Wildlife
Purpose Explore the diverse habitats in the Barnegat Bay watershed that provide wildlife with all their basic needs – food to eat, water to drink, shelter and protection from weather and predators, and places to raise their families. Understanding the natural spaces that wildlife depend on can provide inspiration for your Jesey-Friendly Schoolyard. Standard Action […]
Step 7: Create Wildlife Habitat
Purpose
Explore the diverse habitats in the Barnegat Bay watershed that provide wildlife with all their basic needs – food to eat, water to drink, shelter and protection from weather and predators, and places to raise their families. Understanding the natural spaces that wildlife depend on can provide inspiration for your Jesey-Friendly Schoolyard.
Why It’s Important
The Barnegat Bay watershed contains a diversity of habitats, including barrier islands and coastal dune scrub, salt marsh, tidal wetlands, maritime forest, pine barrens, oak woodlands, freshwater wetlands, and more. This diversity of plant life supports a diversity of animal life. You can attract and support a wide array of animals by creating a Jersey-Friendly Schoolyard that mimics our natural world. Visit Step 7: Create Wildlife Habitat on the Jersey-Friendly Yards website for more tips, tools, and resources.
Standard Action
7A: Learn about habitats and wildlife in the Barnegat Bay watershed.
Provide lessons about the variety of habitats found in the Barnegat Bay watershed and the diversity of wildlife inhabiting them.
Curricula and General Resources about Barnegat Bay Habitats and Wildlife
- Barnegat Bay Partnership’s Resources for Educators & Available Curricula, Lesson Plans, and Teaching Resources (AG)
- Barnegat Bay Partnership’s Species Field Guide (AG)
- Ocean County Soil Conservation District’s Discovering Barnegat Bay Curriculum
- New Jersey Audubon’s curricula (AG)
- Bridges to the Natural World (AG)
- Fishing for Answers in an Urban Estuary (UE, MS)
- ReClam the Bay’s Shellfish in the Classroom (AG)
- NJDEP’s Trout in the Classroom (AG)
- NJDEP’s Project Wild and Aquatic WILD (AG)
- National Project WET (AG)
- NJDEP’s Project Learning Tree (AG)
- Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ – Educating for Wildlife Protection (AG)
- New Jersey Pinelands Commission – Online Curriculum Project (AG)
- Pinelands Preservation Alliance – Up Close and Natural Curriculum (AG)
- National Project WILD
7B: Attract and support wildlife in your schoolyard.
Invite students to make observations of your schoolyard and determine what wildlife species lives there. Add some features to your schoolyard that will support basic needs of wildlife, such as food, water, and places to rest and raise young. Suggestions include:
- Appropriate food sources such as fruit and seed-bearing plants, shrubs and trees.
- Places for wildlife to raise a family and materials to build a nest (this may include a variety of plant types, such as grasses, ferns, vines, perennials, shrubs and trees).
- Feeders for hummingbirds and feeders for seed-eating birds.
- Places for birds and wildlife to shelter from the weather or predators (this may include trees and shrubs or brush piles.
RESOURCES FOR SUPPORTING WILDLIFE IN YOUR SCHOOLYARD
- National Wildlife Federation – Schoolyard Habitat
- National Wildlife Federation – Certified Wildlife Habitat
- NJ Audubon Gardening for Wildlife
