Important conservation news for NJ, PA, NY, and everyone in general:
From the article:
"Bobcats’ conservation status was recently downgraded from “endangered” to “threatened” in the state, but their future is not yet secure. They are isolated in the state’s northwest corner by three virtually impassable interstate highways—I-78, I-80 and I-287.
Bobcats are solitary animals that need large, connected habitats to hunt and find water and mates. One cat that Fowles fitted with a GPS tracking collar ranged over 10 square miles.
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At least 127 terrestrial wildlife species could benefit from the Bobcat Alley and CHANJ initiatives, from black bears, porcupines and red foxes to wood turtles, timber rattlesnakes and Jefferson salamanders.
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New Jersey built two of the nation’s first wildlife crossings back in the 1980s, shortly after the newly completed Interstate 78 sliced through the 2,000-acre Watchung Reserve: Two wildlife bridges reconnected forest isolated by the new highway. Then, in 2015, NJDEP developed under-the-road solutions, dubbed “critter tunnels,” that use tall roadside fencing to guide animals to safe underpasses."
We've seen the proof, over and over again, worldwide: wildlife crossings WORK. If we build them, animals will use them. Getting them built requires people to vote for the legislators and programs that will continue conservation work - work which we can never, ever afford to stop.
Fifty years ago bobcats vanished from New Jersey. Wildlife scientists reintroduced them, but to survive a changing climate and increasing ur
