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Strategic Conservation - Coastal Resiliency By Elizabeth Freiday NJFO has administered several recovery projects after Hurricane Sandy. One project at Gandy’s Beach, located on the Delaware Bay, was to build and extensive living shoreline that would serve as intertidal habitat while serving a breakwater function to provide sheltered waters for spawning horseshoe crabs and to protect the sandy beach from further erosion. A subsequent NFWF grant will allow the Service to work with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to study the effects of the project over a five year time frame. Monitoring is underway and it is estimated, based on sampling in December that so far 750,000 oysters have attached to the breakwater reefs! Spring samplings showed that about 71% of oysters survived the winter and actively grew through the summer. NJFO staff are excited to see that one goal of the project is being realized. Another potential benefit of the project is to rebuild the shoreline through natural accretion and we have indeed observed sediment accretion around the breakwaters. The long-term funding for monitoring will allow TNC to work with partners like USGS to analyze changes in topography over time. With winter storms becoming more severe, projects like these that can protect and possibly rebuild the shoreline while also providing endangered species habitat (red knot feed where horseshoe crabs spawn) are high priority for the NJFO. Photo credit: Moses Katkowski (TNC). Congressional District 2. Rutgers researchers sample the project area. The reef was built with shell bags; you can see new ribbed mussel and live oysters have colonized the reef.

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Strategic Conservation - Coastal Resiliency By Marc Virgilio Woodbridge Township – Hurricane Sandy heavily damaged a residential development in Woodbridge Township New Jersey, causing many of the homes to be damaged beyond repair. The development is considered highly flood prone and the Township secured funds through New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Blue Acres Program to purchase flood prone properties. The Blue Acres program gives homeowners in flood-prone communities the option to sell their homes at pre-storm values and convert those properties for public open space or conservation. The NJFO Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program has partnered with Woodbridge Township and Rutgers University to convert this area (totaling about 75 acres) to native habitat. This property will serve as public open space for recreation, wildlife habitat, and buffer adjacent communities from flooding. Partners staff have provided seed and over 1000 trees and shrubs for restoring 13 acres of the property to native floodplain, warm season grasses, and pollinator habitat. Partners also led herbicide application training for Rutgers and Township staff so they may effectively manage invasive species to prevent them from becoming established in newly restored areas. Efforts are continuing in 2018 with additional areas planned for restoration in the spring. Below: Native tree plantings at the site of a former flood-prone home. Note the marsh habitat just beyond the tree line. Photo by Kathleen Kerwin – Rutgers University. Congressional District 7 and 13.

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Seabeach Amaranth Seed Planting By Wendy Walsh The week of June 12, the New Jersey Field Office supported a range-wide effort to increase populations of the federally listed plant seabeach amaranth. The Service’s Cooperative Recovery Initiative (CRI) program funds projects to advance the recovery of listed species on National Wildlife Refuges. One CRI project provided funding to test a new propagation method for seabeach amaranth. The method involves outplanting captive-bred seeds, rather than small plants as has been done in the past. The seeds were produced in a greenhouse from local source plants. In June 2017, seeds were planted at Cape Romain, Chincoteague, Cape May, Edwin B. Forsythe, and Monomoy National Wildlife Refuges, as well as U.S. Coast Guard property in Cape May, New Jersey. Over 4,500 seeds were planted in New Jersey! The seeds have already begun to germinate, and will be monitored through the fall. Thanks to the many project partners: Cape May and Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge staff, interns, and volunteers; the North Carolina Botanical Garden; the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey; the students of Dr. Jay Kelly; and the U.S. Coast Guard. Congressional District 2.

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Threatened plant in Ocean Grove sets a new record for New Jersey! By Wendy Walsh

By Wendy Walsh

The federally listed (threatened) plant seabeach amaranth (Amaranthus pumilus) was extinct in New Jersey from 1913 until its rediscovery in Monmouth County in 2000. Ever since, Monmouth County has remained the State stronghold for this species, supporting between 96 and 99 percent of all the plants in New Jersey each year since 2001. In 2016, the county saw another first in the recovery of this species—a plant more than three times bigger than the previous record-holders! Previously, the largest plants in New Jersey were about 1 foot across. But a gigantic plant in Ocean Grove reached over 4.5 feet in 2016! Seabeach amaranth has been known to grow over 3 feet in the Carolinas, where the growing season is longer. But never before has such a large plant been documented in New Jersey. Seabeach amaranth is an annual, so the large plant naturally died before the end of 2016. But seed production in this species is related to plant size. So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expected that Ocean Grove might see a lot of offspring plants in 2017. We teamed up with Ocean Grove to fence the plants, and to tweak beach management activities such as trash collection and raking. These efforts paid off, with nearly 70 plants counted in Ocean Grove in late August 2017. Many thanks to Jeff Force, Director of Operations, and others in Ocean Grove for their support and cooperation to conserve the offspring of this remarkable plant! Congressional District 4. Some of the newly offspring plants in 2017.

Photo by Wendy Walsh.

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New Jersey's largest-ever amaranth plant, documented by the New Jersey Natural Heritage Program in Ocean Grove in 2016. Photo by Jessica Ray.

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE NEW JERSEY FIELD OFFICE!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOURS FROM THE NEW JERSEY FIELD OFFICE!

Photo by Laura Perlick, USFWS