I and the Bird

Ecobirder has posted I and the Bird #72.

100,000

According to SiteMeter, this blog received its 100,000th unique visit yesterday evening. The 100,000th visitor was from China, searched for the term "bird feeder," and found a post from last May on learning bird songs. I hope this person found what he or she was looking for.

Nine State Parks to Close

Last month the news broke that the state would consider ending services at some state parks in response to voters' demand for budget cuts. Yesterday that rumor took on specific form, as the state DEP announced nine parks it would close.

1. Brendan T. Byrne State Forest (formerly Lebanon State Forest), 36,647 acres, Burlington County. Camping, group picnic area, Indian King Tavern, office, closed. Trail access limited.
2. Monmouth Battlefield State Park, 2,928 acres, Monmouth County. Visitor center, restrooms, closed.
3. Stephens State Park, 805 acres, Warren County. Camping area closed.
4. High Point State Park, 15,827 acres, Sussex County. Swimming, camping, interpretive center, office, closed. Trail access limited.
5. Round Valley Recreation Area, 3,684 acres, Hunterdon County. Swimming, camping, Wallace House, office, closed.
6. Parvin State Park, 1,952 acres, Salem County. Swimming, camping, interpretive center, office, closed.
7. Jenny Jump State Forest, 4,288 acres, Warren County. Camping and office, closed. Trail access limited.
8. Worthington State Forest, 6,584 acres, Warren County. Camping and office, closed. Trail access limited.
9. Fort Mott State Park, 104 acres, Salem County. Hancock House, historic sites, office, closed. Access to ferry service, open.
   

The budget plan closes all state parks (except Liberty State Park and Island Beach State Park) on Mondays and Tuesdays during winter (November through March). It also contains partial closures for the following three state parks.

1. Ringwood State Park, 4,044 acres, Bergen and Passaic counties. Shepherd Lake swimming area closed; Ringwood Manor, reduced hours. State Botanical Gardens and Skylands Manor, open.
2. D&R Canal State Park, 5,379 acres, central New Jersey. Bulls Island Recreation Area closed to campers. Rockingham Historic Site and towpath, open.
3. Washington Crossing State Park, 3,126 acres, Mercer and Hunterdon counties. Significantly reduced hours at Clark House, Johnson Ferry House and the museum.

Several good birding spots are on the list, such as High Point, Worthington, and Byrne/Lebanon. I have visited eight of the twelve slated for full or partial closure. Birders who live in or visit New Jersey after July 1, 2008, will need to be aware of the closures. What the closures would mean is somewhat unclear and may vary from park to park. The linked article from the Courier-Post suggests that some access would be allowed for hiking. Another article on the closures from the Asbury Park Press states that police would ask visitors to leave.

NJ Audubon and NJ Sierra Club have announced their opposition to the plan. They argue that voters generally support open space preservation through Green Acres bonds and that public lands bring money into the state through ecotourism. These are sound reasons to support continued state funding for parks. In addition, closing some state parks will put additional pressure on other state parks as visitors seek alternate destinations for recreation.

However, the state budget has been cut so often over the past 10-15 years that it has become very difficult to cut the budget significantly without cutting into essential services. With tax, fee, and toll increases off the table, opponents to one particular set of cuts will need to justify replacing it with an equally (or more) painful set of cuts to meet state budget requirements. The current political dynamic in Trenton does not favor the goals of environmentalists since preserving open space and conserving wildlife are costly and do not return value in obvious ways. Without a major change in the state's political climate, it is hard to see how environmentalists can prevent these closures and further closures in the future.

Flying Penguins?

The idea of penguins flying is preposterous. Their wings are far too small to generate the lift necessary to lift their heavy bodies. Yesterday, the BBC promoted a video purporting to show penguins flying from the Antarctic to the tropics. I think it executes the trick quite well.

Including Terry Jones as a narrator may be a tip-off as to the video's intent.

Massachusetts to Reduce Its Horseshoe Crab Harvest

Now that New Jersey has banned harvesting horseshoe crabs, we start to see further action from other states. Massachusetts plans to cut its harvest quota in half. Harvest reductions in the Mid-Atlantic states have increased demand for horseshoe crabs from Massachusetts.

Massachusetts' current horseshoe crab quota is 330,377 annually, second only to New York's at 366,272. Delaware is one of the states that has cut back its harvest, setting its quota at 100,000. Delaware harvested 76,663 horseshoe crabs last year, a more than 75 percent drop from 2003.

In Massachusetts, about 70,000 animals were landed in 2004. That more than doubled to 150,000 last year. Most of the increase was shipped out of state by bait dealers.

A spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs would not specify yesterday exactly what the new regulations would be but said the limit would be about 150,000, the same as landings for last year.

Acting now to keep the annual harvest from escalating May prevent the need for emergency measures like New Jersey's ban. Already some sites are seeing ill effects from extra fishing.

Experts, including Bob Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, worry that Wellfleet Harbor's crab population could easily be fished out, particularly since spawning crabs can literally be picked right off the beach.

Known as localized depletion, that theory is buttressed by scientific studies that show that, much like river herring, horseshoe crabs return from offshore waters to the same estuary or beach each spring to spawn....

"We've been out there and it's dead and instead we find a (horseshoe crab) harvester out there," he said.

Several areas on Cape Cod are already closed to horseshoe crab harvesters. These include the major shorebird sites like Monomoy NWR. By cutting back now, Massachusetts may avoid the need for a complete ban. If New Jersey and Delaware had regulated horseshoe crab fisheries more tightly in the 1990s, perhaps they could have avoided need for stronger measures here, too.