It is simply amazing to me that so many green places still continue to exist, all within a 50 mile radius of New York City. Having grown up on the Jersey side of the Hudson, I’ve heard my state regularly maligned as consisting mostly of smokestacks and asphalt. It makes for clever one-liners, no doubt; you can’t help but smile (even while you curse the traffic jam you happen to be stewing in) but, you know, it simply isn’t true.
Take The Great Swamp, for instance. It’s a protected area administered by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Barely 26 miles from Times Square, it consists of 7,600 acres of varied habitats and has become home to literally hundreds of species of birds and animals. Thousands of plant varieties make the refuge a lung for this highly populated region.
As the name implies, much of the area consists of wetlands with its own unique semi-aquatic vegetation which is lush and green in the summer and starkly somber in winter. Each season here has its own particular charm. There is a series of well-maintained boardwalks that give the visitor a chance to enjoy this unique habitat without having to muddy his boots. There are also biking, hiking and waking trails.
Some years back, developers wanted to drain the swamp and build an airport there. The local population - not without political influence and financial clout - rose up and successfully lobbied against the project. As a result, it was decided that the already existing airport in Newark should be enlarged - and another wilderness area was saved.
The animal population in the swamp routinely spills over into the surrounding suburbs. For people living there, it is not unusual to see fox, deer, rabbits, turtles and wild turkeys in their yards. Deer alone are so prolific, a hunt is held annually in an effort to control the population. This invariably brings animal rights protestors out, but logic does seem to suggest that if the animal populations are not controlled in some way, many will go outside the refuge in search of food where they are likely to become traffic fatalities.
The Great Swamp is primarily known for bird watching. There are hundreds of bird species who use it to rest and feed during their annual migrations. Sound-proof bird blinds have been built for the patient birder to observe his often elusive prey.
Curiously, on a recent trip to wilds of Vermont, we saw almost no wildlife – not even a squirrel. I asked the locals about it. They simply shrugged and joked, “The animals, it seems, have all packed up and gone down to New Jersey,” they would say. I have yet to hear a plausible explanation for why this should be so.
Located on 16 acres adjacent to the Great Swamp is The Raptor Trust. This is where injured birds are mended and cared for until they can be released back into the wild. It is a privately funded enterprise and is open to visitors who wish to see owls, hawks, vultures, eagles as these are recuperating from some unfortunate accident. A small donation may be asked for at the gate. For directions and additional information, check out their web site:
http://www.funsprouts.com/raptor_trust.htm.
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