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The Mission of Team Habitat is to coordinate the creation, enhancement, and maintenance of habitat for all wildlife species that live in or migrate through New Jersey.
Team Habitat is a group of dedicated conservationists working to provide habitat for all wildlife species by creating, enhancing and maintaining quality habitat throughout New Jersey. Team Habitat will use wildlife and natural resource professionals to direct a paid and volunteer work force in performing habitat projects.
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Team Habitat NEWS — Summer 2010 |
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Fields of Dreams?
 Since 2004, Team Habitat has planted warm season grasses in New Jersey fields from Bridgeton to Somerset. Our hope to paraphrase the movie, again, is “If you build it, they will come” In our case we create warm season grass fields, hoping that threatened ground nesting birds will repopulate New Jersey.
In 2009, the South Jersey RC&D Council took its Team Habitat program to the next level through the use of two grants. The first grant, a National Fish and Wildlife grant for $50,000, allowed the Council to hire a Team Habitat Manager to better market the program to landowners, provide competitive cost estimates, and plant fields. In the past year and a half, we have planted 83 acres of warm season grass habitats on 10 different properties. The other grant the Council received was a Conserve Wildlife grant for $1,250. Monies from this grant were used to plant five acres of warm season grasses on Halka Nurseries in Cumberland County.
The program is very much a team effort with the Council partnering with various agencies and organizations during the planning and implementation phases of a project. The green left NavBar lists the fourteen partners, who help us by lending equipment, getting the word out, funding projects, and/or planning the proper wildlife habitat for the site. One group that merits special mention is the New Jersey Quail Project. Members of this group have reached out to numerous landowners in South Jersey in the hope of increasing quail populations.
 NJ Quail Project member and Councilman Mike Kerbowski continued to be one of Team Habitat’s best salesmen. He was joined by fellow NJ Quail Project member Joe Matter. Together they logged over 400 volunteer hours and drove close to 3,000 miles in their own vehicles without compensation, reaching out to landowners in Salem and Cumberland Counties. Their efforts resulted in 7 work projects, with the NJ Quail project funding one of them. With Mike and Joe’s outreach, the Council is poised to install close to 200 acres of critical wildlife habitat in the next few years.
Great job, Mike & Joe!
Pictured to the left are Ken Taaffe, NRCS Coordinator, Mike Kerbowski, and Joe Matter in front of the Halka Project sign.
With this workload ahead of us, the Council last fall purchased a John Deere 5083E Limited, 83 horse power tractor. This $37,300 tractor will allow us to work more efficiently, with fewer breakdowns.
The NFWF grant’s biggest contribution to Team Habitat, though, is allowing us to pay contractors to plant habitats. Rick Parenteau, the Team Habitat manager, meets with all potential customers to provide cost estimates. He schedules the jobs and equipment along with operating and maintaining the equipment. Partners are happy to lend Rick the equipment as he usually returns it in better condition than when we got it. Rick also directs the volunteers.
Pictured to the right is Rick Parenteau on our new tractor spraying the Twin Ponds Detention basin in Gloucester County, where we planted warm season grasses and wildflowers.
In 2010, Team Habitat moved from farm fields to suburban areas. We partnered with Camden and Gloucester Soil Conservation Districts to plant a detention basin in Gloucester County to a mix of warm season grasses and wildflowers. This former 8 acre lawn grass area will be tall grasses (i.e. warm season grasses) and wildflowers that will be mowed just once a year. This will save the township money. In addition, we expect water quality leaving the basin to improve as the warm season grasses slow runoff down and have deeper roots This encourages more stormwater infiltration. The Soil Conservation Districts will also install a low berm here to retain more storm water in the basin. Likewise, this will improve water quality leaving the basin.
