Wildlife And Water Health Feature In Upcoming Environmental Speakers Series

Great Swamp Watershed Association announces four events in its Spring 2013 Breakfast Briefing Series.

The Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) is pleased to announce the schedule of speakers for its Spring 2013 Breakfast Briefing Series.  This season’s highlights will include an in-depth discussion of bats and bat conservation efforts, as well as a wide-ranging report on the cleanliness of water flowing through the Great Swamp and into the Passaic River.

On Tuesday, March 12, GSWA welcomes Jennifer Bohrman, lead biologist for bat research, education, and outreach at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.  Ms. Bohrman led a wild bat inventory and monitoring effort at the Refuge during the summer of 2012 and frequently presents to local communities on the topic of bat conservation.  In addition to offering some insight into the impact of the infamous White-nose Syndrome on bat populations in Great Swamp, she will provide some proven tips, techniques, and suggestions suitable for protecting bats in the back yard.

Tuesday, April 9, Dr. Meiyin Wu, Associate Professor of Biology and Molecular Biology and Director of the Passaic River Institute at Montclair State University, stops by to offer some perspective on water issues affecting communities downstream of the Great Swamp along the Passaic River.

Dr. Leland Pollock, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Drew University, visits on Tuesday, May 14.  For many years Dr. Pollock has studied macroinvertebrates—a catch-all term for bugs, worms, mollusks and other small, spineless creatures—living in the streams that feed Great Swamp.  Study findings from his annual survey of these wildlife populations adds to an understanding of long-term trends within the local environment and provides clues about the relative cleanliness of water passing through the Great Swamp region.  This event takes place at the Helen Whitney Case Auditorium at the Madison Public Library, 39 Keep Street, Madison, NJ.

On Tuesday, June 11, GSWA’s Director of Water Quality Programs Laura Kelm will present findings from the organization’s recent State of the Streams report on water conditions found throughout the Great Swamp Watershed region.  This extensive scientific research project engaged GSWA staff and volunteers in a year-long analysis of more than five years of chemical, visual, and biological water quality monitoring data taken from the watershed’s five major streams: the Upper Passaic River, Black Brook, Great Brook, Loantaka Brook, and Primrose Brook.  Results from the analysis will be used to establish historic trends for cleanliness of water flowing through local waterways; and help the organization identify emerging environmental conservation and restoration needs.

Most GSWA Breakfast Briefing events take place between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. at the organization’s office located at 568 Tempe Wick Road in Morristown, NJ.  Alternate event locations are noted, if applicable.

GSWA created the Breakfast Briefing Series to help area residents stay informed about community environmental issues without taking valuable time away from work or family life.  Presentations are kept brief, focus on current environmental topics, and minimize overlap with most traditional business hours.

Coffee, tea, and a continental breakfast are always served free of charge

Advanced registration is requested. Please register online at www.GreatSwamp.org or by calling 973-538-3500 x22.

Did You Know? About Red-tailed Hawks

by Jim Northrop, GSWA Volunteer

It was a black speck in the sky, gradually coming closer, and then I saw that it was a bird gliding gracefully, effortlessly, circling above me. It was a red-tailed hawk, the most common hawk in North America. Years of observation have shown that red-tailed hawks can easily mold themselves to any surrounding, but these birds prefer a habitat that is open. Hawks usually inhabit places like deserts and fields, perhaps to make it easier to find prey. They also like to have high-perching places nearby from which they can watch for prey.

Red-tails are known as very able hunters. They are widely reputed to have visual acuity several times that of a normal human being. In fact, hawks can see a mouse a half mile away. This is due to the many photoreceptors in the bird’s retina, an exceptional number of nerves connecting these receptors to the brain, and a small indented area of the retina which magnifies the central portion of the visual field. Hawks also see in color.

A fledgling hawk is fed by its parents until it leaves the nest for good. It will leave its parents’ nest as early as six weeks old. As the hawk grows older, it begins to act on its ancestral instinct to hunt for itself.

While other birds of prey like falcons use their mouths to kill their prey, red-tailed hawks both catch and kill prey with their claws, or talons. They also use their talons dismember a kill before swallowing it. A hawk’s preferred time for hunting is usually just before night fall, when daylight begins to lessen.

Even though red-tailed hawks are known as being a violent predator, this bird actually has a peaceful side. The hawk’s main mode of transportation is flight. When it flies, the hawk flaps its wings rapidly, and then uses that momentum to glide smoothly and gracefully through the air. Hawks typically move at 20 to 40 miles per hour.

