I SSUE F IFTY - E IGHT GREAT SWAMP WILDERNESS AREA TURNS FIFTY N OVEMBER 2 0 1 8 By Laurel Gould, Friends Volunteer H i g h l i g h t s ifty years ago, in Thwack in the Park 3 F 1968, President Volunteers Reach 16,000 Hours 4 Lyndon Johnson signed the Great Swamp Wilder- Robbins Viewing Platform 6 ness Act which created Millington Gorge 8 the first Wilderness Area in New Jersey. Wait a mi- Wildlife Population Changes 9 nute, you say! Wilderness in New Jersey? It sounds Board of Directors like an oxymoron. But the 3,660 acre Wilderness Joe Balwierczak President Area at Great Swamp Steve Herdman National Wildlife Refuge Vice-President was created by law and is Walter Willwerth part of the 110 million Secretary acre National Wilderness Laurel Gould Preservation Systema Treasurer unique collection of pub- lic lands set aside by Con- Jane Bell gress to ensure future generations will be There are two Wilderness Areas in New John Berry able to experience wilderness. Jerseythe other is at Forsythe NWR. There are 8 ½ miles of marked trails in the Allen Dreikorn Here are some things you may not know. Great Swamp Wilderness Area, but visitors The Wilderness Act was passed in 1964 may hike off trail. Randi Emmer preserving the wildest of our public lands Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are Susan Garretson Friedman with the highest level of protection. permitted in the Wilderness Area. In 1968, Great Swamp became the first Before Congress would pass the law creat- Ellen Greenhorn national wildlife refuge with formally de- ing the Great Swamp Wilderness Area, the Jim Mulvey signed wilderness. town had to remove a road running By law, no motor vehicles or motorized through the area and take down houses. George Solovay equipment are allowed in Wilderness The Wilderness Area today is more “wild” Areas. If a tree falls across the trail, it is Janet Stadelmeier than when the law was passed 50 years removed with a cross-cut saw! ago. In the spring, daffodils bloom along Kathy Woodward Wilderness Area designations are created by law and an act of Congress is required the Orange Trail, a silent reminder of how far we’ve come. Laurel Gould to remove lands from the National Wilder- Editor ness Preservation System. Mike Horne Project Leader Lenape National Wildlife Refuge Complex “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got Printed on recycled through with it” ~President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the Wilderness Act of 1964 paper ISSUE 58—NOVEMBER 2018 PAGE 2 PRESIDENT’S CORNER By Joe Balwierczak, President, Friends of Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge we celebrated National Wildlife Refuge already a member. Many of us have Week and Friends were permitted, dur- very busy lives and thus carefully man- ing this week, to escort visitors to the age our free time. Spending some of water impoundments to see ducks and that free time as a volunteer can be a geese fly in to rest for the evening dur- very rewarding experience. If you are ing their trip south. not a current volunteer with the Friends, I would like to suggest that in Like the visiting waterfowl, we also are the coming year you explore some of aware of the calendar and start prepar- the volunteer opportunities that the ing our homes and gardens for the Friends offer. Volunteer orientations coming winter. Fall traditions such as describe the ways volunteers help to football games and Halloween are tak- make the Great Swamp NWR a better ing our attention as well, and we know place for wildlife and for human visi- that the holiday season will be here tors. These orientations are offered a s I write this column, the neigh- before long. Thus, with the new year number of times throughout the year A borhoods around the Great not too far away, I would like for the and notices of when they are held are Swamp NWR are experiencing a notice- readers of the Swamp Scene to also posted on the Friends website. Also, able change in the weather, indicating think about the coming year and how the annual meeting of the Friends will that the fall season has started in ear- you will be involved with Great Swamp be held at 5 pm on Saturday December NWR in 2019. st nest. Short sleeves are out and lined 1 at the Helen Fenske Visitor Center jackets are dug out of hall closets. The I hope that all of you will continue your when we will review the past year and leaves are changing colors and flocks membership in Friends of Great see what lies in store for 2019. of birds are flying south. In October, Swamp NWR or consider joining if not I hope to see many of you there. FRIENDS BOARD APPROVES FY2019 BUDGET ach year the Friends Board and Refuge staff meet to share ideas