If you’ve been out bushwhacking on the EcoPreserve, you might have come across a “trail camera” attached to a tree. The Ecopreserve is participating in Snapshot USA, a project coordinated by the Smithsonian Institution to get at least one location in all 50 states to monitor their wildlife populations through a network of motion detector “trail cameras” during the months of September and October, 2019. The EcoPreserve in NJ’s sole location. Students for the Principles of Natural Resource Management class have been assisting EcoPreserve Director Rick Lathrop and Land Steward Katie Russell in checking the cameras and downloading imagery. The imagery will then be uploaded to the eMammal database for a nationwide synthesis.

So far we have captured images of deer, fox, coyotes, squirrels, raccoons, skunk, turkeys and feral cats.