Red-tails also are known for their unusual mating practices. The method this bird uses to reproduce is different from that of most other birds. The male and female will fly together up into the air in a circular motion. Once the two get to a certain height, the male will dive toward the female and then they will rise back to the height again. The two birds will repeat this until finally the male latches onto the female and they begin to free-fall down to earth.

Red-tailed hawks are monogamous and will keep the same mate their entire lives. In one year, a female hawk will lay about five eggs. Both the male and the female will watch the nest and take care of the eggs for about a month, until they hatch. Males and females also create their nests together, and will improve it together during mating season. One wonders if members of the hawk family may be mimicking some members of the human family.

A red-tailed hawk’s diet is very predictable, in that it includes a variety of small animals. However, most hawks are opportunistic feeders and they feed on anything they can catch. Some of these small animals may include snakes, lizards, mice, rabbits, squirrels, and any other type of small game that is found on the ground. More specifically, hawks like to eat smaller birds like doves, and bugs like grasshoppers and crickets.

The red-tailed hawk is protected under the Migratory Treaty Bird Act. This covers their residence in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. They do not have low population numbers at this point, but many people believe that without such protection their numbers would be low.

Hawks also provide us with a metaphor for our political life. When talking about politics, some people use the term “war hawk,” or simply “hawk” for short. This refers to someone favoring war in a debate over military action. “War hawks” are the opposite of “war doves.” The terms derive from the fact that hawks are predators which attack and feed on other animals, whereas doves mostly eat seeds and fruit, and are historically a symbol of peace.

Rest and Be Thankful?

Okay, but consider volunteering at our Conservation Management Area (CMA) on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) will be more thankful!

GSWA will hold a post-hurricane clean up and workday at its Conservation Management Area (CMA) on Sunday, November 25, 2012.

The workday will run 9:30 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.

The CMA is located at 1 Tiger Lily Lane in Harding, although many GPS systems place the location in Morristown.

There are tasks for all—from brush cleanup to moving chainsawed logs off the trail, to boardwalk repairs and fencing renovations—in the wake of Sandy's unwelcome redesign of the property.

We will have work gloves, simple tools, and snacks but if there are any chainsaw experts out there we could use their EXPERT help.

All those intersted in helping out are asked to email GSWA's Director of Outreach and Education Hazel England (hazele[at]greatswamp.org) with their availability.  Please provide some indication of the type of tasks you prefer—light-duty or heavy-duty. It's also helpful to let Hazel know how many other volunteers you plan to bring with you.

Anyone who has NOT volunteered for us in the past will need to read and sign a volunteer release form, so please RSVP if you are thinking about attending.

Coffee and donuts will be available starting at 9:00 a.m. 

This is your chance to get away from family after the long Thanksgiving holiday, or an opportunity to bring all those relatives together to work as a team to help recover and restore the public trails at the CMA.

Halloween Excitement in New Jersey’s Spooky Great Swamp

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Come in costume or as you are to Great Swamp Watershed Association’s Spooky Swamp Walk, Oct. 26.

With Halloween right around the corner, is there a better time to visit a spooky swamp where owls hoot and coyotes cry?

On Friday, October 26, the Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) will lead a series of Spooky Swamp Walks through its 53-acre Conservation Management Area (CMA) in Harding Township, NJ.

Come in costume or come as you are to this outdoor celebration of all things that go bump in the Great Swamp at night!

Little or big, all of the ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and witches who appear will be led on a special night-time tour of the darkest corners, eeriest boardwalks, and blackest recesses of GSWA’s own small corner of Great Swamp. Expect lots of fun and lots of surprises as you trek through forest and marsh after sunset.  If skies are clear, a near-full moon will light our way.

Costumes are encouraged! But, keep in mind that sturdy footwear and a jacket are recommended for this event. Families with children are encouraged to attend.  The hike is 1.4 miles long over level ground and the occasional boardwalk. Wet, muddy conditions are possible.

Walks begin at the CMA entrance located at 1 Tiger Lily Lane, Morristown, NJ.  Groups of 15 to 18 people will be led into the swamp every 15 minutes from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. The last tour leaves at 8:00 p.m.  Cider, snacks, photo opportunities, Halloween music, and decorations will entertain those waiting to go on walks.  Wait times will vary based on event participation.

Advance registration is appreciated.  There is no fee for participation, however, voluntary donations to the Great Swamp Watershed Association are encouraged and may be made upon arrival. Please park cars along the cul-de-sac and along the sides of Tiger Lily Lane. More parking information will be made available at www.GreatSwamp.org as the event date approaches. No rain date.

