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National Pollinator Conference By Steve Mars Senior biologist Steve Mars attended a two-day workshop in Washington DC to discuss a National pollinator initiative for the electric utility industry. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) hosted the conference with numerous industry representatives (over 400 members) in the audience. Some of the Northeast members in attendance were Duke Energy, PSE&G, JCP&L, Exelon, FirstEnergy, and PepCo. Some recent updates on pollinator health and pollinator conservation were shared by the Xerces Society, USGS, General Mills, EPRI, Rutgers University, USFWS, and the NFWF. Takeaways included providing industry assurances on constructing pollinator habitat in light of the listed rusty patch bumble bee and the potential listing of the monarch butterfly.

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Military Base – Habitat Restoration By Marc Virgilio Partners staff continued a collaborative effort with the Joint Base Dix-McGuire-Lakehurst to restore wildlife habitat. One project is to convert a 3-acre field infested with invasive plants into native grassland and pollinator habitat. Staff also controlled a population of cypress spurge (yellow flowering ground cover, pictured right), an emerging non-native plant. The cypress spurge is growing on a busy road. If left untreated, it could spread beyond the original site.

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Migratory Fish Sampling By Cathy Marion NJFO NRDAR biologists are working in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Stony Brook - Millstone Watershed Association to conduct fish, macroinvertebrate, water quality, and aquatic habitat surveys associated with the anticipated removal of the Weston Mills Dam, located on the Millstone River in Somerset County, New Jersey. The dam is the first major barrier on the Millstone River, and is situated approximately 1.5 miles upstream of the confluence with the Raritan River. Dam removal is scheduled for summer of 2017. This spring, biologists captured gravid American shad and blueback herring attempting to ascend the Millstone River. Although the Weston Mills Dam is partially breached, biologists captured the vast majority of shad and herring below the dam, and only 1 shad above the dam, indicating the potential for dam removal to benefit these and other migratory species.

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NPS Oil Spill Response for Cultural Resource Professionals By Clay Stern Clay Stern was guest instructor at the NCTC for a pilot National Park Service course targeting their Culture Resource professionals. Clay provided the opening course module entitled: The Nature of Oil Spills, serving as an introduction to overall course including a case study review of the 2004 Athos oil spill in the Delaware River that impacted historic Fort Mifflin.

Conservation Achievement Award By Melissa Foster Partners working to improve fish passage and stream connectivity in the Raritan River Watershed, New Jersey received a Conservation Achievement Award at the Hudson River Estuary Program’s State of the Estuary Conference held in New York City on May 24. The awardees were recognized for their efforts in advancing the Raritan River Fish Passage Initiative to reconnect tributaries, in part through the negotiation of a settlement agreement for natural resource damages incurred as a result of contaminant releases at the American Cyanamid Superfund Site. The agreement includes removal of the Weston Mill Dam on the Millstone River and a feasibility analysis and design of fish passage at the Island Farm Weir on the Raritan River. Awardees included Cathy Marion and Melissa Foster on behalf of the Department of the Interior as well as representatives from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Stantec.

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Transportation and Wildlife By Steve Mars Senior Biologist Steve Mars attended an International Conference on Ecology and Transportation in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference was hosted by Federal Highways Administration and the States of Utah and Wyoming (among others) and was attended by numerous other State DOTs, wildlife resource agencies, academics, and numerous non-government organizations - all from around the world. The week long conference discussed the challenges of road permeability for fish and wildlife resources while ensuring public safety. Numerous workshops were held to discuss the success of wildlife crossings, the latest fencing and bypass strategies, vegetation management for pollinator species recovery, and ESA consultation and recovery. One takeaway from the conference – to assist the NJDOT in developing an integrated vegetation management plan, that the State legislature is requiring, focused on the use of native plants and their management for all landscaping needs on the State's extensive highway network.

Strengthening Partnerships By Beth Freiday The NJFO has been assisting the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurt (JBMDL) with inventorying the avian communities using habitat on the Joint Base. In May 2017 staff initiated the first of four grassland breeding bird surveys. The Grassland habitat at the McGuire portion of JBMDL. McGuire portion of JBMDL is changing its mowing regime; therefore, the NJFO is assisting with documenting the potential impacts to breeding birds. Staff documented five breeding pairs of upland sandpiper, as state endangered bird in New Jersey. Other imperiled grassland breeding birds that were documented include bobolink, Eastern meadowlark, grasshopper sparrow, savannah sparrow, horned lark and northern harrier.

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Bog Turtle By Alicia Protus On May 26, Alicia Protus assisted state partners at the NJDEP with bog turtle surveys at Assunpink WMA. Several spotted turtles and one new bog turtle (see photograph) were found during survey efforts and were fixed with 2-year radio transmitters. The NJDEP will be installing a wildlife passage tunnel beneath a well-used, paved roadway that bisects the management area. The turtles will be tracked to as part of a monitoring study to understand turtle movements on-site pre- and post-installation of the wildlife passage tunnel.

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Hispanic Access Foundation By Eric Schrading Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) intern Maribel Juarez was a summer intern with the Service at the NJFO. Maribel also worked at Forsythe NWR and the Delaware Bay office this summer. She is going into her senior year as an undergraduate student at Rowan University in southern New Jersey. A biology major, Maribel recently changed her emphasis from work in the medical field to ecological studies. Her goal is to learn about protecting the environment and bringing that knowledge home to southern New Jersey where she lives. Maribel assisted with horseshoe crab surveys/tagging and attended a stakeholder meeting for a dam removal project.

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Success after removal of the Hughesville Dam By Cathy Marion American shad have returned to the Musconetcong River in Hunterdon and Warren counties, NJ, after an absence of at least a century. This historic milestone is due to the removal of the two lowermost dams on the Musconetcong River several years ago, followed by the removal of the next upstream Hughesville Dam last year. These projects, spearheaded by the “Musconetcong River Restoration Partnership”, a group of federal, state, and non-profit partners, opened nearly six miles of the Musconetcong to migratory fish. The return of shad was reported earlier this month by anglers who, while fishing for trout, spotted small schools of American shad above the former Hughesville Dam. State fisheries biologists confirmed the angler reports with the electrofishing capture of four shad, followed by underwater videography of larger schools of fish. The USFWS and NJ Department of Environmental Protection plan to extend dam removal efforts further upstream to the Warren Glen Dam. Dam removals have been funded, in part, through the USFWS Partners and NRDAR Programs.