Collaborative research on trends in biodiversity in the NJ Pine Barrens

Background/Question/Methods

Richard Stockton College of New Jersey was founded in 1971; its founding documents emphasize stewardship of the Pine Barrens environment on the college’s thousand acre campus. Over the past 40 years, however, “stewardship” has been subject to varying interpretations. The faculty and students of the Environmental Studies Program, which also began in 1971, have asked the question, has the campus retained its integrity as a Pine Barrens ecosystem? The answer has been sought through collaborative studies across multiple disciplines and at all levels of the curriculum, from freshman general education to senior independent research. Our approach is comparative and allows us to assess the extent to which Stockton’s campus retains its pinelands character. We have original campus ecology surveys, along with studies done by students and faculty in the early years. Since then, we have surveyed flora and fauna, investigated environmental change and planned for preservation and restoration of campus biodiversity. We have collaborated with researchers from other institutions, most prominently the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, on studies of areas in the heart of the Pine Barrens that best represent its ecological character.

Results/Conclusions

The effects of forty years of continued fire suppression, a region-wide phenomenon, are evident at Stockton. This is being addressed through a forest management plan, which we hope will begin to be implemented soon. Of the portions of the campus that were active or abandoned agriculture in 1971, some are developing as typical pinelands old fields, but others contain a variety of exotic species, only some of which were present in 1971. The college has not chosen to follow the landscaping recommendations in the original master plan, and this has resulted in a further replacement of pinelands species with non-natives, with increases in geese and deer populations and reductions in resources for native pollinators, etc. The lake and the streams are also showing changes towards conditions typical of developed watersheds in the region. It is difficult to establish unequivocally the loss of typical pinelands species, but the evidence suggests that this is gradually occurring among the plants, birds and insects. Working collaboratively, faculty and students have documented these changes and begun to develop management plans to protect and restore the campus ecosystem as a laboratory for the future and a model for stewardship in the Pine Barrens.