To register, or for more information, visit www.GreatSwamp.org or call 973-538-3500 x22.

 

Great Swamp Watershed Association Announces Fall 2012 Breakfast Briefing Series

Experts from NJ and beyond keep you up-to-date on local environmental issues while you are on the go.

The Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) is pleased to announce speakers and presentations scheduled for its Fall 2012 Breakfast Briefing Series.  All events take place between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. at GSWA’s office located at 568 Tempe Wick Road in Morristown, NJ.

On Tuesday, October 16, GSWA welcomes two guests for The Raritan & the Passaic: A Tale of Two Rivers, a special presentation that compares and contrasts these two important regional river systems.  Dr. Judy Shaw, senior research associate and director of the Sustainable Raritan River Initiative at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, will enumerate the myriad environmental issues these neighboring watersheds must address—especially the issue of flooding—as well as some environmental solutions residents of both regions can share.  Author Mary Bruno, whose book An American River: From Paradise to Superfund, Afloat on New Jersey’s Passaic was released this past May, will also be on hand to provide new perspectives on the Passaic River region.  Signed copies of Ms. Bruno’s book will be on sale throughout the event.

Tuesday, November 13, GSWA Director of Water Quality Programs Laura Kelm will discuss the overall health of the five major streams comprising the Great Swamp Watershed.  This State of the Streams report will summarize findings from a recent study of ten years of water testing data collected by Great Swamp Watershed Association, the former Ten Towns Committee, and others.

On Wednesday, December 5, Professor Joseph J. Seneca from Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy will present The Economic Implications of Climate Change In New Jersey.  Discussion will focus on how New Jersey might efficiently mitigate the economic effects of climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, changes to public policy, and implementation of alternative energy strategies.

GSWA created the Breakfast Briefing Series to help area residents stay informed about community environmental issues without taking valuable time away from work or family life.  Presentations are kept brief, focus on current environmental topics, and minimize overlap with most traditional business hours. Coffee, tea, and a continental breakfast are always served free of charge.

Advance registration is requested. Please register by visiting www.GreatSwamp.org or by calling 973-538-3500 x22.

Photo: GSWA volunteer and citizen-scientist Mike Duffy captures water quality data from a tributary of the Upper Passaic River.

Did You Know? All About Bees!

by Jim Northrop

Perhaps honeybees are the most highly organized members of the bee species.  Not only do they create complex social organizations, but they continually store honey (made from the nectar of flowers) and bee bread (a material made from pollen), to feed themselves and their young. Honeybees continue to store honey and bee bread not only for the breeding season, but also to sustain the hive during the winter. However, the story of the typical queen bee would rival the conspiracies of a medieval palace.

During the greater part of the year, the population of a honeybee hive is composed exclusively of two sorts of individuals --- the mother, or queen bee, and workers, or neuter bees (which are sterile females). The males, or drones, generally appear in May and are all dead by the end of July. The queen lives for several years, the workers only one to two months in seasons of activity, and the drones one to two months. 

The queen has a longer body and shorter wings than the workers. She can use her sting repeatedly without rupturing herself, and normally will use it within minutes after escaping from her pupal cell. She will explore the hive thoroughly and sting to death all other queens present, even those that have not yet emerged as adults.

The old queen, with a large number of bee workers, has already left in a swarm, to find a new place for a colony. The young queen soon goes out on her nuptial flight, pursued by dozens of drones. Within two days she is back in the hive, prepared to lay eggs at the rate of 200 a day for the rest of her life. She lays each egg in a separate cell in the brood region of the hive, a short distance away from cells in which honey or bee bread are stored.

The life of a worker bee follows a regular schedule, with tasks changing to match development of various glands in her body. She produces saliva as a varnish for the cells in which the queen will lay eggs. She visits the honey stores and cells with bee bread, to get food she can regurgitate for the larvae of different ages.

After a few days of guarding the door from intruders, she becomes a field bee. Each day, until their wings wear out, field bees daily gather nectar, pollen, resinous materials for sealing cracks in the hive. When weather is hot and temperatures rise, field bees also gather water to cool the hive through the process of evaporation. A single hive may contain 60,000 workers at one time.

Worker honeybees appear to change their behavior according to the amount of a “queen substance” produced by their queen, and the amount of food stored in the hive. They communicate with each other in the darkness of the hive by special dances and sounds that tell other workers the direction and approximate distance to food they have found, as well as some measure of its abundance.

While some people like to compare the organizational talents of honey bees and those of human endeavors, perhaps it is just as well that humans have never achieved the unfailing, inflexible organizational discipline of the honey bee.