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Team Habitat acquires $50K Grant
 The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced on January 13, 2009 grant awards in the amount of $650,503 to regional 17 nonprofit organizations, universities and local and county governments to fund projects under the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Watershed Grants Program (DEWGP) and in coastal New Jersey. This year's grantees will spearhead projects ranging from the restoration and installation of fish passages on creeks in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to providing "free of charge" restoration assistance to landowners, municipalities and watershed organizations in the estuary.
Now in its sixth year, the Delaware Estuary Grants Program has awarded 134 grants, providing over $3.8 million of federal and private funds that were leveraged with an additional $11 million in matching funds raised by grantees. Projects will achieve significant conservation outcomes, including: the restoration of 2,213 acres of wetlands, streams, forests and grasslands for fish and wildlife; the development of 21 watershed management plans to guide and prioritize future local and regional conservation projects; and education, outreach, and training programs offered by local governments and citizen groups.
Team Habitat, a program of the South Jersey RC&D Council, was awarded $50K to provide on-the-ground delivery of projects restoring 100 acres of warm season grasses and wetland habitat within the Delaware Estuary.
Team Habitat Manager, Rick Parenteau, has visited a number of properties and given estimates. Four of these potential projects will be completed this year, and probably another four have a good chance of getting started. Rick has completed one project and started another on April 14. In this effort we have been assisted by volunteers from the NJ Quail Project, federal employees, and non-federal state, county, and local soil conservation districts.
The map to the right depicts the New Jersey portion of the Delaware Estuary. Details of the project will be updated as projects are completed.
Click on the map for all Team Habitat project details.
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Jersey Grown Birdseed offered by the
New Jersey Audubon Society
A direct farm-to-market link has been established that offers locally grown birdseed through New Jersey Audubon Society nature centers. With support from a Conservation Innovation Grant from the Natural Resource Conservation Service of the USDA, New Jersey farmers are working with NJAS to grow a “greener”, more environmentally friendly black-oil sunflower seed. This “bird-friendly” seed is the first birdseed certified as “Jersey Grown” by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.
For more info click the Sunflowers to the right.
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| Team Habitat NEWS — Fall 2008 |
In 2007 Team Habitat completed three wildlife habitat projects in New Jersey establishing areas of warm season grasses to promote habitat for ground nesting birds. Planted projects included the Willow Oak natural area for the City of Vineland, a private farm in Somerset County, and the land adjacent to the Cranbury Elementary School. These plantings are all considered successful.
The Team Habitat success continued in 2008. Warm season grasses (seeds shown below left) were planted on four sites in Burlington, Mercer, and Somerset counties. More information on warm season grasses can be found in the resources section to the left.
In March, we planted a warm season grass mix on a 32 acre parcel of the Pemberton township high school in Burlington County. We partnered with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who provided seed and planting equipment. Team Habitat Manager, Rick Parenteau, can be viewed planting grasses on the site in the picture below right. |
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Most warm-season grasses have small and/or fluffy seeds that require
the use of a specialized seed drill. This drill is outfitted with picker wheels in the seed box that stir the seed and push it down into the large diameter drop tubes.
Rick Parenteau is using such a seeder in the photo to the right.
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While in Burlington County, we also planted a 1.6 acre buffer on the Paradise Hill Farm. The buffer was planted to create a transition from a 50 acre field to a large wooded area that surrounds the Rancocas Creek.
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In May, we traveled to a Somerset County farm to plant more warm season grasses. Team Habitat's success is amply demonstrated by the photo to the right.
Warm season grasses are tall grasses that grow during the heat of the summer, when cool season grasses (think lawn grasses) are going dormant. Warm season grasses contain a better habitat and food for wildlife, because they do not mat down like cool season grasses. Other important differences between warm season grasses and cool season grasses are outlined in this factsheet from the Maryland Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Warm season grasses are especially important for grassland birds as described by this publication from Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.
But more importantly, wildlife is actively using the site. Some of the denizens of this farm, enjoying improved habitat.
