Stockton Biodiversity

Blake Beyer, an Environmental Science graduate and botany enthusiast, takes us on a tour of Stockton University’s greenhouse.

While delivering an injured turtle to the campus Animal Care Facility for rehabilitation, Beyer met Christine Schairer, an employee of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics who oversees the greenhouse and its operations. Beyer soon began working at the Greenhouse to cultivate his passion for plants and share his knowledge with students and visitors.

Watch the complete tour on YouTube.

A Gallery of Images

The #2015bestnine from Stockton’s natural world. Looking forward to exploring more in 2016 📷🌲🐿🐝🍄🐛🐟🕸🐺

A photo posted by Stockton Biodiversity (@stocktonbiodiversity) on Dec 31, 2015 at 3:17pm PST

Sunken crab traps severed from their buoy lifelines, often called ghost pots, slowly corrode in the saline waters and haunt the muddy floors of Atlantic coastal bays as they continue to trap sea life and pose threats to boaters.

After a successful two-year, NOAA-funded marine debris removal project to recover ghost pots, NOAA has awarded Stockton University additional funding to expand the project and provide sonar training to local crabbers to prevent further losses of crab traps over the next two years.

Stockton’s Marine Science Field Station and crabbers from the community recovered 1,166 ghost pots, weighing in at 7.89 metric tons, from the Mullica River Great Bay Estuary from 2012 to 2014.

A total of $241,597 will support Stockton’s expanded marine debris removal and prevention program beginning this November. About half of the total was granted by NOAA with the other half being an in-kind match by Stockton.

Stockton’s crabbing partners, faculty, staff, undergraduate students and Jacques Cousteau Reserve volunteers work at the university’s Marine Field Station on its annual crab pot processing day last year, where derelict crab pots collected by participating crabbers are returned to the crabbing community or broken down for recycling. Credit: Stockton University

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Nature enthusiasts and members of the community gathered at a back light with Stockton’s resident entomologist, Dr. Jamie Cromartie, to explore nighttime nature during National Moth Week.

A healthier forest with less chance of catastrophic fire over time is an aspect Stockton researchers will study as the second phase of the Stockton Forest Management Plan begins.

A cut-to-length tree harvester, operated by Colin McLaughlin of Advanced Forestry Solutions based in Pittsgrove, NJ, cut down selected trees in the woods off Vera King Farris Drive on June 30. Trees are being removed from Stockton’s woods over the coming weeks under the university’s Forest Management Plan, which is the state’s first comprehensive stewardship plan on public land within the region.

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Four fuzzy killdeer chicks dashed across the I-wing gymnasium’s pebble rooftop in every direction on May 8. The chicks hatched from their rooftop nest—a shallow depression scraped into the stones—the previous day.

With limited food and no source of fresh water on the roof, the chicks, still unable to fly, would not survive. Killdeer parents do not feed their young.

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Stockton University began active management of its more than 1,500-acre forest today to protect and restore its Pinelands forest ecosystem from threats such as the encroaching Southern pine beetle and to cultivate a future of enhanced education, recreation and healthy habitat for wildlife.

Fire was returned to the forest system during a prescribed burn conducted by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service along Delaware Avenue. Another burn weather-permitting will take place next week along Duerer Street. Years of fire suppression resulting in dense turf on the forest floor has prevented pine seedlings from sprouting and beginning a new generation of trees, Stockton’s Forest Plan explained.

The university’s stewardship plan is the state’s first comprehensive forest management plan on public land within the Pinelands region and was developed by Robert Williams, of Pine Creek Forestry, a certified forester with 40 years of experience who was hired by the university as a consultant. The Pinelands Commission approved the 10-year plan.

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Ospreys return to New Jersey this month. According to the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey’s blog, “In New Jersey, ospreys arrive on breeding grounds in late March, usually to the same nests each year, meaning they have a high level of site fidelity. Older more experienced birds arrive first, especially males. Ospreys mate for life and are monogamous. Pairs begin courtship and nest building in early April.”