The diversity of birds in New Jersey’s Pinelands is similar now to what it was three decades ago, according to a new study.
The Pinelands, the largest habitat of its kind in the Northeast, has 299 species of birds, according to the Pinelands Biodiversity Study .
New Jersey lists 28 of them as threatened or endangered, the study says.
The Pinelands also has 850 species of plants, and many plant and animal communities there are globally rare, the study says.
Since about 30 years ago, many bird species have declined because of factors such as habitat destruction and degradation, pollution and climate change and greater competition from invasive species, the study says.
“The New Jersey Pinelands, however, is relatively insulated from such factors by strict regulations,” the study says. “In effect, the Pinelands have been spared much of the habitat destruction that has been rampant elsewhere.”
Researchers at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway conducted the study for the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection.