New Jersey Conservation Success through the Wetlands Reserve Program
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Spring Peeper |
New
Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) purchased the 9,400-acre Franklin
Parker Preserve in 2004 to protect its unusual concentration of
resources, which include rare plant and animal species, pristine
streams, and wilderness forest. In the midst of five major State
land-holdings totaling over 200,000 acres, the Preserve is an important
open space connection, providing trail linkages and passive recreation.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has supported the
purchase of the Preserve and holds a partial ownership interest.
 NJCF has partnered with the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to protect and restore 2200 acres
of wetland habitat through the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). Formerly
one of New Jersey’s largest cranberry farms, the Preserve contains 1100
acres of wetland agricultural fields and miles of canals and dikes. This
water control system has transformed natural wetlands into highly
modified agricultural environments, which cannot revert to native
wetland communities on their own – altered water flow and compacted and
leveled soil must first be repaired.
Through the Wetlands Reserve Program, NRCS has purchased an easement on the
Preserve for $4.4 million that forever protects the land for conservation
purposes. NRCS will also provide financial and technical assistance in the
amount of $1 million to restore the disturbed wetland habitats. Canals will be
plugged and dikes will be breached to allow the water table to once again
fluctuate on a natural cycle rather than one dictated by agriculture. Native
plants will recolonize from nearby habitats and germinate from seeds that have
lain dormant for decades.
 In some cases, NJCF and NRCS may augment natural revegetation. Current plans
call for 150 acres of Atlantic White Cedar reforestation. An increasingly rare
Pine Barrens community, less than 20% of historic Atlantic White Cedar forests
remain. Natural regeneration of cedar trees is unlikely due to poor germination and heavy
deer browsing.
The Wetlands Reserve Program is a voluntary program offering landowners the
opportunity to protect, restore, and enhance wetlands on their property. The
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service goal is to achieve the greatest
wetland functions and values, along with optimum wildlife habitat, on every acre
enrolled in the program.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
listed the bog turtle as a threatened species in 1997, citing habitat
loss as the primary factor behind its decline. Prior to wetland
protection laws being enacted in NJ, bog habitats were drained and
filled for agriculture or development. Today bog turtle wetlands are
generally protected from primary impacts, but still continue to be lost
by changes in vegetation, e.g., natural succession and the encroachment
by invasive plants. Bog turtle habitats are ephemeral wetlands that
require ecological disturbance in the form of grazing, periodic flooding
or fire and clearing to maintain conditions conducive for the bog
turtles various life histories.
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF)
was one of three organizations in NJ to submit requests for funding
under a national call for proposals in May, 2005. The CWF proposal was
one of only two selected for funding nationwide. The objective of their
project is to restore and maintain bog turtle habitats at two wetland
sites in Sussex and Gloucester counties that have been altered by
ditching and the colonization of woody vegetation and invasive flora.
The CWF restoration plan for the
Sussex County site entails clearing of woody vegetation on 4.5 acres,
restoring hydrology through the construction of ditch plugs on 4
drainage ditches and installing 5,000 linear feet of high-tensile
fencing for long-term habitat maintenance using livestock grazing.
In Gloucester County, the Foundation
proposes to restore the natural flow of groundwater in a heavily
modified wetland that is currently used for growing hay. This will be
accomplished by installing plugs in the extensive network of drainage
ditches onsite and following this up with establishing a native
limestone fen plant community.
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation will
be awarded $43,350 over a three year period to complete this work. The
project began in October 2005.
 May,
2005 - Kurt Munkacsi and Nancy Jeffries are committed to wetland restoration
and wildlife habitat on their farm in the Pinelands of Burlington
County, New Jersey. They are so committed in fact that selling a 40-acre
easement to USDA under the Wetlands Reserve Program, restoring wetland
habitat on 20 acres of blueberry fields, and constructing two ponds was
not enough! They recently undertook additional wetland restoration
enhancements on the farm. The 2005 enhancements include new vernal
pools, new macrotopography work and new native plantings for wildlife.
Kurt and Nancy work in the music business in New York City. They are
enthusiastic about the wetland restoration and wildlife habitat on their
farm. Kurt regularly walks the fields, wetlands and woodlands in search
of local wildlife. Since the Wetlands Reserve Program
(WRP) project began, he has observed several state threatened or endangered
species including the Pine Barrens tree frog and the Northern pine
snake. Recent wetland enhancements should provide more opportunities to
view the rare amphibians and reptiles of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
 As
seen in the photo above, flooded blueberry plants are beginning to give way to
native pitch pine, Atlantic white cedar, red maple and black gum trees soon
after wetland hydrology has been restored. The vernal pool at the Munkacsi–Jeffries property
seen here on the right is surrounded by native volunteer wetland vegetation
two years after
construction. The site was a former blueberry farm bisected by
drainage ditches which were plugged to restore hydrology.
New wetland construction was completed in the winter of 2004 to restore an old
stream channel where a straight drainage ditch was constructed over 100 years
ago. This site will be fully flooded in late spring 2005.
The photo at left shows an area of hydric soils, drained for hay and pasture
production, that was restored to an emergent wetland by constructing a low berm and
installing a water control structure. This Morris County site will provide
habitat for waterfowl, wading birds, reptiles and amphibians native to the area.
Through the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), the Natural Resources Conservation Service
provided assistance to convert the out-of-use pasture to
wetlands.
More...
- Other Farm Bill
Programs are producing conservation success stories in New Jersey!
< Back to Wetlands Reserve Program
Last Modified:
December 09, 2011
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