Crossley Preserve Cleanup Project--Volunteers Needed

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,154
4,258
Pines; Bamber area
This is a worthy cause if you can help. Make sure you email Bob Zappalorti if you are coming.

PS: Please set aside any comments about the Wharton Map regarding this one. It is important that people come together for this cause without rancor.

Volunteers Needed for a One Day Crossley Snake Conservation Clean-up Project

Dear Fellow Herpetologists and Naturalists:

If you read the late Karl Kauffeld’s book, Snakes and Snake Hunting, your familiar with the
chapter, Crossley Pines and Corns. The area is located in western Berkeley Township, Ocean
County, New Jersey. The area is also know as the Berkeley Triangle and/or the Davenport Basin.
Over the past several years the old railroad bed which is now a utility right-of-way (ROW), has
become a dumping ground for illegal trash. Most of the Crossley area is under the ownership and
protection of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust, New Jersey Audubon Society, Ocean County
Natural Lands Trust and/or Berkeley Township. This protected habitat is one of the few locations
in Ocean County that supports a population of the endangered, Corn Snake and threatened, Northern
Pine Snake. We have found snakes that had cuts and scars on the face and body from broken glass,
or other sharp objects that was dumped in their critical nesting and basking habitat.
To remedy this problem, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, the New Jersey Conservation
Foundation, Berkeley Township, New Jersey Audubon and Herpetological Associates (HA), has
organized an intensive clean-up and habitat management day on May 27, 2017, at 9:00 AM. We
seek volunteers with an interest in herpetology or natural history to join us to help with this major
clean-up effort.

We will meet at the end of Mule Road, at the junction of St. Maximilian Road and the JCP&L
ROW. People can park their cars in the church parking lot. We will start removing trash on the
eastern end of the ROW and work our way west to Township Line Road. We especially need
volunteers who have pick-up trucks and are willing to cart trash bags to one of the three trash
dumpster that will be parked at the end of the ROW.

HA will provide sandwiches for lunch, drinks and snacks, but bring your own drinks or lunch if you
wish. Please bring work gloves, rakes, shovels and trash bags if you have them, otherwise they will
be provided.

If you are willing to attend and help us with this conservation project, please reply to this e-mail or
call Bob Zappalorti at 609-618-0314 to confirm. If you have friends that you think would like to help us,please pass this message along to them. We hope to see you at the meeting place on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at 9:00 AM.

Thanks,
Bob Zappalorti

PS: if you want to send a reply via email, send me a private message....bobpbx
 
Last edited:
Feb 1, 2016
273
133
53
Camden County, NJ
This is a massive cleanup. As mentioned, those with four wheel drive vehicles (especially pickups) would be especially welcome. From speaking to others who are involved they are hoping to get at least 100 volunteers (or more) for this project. Many hands make light work. Federally endangered plants are onsite in addition to the snake species mentioned above. A great project. I hope to be there as well.
 
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