About the Author. Jim Northrop is a long-time member of and volunteer for the Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA). A resident of Madison, New Jersey, he has served on GSWA's Board of Trustees and currently lends his support to the organization's Land Use Committee and it Communications Taskforce. Jim has authored many articles that appear in GSWA's biannual newsletter, its monthly eNewsletter, its website, and its several blog outlets.

Beneficial Bats: Why We Cannot Afford To Lose These Furry Barnstormers

by Jim Nothrop

Many people that I know are scared of bats ---- especially if they encounter them at night. The problem may be more with us than with the bats. Centuries of myths and misinformation have generated needless fears. At the same time, most people are unaware of the ways in which bats actually benefit humans without ever actually being a danger.

Having suggested a more positive image for the bat, we now need to know that in many areas of the U.S. (including the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge) a virulent fungus is killing many of them. To date, scientists have not discovered how this fungus (called White-Nose Syndrome) actually kills the bats, or what to do about it. But to the extent bats are being killed off in large numbers by White-Nose Syndrome, human beings are losing valuable benefits we were perhaps not even aware we have been receiving from those “scary” creatures.

There are more than 1,200 species of bats (about one-fifth of all mammal species), says Bat Conservation International, Inc. (BCI). They range from the world’s smallest mammal, the tiny bumblebee bat that weighs less than a penny, to giant flying foxes with six-foot wingspans. Except for the most extreme desert and polar regions, says BCI, bats have lived in almost every habitat on Earth since the age of the dinosaurs.
BCI confirms that only three species of bats, all in Latin America, are vampires. They really do feed on blood, although they lap it up like kittens rather than sucking it up (as horror movies suggest). Even the vampires are useful --- an enzyme in their saliva is among the most potent blood-clot dissolvers known and is used to treat human stroke victims.

Bats can be found living in almost any conceivable shelter, though BCI says they are best known for living in caves. Many species that now live mostly in buildings do so, at least in part, because of shrinking natural habitat.


Benefits of Bats

Bats are the primary predators of night-flying insects, including many of the most damaging agricultural pests and others that bedevil humans (like mosquitoes), says BCI. More than two-thirds of bat species hunt insects, and they have healthy appetites. BCI says that a single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour, while a pregnant or lactating female bat typically eats the equivalent of her entire body weight in insects each night.

BCI notes that almost a third of the world’s bats feed on the fruit or nectar of plants. In return for their meals, these bats are vital cross-pollinators of countless plants. Bats that drink the sweet nectar inside flowers pick up a dusting of pollen and move it along to other flowers as they feed. BCI reports that a few of the commercial products that depend on bat pollinators for wild or cultivated varieties include: bananas, avocadoes, dates, figs, peaches, mangoes, cloves, cashews and balsa wood. Bats also are major seed dispersers in the regeneration of rainforests.


What Is the “White-Nose Syndrome” That Is Stealthily Killing Our Bats?

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reports that in February 2006 some 40 miles west of Albany, N.Y., a caver photographed hibernating bats with an unusual white substance on their muzzles. He noticed several dead bats. The following winter, bats behaving erratically, bats with white noses, and a few hundred dead bats in several caves came to the attention of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation biologists, who documented White-Nose Syndrome in January 2007. More than a million hibernating bats have died since. Biologists with state and federal agencies and organizations across the country are still trying to find the answer to this deadly mystery.

Sick, dying and dead bats have been found in unprecedented numbers in and around caves and mines from New Hampshire to Tennessee. In some hibernation sites, 90 to 100 percent of the bats are dying. While they are in the hibernation site, affected bats often have white fungus on their muzzles and other parts of their bodies. They may have low body fat. These bats often display strange behavior ---- moving to cold parts of the hibernation site, flying during the day and during cold winter weather when the insects they feed upon are not available, and they exhibit other uncharacteristic behaviors.

Despite the continuing search by numerous laboratories, and state and federal biologists, to find the source of this condition, the cause of the bat deaths remains unknown. A newly discovered cold-loving fungus (Geomyces destructans) does invade the skin of the bats and may be part of the answer. Scientists are exploring how the fungus acts and searching for a way to stop it. Answers to these questions are needed very soon.


About the Author. Jim Northrop is a long-time member of and volunteer for the Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA). A resident of Madison, New Jersey, he has served on GSWA's Board of Trustees and currently lends his support to the organization's Land Use Committee and it Communications Taskforce. Jim has authored many articles that appear in GSWA's biannual newsletter, its monthly eNewsletter, its website, and its several blog outlets.