New Jersey’s Bog Turtle Restoration Program Is Selected for Grant From US Fish and Wildlife Service

Private Stewardship Grant Funds Will Help Local Landowners and Communities Protect Their Endangered Species

CHESTER, NJ—September 14, 2005—The Nature Conservancy today announced that Trident Environmental Consultants will receive nearly $30,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Private Stewardship Grant program for a project of partnership with The Nature Conservancy to protect bog turtles.

The Conservancy and its partners at Trident Environmental Consultants will use the funds to protect bog turtles using a number of strategies. In particular, they plan to enhance and restore 34 acres of degraded bog turtle sites in northern New Jersey. Restoration includes removal of invasive plants and other vegetation that is destroying wetland habitat the bog turtle needs to survive.

Once abundant throughout New Jersey, the bog turtle is now a globally-rare species that has declined range-wide due to the destruction and deterioration of its fragile wetland habitat. Illegal collection for the pet trade is also believed to be a major cause of its population decline. This palm-sized turtle was placed on the federal list of threatened species in 1997 and has been considered endangered in New Jersey since 1974. One of its last strongholds in the Northeast (nearly 50% of known remaining populations) is found in New Jersey’s Skylands, particularly Sussex and Warren counties.

“This is an example of how successful we can be when private landowners, local communities, private groups like the Conservancy and the government work together to protect the special plants and animals we care about that live on private lands,” said Barbara Brummer, Ph.D., executive director, The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey.

“We’re delighted to partner with Trident Environmental Consultants to protect bog turtle habitat in the Skylands. This funding from USF&W will help us protect this fragile species,” added Tom Wells, director of government relations, The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey.

The Private Stewardship Grants Program is one of several grants programs administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Private Stewardship grants announced today are part of the Department of Interior’s announcement of more than $32 million in cost-share grants that will help fund on-the-ground conservation projects in 49 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

A component of Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton’s “Cooperative Conservation
Initiative,” Private Stewardship Grants provide funding to private landowners to support conservation actions for imperiled species on private lands.

Later this month, the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency are co-hosting the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference will highlight outstanding examples of successful conservation partnerships and provide a forum for discussion of future conservation opportunities.

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Within New Jersey, the Conservancy has protected over 56,000 acres and has completed almost 400 conservation transactions with the help of more than 26,000 individual members, as well as corporate sponsors and foundations. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/New Jersey.