for new projects for the coming fiscal year (October 1 E to September 30). The Board then creates a budget, projecting income and operating expenses before selecting new projects to fund. Here are some of the projects that have been budgeted by our committees for 2019. CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE & REPAIR PROJECTS VISITOR CENTER AREA ENHANCEMENTS Chandler S. Robbins Memorial Viewing Platform Improvements on the Nature Detective Trail Refurbishment of Garden Club Blind Interpretive signs for purple martin gourd racks Boardwalk on White Oak Trail Enhance Pollinator Meadow for improved habitat EDUCATION PROJECTS VISITOR SERVICES Reprinting of Junior Refuge Manager Activity Guide Fall Festival—20th Annual! New interpretive signs at Wildlife Observation Center GARDENKEEPER PROJECTS Water bottle filling station inside Visitor Center New workbench, charging stations, and tool storage Installation of weather station at Visitor Center Expansion of Butterfly Garden, new plant markers and interpretive materials for visitors VOLUNTEERS Volunteer Recognition Event sponsorship HABITAT AND WILDLIFE Support of Great Swamp Strike Team—sprayers, native seed mixes for treated areas, consulting services INCOME SOURCES The Friends receive income from sales in the Nature Shop. Head-start turtle research project (9th year!!) Donations are received from individuals, corporations and PARTNERSHIP AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS organizations, and from generous Foundation grants. Donation to National Wildlife Refuge Association, the non -profit supporting Friends and the Refuge System However, the largest source of income for the Friends is you—our members. TRAIL BLAZERS New tools, backpacks, folding saws for trail maintainers Thank you for your incredible support! F RIENDS OF GREAT SWAMP NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — WWW.FRIENDSOFGREATSWAMP.ORG ISSUE 58—NOVEMBER 2018 PAGE 3 A THWACK IN THE PARK By Marilyn Kitchell, Refuge Biologist, Photo: Hal Korber/Pennsylvania Game Commission Management at Patuxent Re- the heart of the average sub- search Refuge in Laurel, Mar- urbanite as sign of a healthy yland. Once compiled, the bit of nature left to beand data is used to monitor the scrubby brushlands can be rangewide population and perceived as an interim mess, then to set annual harvest no longer pretty or useful to limits at the federal level. This us. Beauty is, of course, in the long-term dataset shows that eye of the beholder. For the the woodcock population has woodcock, the loss of brush- been in steady decline since lands has been an ugly thing. surveys began. And the prima- ry reason for their decline? And so, odd as it sounds, the Habitat loss. only way to maintain these ephemeral habitats is…to cut You see, woodcock depend them down. By cutting early on the brushlands for rearing successional (“young”) habi- spent the fall of 2017 and tected from the sun’s evapo- their young from ground tats in rotation, staggered I winter of 2018 thwacking rative rays by leaves above nests. The protection it offers from year to year and field by my way through the refuge’s and underfoot, is chock full of from mammalian and avian field, the refuge is able to brushy young forests. Black- earthworms who erroneously predators, and the rich earth- consistently maintain suitable berry brambles snagging my think THEY are protected by worms that can be found habitat for our woodcock thick Carhartt coveralls and all this bramble. Not to be there, make it prime real es- friends. And as much as our grabbing my every limb made outsmarted, the woodcock tate. But brushlands them- brushlands love to grow up progress slow. Gnarly stumps have developed a graceful selves are a short-lived phe- into forest, they are equally nomenon, and around the lay their own obstacle course dancea sort of forward- eager to regenerate following Swamp they can attain forest at my feet. Ducking below and stepping, vertical bobbing cutsoften growing back even character (with trees dominat- around bare thin branches, I motionto detect the earth- thicker than they started. In tried to spare my rosy red ing and shading out the as little as 6 months those worm’s nearly imperceptible ground layer) in as little as 10 cheeks and face from the underground presence. fields will be dense with vege- poking and scratching that years. Across the east, nearly tation 5-6 feet tall, eagerly Shielded by all that’s above, 13 million acres of scrubby threatened the only parts of the woodcock must feel that sprouting upward and out- brushland habitats have been me exposed in the cold, crisp this is the perfect place to ward. lost either to suburban devel- air.