Below left is MacKenzie Hall, Private Lands Biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, holding an eastern box turtle. Box turtles search for open sandy grounds for nesting, which grasslands and plowed fields provide. Below right are Tree Swallows. The swallows are called tree swallows because they’re cavity nesters that occur in early successional habitats (like bluebirds).
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Two year old warm season
grasses in Somerset County.
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Habitat destruction is the biggest problem facing box turtles. Woodlands converted into farmland have reduced the turtles range in many US states. Remaining land is often fragmented with roads and housing projects, breaking up the animals' habitat. As they try to cross manmade additions, turtles are often killed by cars, animals, and other dangers.
Right:
Tree Swallows |
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Lastly, we planted a small field behind the Mercer County Soil Conservation District office.
Besides actual plantings, members of Team Habitat have been “beating the bush” drumming up more projects. In this vein South Jersey RC&D council man, Mike Kerbowski, is spearheading a group effort to bring quail back to the garden State. This group, called the “Quail Project” have enlisted support from wildlife groups, the New Jersey State Fish and Wildlife Service, and landowners in Salem County comprising thousands of acres. The group hopes to promote large scale quail habitat restoration projects. Already, they have completed one 63 acres project on the Waste Management property in Westville, Gloucester County. More information on this project. |
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Remember! — Planting creates grassland habitats for wildlife.
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In addition, the South Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council applied for a Delaware Estuary grant this summer to receive fund to hire a part time Team Habitat manager. With these funds, we hope to grow the program to where we plant hundreds of acres of wildlife habitat each year, and allow us to purchase additional equipment.
You may contact Team Habitat at: South Jersey RC&D,
Columbus USDA Service Center,
1971 Jacksonville-Jobstown Road,
Columbus, NJ 08022 -
609-267-1639 x110 |
Buckshutem WMA Savannah Creation
a joint South Jersey RC&D Council and Southern New Jersey
Quail Unlimited project
 There were hundreds of dairy farms in South Jersey in the 1960s. These farms were comprised of pastures for the cows which often contained trees and hedgerows. During the seventies, grain farming became more profitable, so farmers converted their old pastures to cropfields and removed the hedgerows to accommodate the large farm equipment. While this was happening farmland was being gobbled up for suburban housing tracts. Grassland birds, such as vesper sparrow, northern bobwhite quail, eastern meadowlark, northern harrier, and bobolink have declined to one half their population of previous decades.
In 2002, the South Jersey RC&D Council partnered with Southern New Jersey Quail Unlimited to develop a plan to address the loss of open habitats or savannas from the New Jersey landscape. Loss of this habitat was due primarily to changes in farming practices and suburban development
Buckshutem Wildlife Management Area (WMA) required the scientific removal of designated trees to provide openings of various sizes and to reduce the canopy allowing more sunlight to reach the soil surface. A carpet of warm and cool season grasses, forbs and weeds would then be allowed to grow. This new carpet would provide grassland birds and butterflies with the habitat needed to find food, nest, and raise young. A 128 acre area was selected from the 3000 acre Wildlife Management Area.
Click here to read the complete description for the creation of the savanna.
Click here to read about the Groundbreaking in April 2002.
Turning Back Time
The New Jersey Savannas Reborn
by Kevin C. Shelly
"Turning Back Time" was printed in the January - February 2004 issue of Quail Unlimited Magazine. The article delivers both history and the people perspective for the Buckshutem WMA Savanna Creation project (above).
Click here to view the article. (pdf)
SJRCD would like to express its gratitude to Quail Unlimited for granting permission to distribute this article.
Team Habitat needs the following:
A person, with driver's license, able to drive a 60hp John Deere tractor, operate a disk, brush-hog, TruAx warm season grass drill, and be able to operate a herbicide spray rig. Be available for 6 to 10 jobs next spring and summer - in the South Jersey region.
If you are that person, or know someone, please call Ken Taaffe at 609-267-1639 x110 or send him an e-mail at coordinator@sjrcd.org
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