "bob-white." For the first time in decades, that sound can be heard in some fields in Cape May and Cumberland counties, where habitat was recently restored for quail flocks called coveys.
In the last three years, the New Jersey Quail Project planted native grasses on about 125 acres in or around the Peaslee Wildlife Management Area, which spans three counties.
"Years ago when I was a kid, there would be coveys of 40 or 50 birds. You could hear bobwhite quail everywhere you went in South Jersey," said William Schemel of Mount Ephraim, a volunteer with the quail project.
New Jersey releases captive-raised bobwhite for hunting each year. Since the birds breed readily in captivity, the state could continue to release captive-raised birds indefinitely.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection released an action plan Dec. 15 with the goal of restoring bobwhite quail to populations from 1980. The report proposes restricting hunting in much of southern New Jersey south of Trenton beginning next year and stocking fewer captive-raised birds in certain areas to give the wild birds a better chance to recover.
Schemel said birds hatched in captivity behave differently than their wild cousins.
"A wild bird is a wild bird. A pen-raised bird is a pen-raised bird," he said. "They don't survive the harsh winters and the hawks."
Schemel said the solution is to provide suitable grassland habitat for native quail. Several companies, including Waste Management, have volunteered land in Cumberland County for quail habitat, he said.
New Jersey would be a poorer place without the colorful birds, Schemel said.
"You have to conserve these things, make sure they're here for the next generation. We can't just leave these things go," he said.
Demolition is slated to begin next month on the game farm buildings. Atzert said.
Contact Michael Miller:
609-272-7247
MMiller@pressofac.com
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/cape_may/article_d167d1cb-5dd4-5a6b-ac9f-2e42e123c10b.html