By David Wheeler

While the WILD NEW JERSEY blog is statewide, I personally live and work in Edison, arguably the prototype for sprawl and overdevelopment.  Yet there's another side to Central Jersey.

About a month ago, my organization, Edison Wetlands Association, recently moved into our new office at the Triple C Ranch within the Dismal Swamp Conservation Area.  It's been stunning to see so many wildlife species thriving in this natural oasis. 

Here's a sampling of our nature encounters since then - not on lengthy hikes or biota surveys, but in the day-to-day routine of work:

• Four snapping turtles, with our staff catching two feisty ones before letting them go again
• A green heron perched just overhead above a pond
• A young opossum caught trying to get into the community garden
• A stinkpot crossing a well-worn reptile trail from the Bound Brook to Turtle Pond
• A family of wild turkeys crossing a clearing in the woods
• A Bambi-like baby deer springing up in surprise during my quick walk across a marshy meadow area
• Over a dozen toads and frogs bounding out of a chain of puddles on a gravel road 
• Two northern water snakes and black rat snakes, seen near daily on a walk around our tiny Turtle Pond
• Regular great blue herons and snowy egrets stalking the shallows of Turtle Pond
• A raccoon scurrying across a road just before dusk
• Dozens of tiny baby painted turtles and red-eared sliders peeking their snouts above water
• A woodchuck nestled in the shoulder of a tree branch (I never saw one in a tree before)
• The air above the freshwater marsh seemingly filled on some days with the
  crisscrossing trails of cedar waxwings, tree swallows, and warblers.

Keep in mind, this is a month in Edison, New Jersey.  The city called "the stereotype of suburban New Jersey."  This area of Central Jersey has very little natural habitat left, but what is still here - the Dismal Swamp, or The Diz - is thriving.  Threats abound from every corner - new condo developments, ill-conceived truck highways, ATV destruction, littering - but nature isn't giving up easily.

With a little help from groups like Edison Wetlands Association and NY-NJ Baykeeper, The Diz and so many other places across New Jersey will not only survive, but recover.  The wilds of New Jersey can again become treasured attractions for children and families to enjoy nature close to home. 

(Photo courtesy of Melanie Worob, Edison Wetlands Association.)