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Click on the shirt to visit our gift shop |
Forked River Mountain Views
Newsletter of the Forked River Mountain Coalition Vol. 6 No. 1 |
| Save the dateField Day..... March 13, 1999 Forked River Mountain Cleanup... Barnegat Bay Festival... more details in the |
The parcel is a gift from Mr. Joseph A. DeStephan of Miami Shores, Florida. After learning about the grass-roots initiative to preserve the Forked River Mountain area, Mr. DeStephan offered to donate the land to the Coalition for conservation and open space purposes. This donation comes just six months after the Coalition was recognized as an exempt 501(c)(3) organization. "We have embarked on our up hill journey to preserve the Forked River Mountain wilderness at a running pace," said Kerry Jennings, President of the Coalition. The Coalition will maintain the land in its natural state and manage it for any threatened or endangered species that may be present.
The Coalition is working with the Jersey Shore
Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and others, to establish and maintain a Bluebird
nestbox trail in the Forked River Mountain area. We are in need of a few dedicated
individuals to help monitor the nestboxes from March until August. If you believe you can
help and would like to volunteer as a bluebird nestbox monitor, please call the Coalition
at 609-971-1635 no later than February 10, 1999.
A Look Back . . . A Look Ahead . . .
For the past year, the Forked River Mountain Coalition has been busy working to permanently protect this vast wilderness. Below are just some of our accomplishments for 1998 and some of our future goals for 1999, and beyond .
Accomplishments
| Secured 501(c)(3) status. The Coalition is now recognized as a charitable non-profit organization. This means your contributions are tax-deductible. It also will allow us to apply for a variety of grants and receive donations of property.
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Received our first donation of land. This 25 acre parcel is located on the Cave Cabin Branch. This is an important stepping stone for the Coalition. The land will be maintained in its natural state and will be managed for any threatened or endangered species that may be present.|
Conducted our fifth Spring Cleanup for Earth Day. A whopping 39 tons of debris was removed from the forest. To date, more than 150 tons of debris have been removed from the woods around the Forked River Mountains.|
Sponsored and participated in a variety of educational events, like the Barnegat Bay Festival, to promote a greater awareness about the importance and significance of the Forked River Mountain area.|
Provided assistance to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and The Nature Conservancy with conservation and stewardship activities on protected parcels within the Forked River Mountain area.|
Improved our flier, slide program and newsletter, "Forked River Mountain Views." We also began planning to establish a Bluebird nestbox trail in the Forked River Mountain area.Goals
{ Establish and maintain a web site with all the important information you need to know about the Forked River Mountains and the Coalition.
{
Develop a new membership brochure in order to conduct a direct mail membership drive to increase support for our grass-roots initiative to permanently protect the Forked River Mountain area.{
Seek additional funding to acquire more land (millions of dollars will be needed to protect the entire forest) and to conduct plant and wildlife inventories (necessary to prepare future management plans for the area).{
Construct an informational kiosk at Wells Mills County Park, in cooperation with Coalition partners, to better educate the public about the Forked River Mountains and the rich wilderness that surrounds them.{
Establish a bluebird nestbox trail and continue to provide assistance to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy, with conservation and stewardship activities on protected parcels within the Forked River Mountain area.{
Conduct the sixth annual spring cleanup, our annual canoe trip and treefrog hike and participate in the third annual Barnegat Bay Festival and other educational events to promote greater awareness about the importance and significance of the Forked River Mountain area.But we can only realize our goals with your help. If you are not currently a member of the Coalition and would like to join, or if you are a member and have not yet renewed your membership, simply complete the registration form in this newsletter. Be sure to mark the appropriate box and return the form along with your $15 membership dues for 1999. Please help support the grass-roots initiative to permanently protect the Forked River Mountains and the vast wilderness that surrounds them.
| Volunteers
"Cleanup" About a dozen hardy volunteers turned out for the fall cleanup on November 7, 1998. This special cleanup was scheduled to remove debris around remote sections of the Middle Branch. Believe it or not organizers did not want a large turn out like for the Spring Cleanup. "We promoted this event very differently, suggesting only hardy volunteers participate" said Kerry Jennings, president of the Coalition. Because the area that needed to be cleaned up was not easily accessible, we needed to keep the group relatively small. As it turned out, enough debris was collected to fill a 10 yard dumpster, not bad for four hours of work. Our thanks to all those hardy volunteers! |
Support the Forked River Mountain Coalition
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Click on the shirt to visit our gift shop |
Critter Corner. . . .
Northern Pine Snake
The northern pine snake is the second largest nonvenomous snake in New Jersey, sometimes reaching lengths of over six feet. It is typically white or cream colored with a series of black blotches extending from head to tail. Along the posterior, the blotches may vary with shades of mahogany. A plain white or cream belly is characteristic of the northern pine snake but, may be occasionally marked with pink or tan on the subcaudal scales. Its strongly keeled scales are dull on the dorsal surface and glossy on the lateral surface. The snakes pointed head is small in proportion to the rest of the body, enabling it to be an accomplished burrower. The snake obtains food by constricting its prey. Its diet consists mainly of small mammals and birds and their eggs. It is actually one of the top predators here in the Pine Barrens.
The range of the northern pine snake is from West Virginia and southern Kentucky to northern and central Alabama and Georgia. In the northeast the snake is found only on New Jersey’s coastal plain in the Pine Barrens. It inhabits areas of dry, flat, sandy, pine woods. The snakes are active during the warm months in the early morning and late afternoon.
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In New Jersey, the northern pine snake is considered a threatened species. The distribution of the northern pine snake was once wide but studies have shown that many of the previous habitat areas have been destroyed by development. The snake is also threatened by illegal collecting because it is a very docile creature. The northern pine snake, like many southern plants and animals, reaches its northern limits in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Because of the large unfragmented forest and diversity of habitats, the Forked River Mountain area is a stronghold for the northern pine snake.
Your continued support will enable us to protect the habitat of this and other threatened and endangered species.
* Graphics from A Field Guide to the Pine
Barrens of New Jersey, by Howard Boyd, illustrations by Mary Finelli, Plexus
Publishing Inc, Medford, NJ
. . . newsletter layout by Theresa Lettman