Spotlights

New Jersey, with its Outside, Together! partnership, wants your input as we update the State’s five-year Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. 

WASHINGTON (Jan. 5, 2023) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $500 million loan to the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank to modernize wastewater and drinking water systems serving over 10 million people throughout New Jersey.

Stop by the Johnson Education Center to enjoy thebeautiful pieces of art now on display.

Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program, Accepting applications until 1/16/2023

This guide provides information for native plant species beneficial to wildlife of the Coastal Plain region of New Jersey. These plants can be used to help establish wildlife habitat areas on your property. The plants are listed in the categories of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. In addition, environmental parameters for the use of these plants are identified in terms of soil moisture conditions, light preference and plant characteristics. Most of the plants in this guide are readily available from the nurseries and garden centers in this region.

The Jersey Shore is a seasonal home to several species of seals or pinnipeds during the late fall, winter, and early spring; sometimes even year-round as every so often a juvenile seal might be spotted during the summer. Seals are protected pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, meaning that it is illegal to harm or harass them.

In recognition of the 10th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, we pause to reflect and evaluate on how our state has become more resilient to environmental impacts, with an emphasis on storms and extreme weather. Join us for this webinar series as we learn from experts on how New Jersey has become more resilient.

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ has partnered with Union County to stream this falcon nest live from the roof of the County Courthouse in downtown Elizabeth, New Jersey!

D&R Greenway’s president and CEO Linda Mead invites the public to join D&R Greenway’s Garden Steward Lara Periard to celebrate the newly planted historic garden at Point Breeze and its first harvest season 

Since 2006, over 5.7 million bats have died from White Nose Syndrome, a devastating disease that destroys their wing tissue. Despite many inaccurate myths about bats, they are important providers of ecological services, particularly as insect pest managers. Please help us monitor bat populations in New Jersey by letting us know if you have an active bat colony on your property!

For about six centuries during a period called the Late Woodland Period (ca. A.D. 1000 A.D. -1600) the entire region now identified with New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, southern New York, and the northern portions of Delaware and Maryland, was the homeland of the ancestral Lenape and related tribes. 

Spend the morning with experienced birder Bob Leifeste and Rancocas naturalist Mary Belko looking for shorebirds staging along the beaches of Brigantine Island. Large flocks can be seen sometimes at this time of year. 

Queen Nur of New Jersey presents a collection of biographic vignettes highlighting outspoken African American women of the 19th Century, the period connecting the end of the American Revolution to the opening of the Wallace House as a museum 125 years ago. The Voices of Courage featured include Sojourner Truth, the activist embodying the Afro-Dutch heritage of old New Netherland in New York and New Jersey, alongside Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell, and Mary McCleod Bethune. This one-woman performance explores themes of courage and fortitude while revealing each heroine’s oratory style and the fashion of the period.

Take a moment to really look at one of your local streams. At first glance, it may look completely fine. But to the trained eye, it could be a very different situation. How can you tell? This FREE, one-morning/two-part training session will show you how to gain a better understanding of stream health!

Come stroll with local herbalist Reid Giacomarra as we look for native and non-native medicinal & edible plants of late summer! 

New Jersey is already experiencing severe flooding, especially in low-lying and vulnerable parts of the State. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and widespread, and development compounds the volume of stormwater runoff, causing strains and failures of water infrastructure, such as combined sewer overflows into city streets and homes. It is imperative that we take action to protect our infrastructure, environment and people. This webinar will help equip municipal employees and local leaders with the knowledge and resources to mitigate flooding by utilizing stormwater utilities and green infrastructure.

With support from the Climate Preparedness and Land Restoration Grant, Groundwork Elizabeth is collaborating with the City government and community groups to plant four microforests to address climate risks in formerly redlined neighborhoods and brownfield areas. 

The Belleville Public Library is so excited to welcome Lourdes Osorio for live presentation. A passionate gardener for close to 30 years, Lourdes enjoys gardening not only for beauty but to provide an eco-friendly sanctuary for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. 

Do you know about one of the oldest human-made structures in the Newark metropolitan area? Built by the Lenape people, the Passaic Fish Weir Complex was a series of at least sixteen low dams that once stretched over the lower twenty miles of the Passaic River to trap large quantities of shad fish. The weirs were in active use for millennia as well as through the early colonial time period. 

On July 26, 2022 the Associated Humane Societies welcomed four new animals, two tigers and two lions, to the Popcorn Park Animal Refuge, commemorating the 45th Anniversary of providing sanctuary for exotics, wildlife, and farm animals in need.

Join experts from the North American Butterfly Association as we walk the meadows of Bamboo Brook in search of late summer butterfly species!

Founded in 2014 by Jeff Quattrone, Library Seed Bank (LSB) changed the dynamics of free and open access to seeds by the public when he brought the concept of seed libraries to the southern New Jersey area. Seed libraries are collections of open-pollinated and heirloom seeds that are housed at public libraries, or any other public-facing entity. The seed packages are available for free to the public. 

Learn the basics of harvesting and germinating seeds! Jessica Miller, the founder of the Flagship Native Seed Library, will be sharing strategies for seed saving.

Join Darlene Nowak in checking out the many delightful flowers and ferns in the shady wooded wildflower garden!

Fascinated by fungi? Explore the local forest for gilled, pored, ridged, and toothed mushrooms with
naturalist David Alexander. We’ll learn their anatomy and create whimsical, yet realistic air-dry clay replicas of what we find.