Herald & Lantern 25 July '84 57 •

Ugh! If you are eating breakfast or lunch, turn the page. We are going to discuss cold, slimy, and squiggly stuff here. Snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, and salamanders are everywhere around us At times, it seems that federal and state governments are consumed with their well-being. Studies are conducted, habitat requirements are debated, and projects worth millions are redesigned to protect "threatened or endangered species." Who are these nasty creatures, and what's all the fuss about? I MET MY first threaten- - ed species of the Pinelands j at Mt. Misery in BurlingUmC County. A biologist 'who V was to be interviewed (or. a position on the Pineldnd$^' Commission staff arrived in his car bearing a present. From a bag he produced a northern pine snake that he "just happened to find" down the road. The interview waa-short, and the biologist1 was * hired. In return, be released the snake and it slithered away. [ / In the northeastern United States, the northern pine-^nake.is found only in the pine Barrens of New Jersey. It is typically white with blotches of black from head to tail. Pine snakes * tend to inhabit sandy upland areas in pine woods. Snake aficionados consider them to be quite good looking. Many areas which were prime habitat for this threatened woodland creatufe have been destroyed by development. THE TIMBER rattlesnake is one of only two poisonous snakes to be found in New Jersey. Interestingly, it is found in two very different areas — the rocky ledges of northern New Jersey's mountains and scattered flat and sandy portions of the : Pinelands. The rattlesnake is en- 1 dangered in the state. It | tends to avoid areas utilized by people and won't hurt i you unless molested. Two i major reasons for its < decline Jn numbers have s been the loss of viable p habitat from development e

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Postcard rr*|^ The Pines By Terrence D. Moore, Executive Director of the New jersey Pinelands Commission.

and the accidental or intentional killing of these snakes by humans. The corn snake is also endangered. Its name is derived from the fact that it was often found in corn fields or com cribs, where it fed on small rodents. In New Jersey we find it only in portions of Ocean, Burlingjon, and Cumberland ^-edunties. i IT IS A very secretive .^yfnimal and nests in ^ ^underground rodent bur- i Vows and stump holes. The ./corn snake's decline has been due to its popularity among snake collectors and the destruction of its habitat by development. There are other snakes in the Pinelands that haven't made the threatened and endangered list — yet. Along with the rough green, northern scarlet, northern red bellied, eastern ribbon and northern water snakes are two of my favorites — the easterjj hognose snake and the eastern kingsnake. The eastern hognose snake distinguishes itself by rarmgup in a cobra-like imitation when disturbed. The interesting thing about the eastern ■ kingsnake is the translation of its Latin name, which is "shining shield of the people of^ Morocco" Perhaps a reader can ex- i plain the reasoning behind i the Latin name for the i eastern kingsnake. FROGS AND toads are a i little easier to tolerate, I i think. Some even find them ! to be cute. They may be as I common as fowlers toad. I These ground dwellers in- I vade my backyard each < with what seems I like a strange desire to force themselves into the i garage i If you hear a hammering I noise in the distance there I a good chance that a < carpenter frog is the > Peepers sound like t t A duck-like sound in the z evening, however, might i you to the grand prize, \ the Pine Barrens tree frog. i The Pinelands contains the s northernmost and largest f population known to exist. f Even so, it is endangered in t New Jersey. THE PINE Barrens i treefrog breeds in wetland 1 areas and then disappears \ for the rest of the year. No « one knows where this 1>£ « inch symbol of the New p Jersey Pinelands resides in F nonbreeding periods. £ t

Studies are currently underway to find the answer. ( Many\of the previously known breeding locations for this treefrog have given way t o \h o u s i n g developments and recreational land use. Insecticide spraying and the use of defoliants along roads and power liries have also I destroyed their habitat i The importance of pro- | tecting the threatened and i endangered species of the

I Pinelands, whether they be I snakes or treefrogs, is not merely that they are few in I number and because of ! I that, worthy of saving. , Their presence also indicates that the Pinelands j itself is surviving. Finding a colony of Pine Barrens treefrogs, for example, indicates that the wetland area in which they are oreeding is relatively pristine. The treefrog s presence means that other elements of a healthy Pinelands environment are ! also doing well. Not findmg the treefrog, the corn snake, the timber rattler, and the northern pine snake means it's too late. Next time: Wetlands

Sufficient Regulations [ (From Page 66) £ I Laboratory, scheduled to OF>en this summer, will permit 1 the department to intensify its biological control efforts. z This combination of judicious pesticide use, along with i natural insect predators helps reduce the levels of z pesticide in the environment — a practice strongly r favored by farmers, if only from an economic standpoint. 1 The chemicals are costly and the profit margin in farm- v ing is too small to squandor money. Farmers, like most of f us. are concerned with the quality of the environment, with their health and with the well-being of their families, p their neighbors and their employes. r However, they know that providing adequate food sup>- 1: plies requires a combination of chemical and biological t controls. The agriculture community recognizes the risks, f the same faced with the use of any chemicals — from p medicines to household cleaners. o But, it also realizes the dangers of fostering a climate of d fear and anxiety among the citizens of New Jersey, p Rather, it favors a rational approach — one which strikes o a balance between safety and the preservation of. a n healthy, abundant, high-quality food supply. A / x)

I County Library , by Kathleen Duffy I i_ '

"A popular delusion widely prevalent holds that books are inanimate, ineffective, peaceful objects. According to this curious misconception, books are full of impractical theory and of slight significance for the hardheaded man of affairs." "Throughout history, the evidence is piled high that books, rather than being futile, harmless and innocent, are frequently dynamic, vital things, capable of changing the entire direction of events — sometimes for good, sometimes for ill." "IN THE dictators of every era is found a shrewd insight into the potentialities of books. Whenever and wherever tyrants and authoritarian regimes have wanted to opposition and to ideas, their first thought, almost Invariably, has been to destroy books of contrary view, and oftentimes their authors." •, Robert B. Downs, author of the above sentiments has written an interesting little entitled. Books That Changed th$ World. The criterion for inclusion of a work was "a great and continuing imp>act on human thought and action, not for single nation but for a major segment of the world" The books are representatives of the social sciences and science and cover the period the Renaissance to the mid -20th Century. THE TITLES discussed include Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, which inspects the anatomy of pwwer pojjfies and separates ethics from politics. "A guidebook for princes (or, as some have said, a manual for tyrants) instruct them in how to gain and to hold power — power not for the ruler's sake, however, but for the good of the people . " Common Sense by Thomas Paine, political agitator, revolutionist, and until he reached America, frustrated failure in endeavors, whose onasset upx>n emigration as a letter of introductioR Benjamin Franklin. This 47-page pamphlet, priced at two shillings, was read by virtually every pjerson in the thirteen colonies, and was the document to use the phrase "The United States of America". This one document helped to precipitate the Declaration of Independence and other momentous events of the Revolution.

NOT AS exciting as Com - mon Sense, but a book of profound repercussions was Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. "Far more than a mere economic treatise, it has been called "a history and criticism of all Euorpean civilization ..it shaped the whole landscape of life as we live it today." Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population and Das Kapital, major book of Karl Marx, the prop>het of the proletariat, are also included and discussed. Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, one of the most extreme radical manifestoes in American history and "the most outspoken doctrine of resistance ever penned on this continent, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin are representative of American writing with world imp>act. The ^ Influence of Sea Power Upon History by Alfred T. Mahan, The Geographical Pivot of History by Sir Haford J. MacKinder and Me in Kampf by Adolf Hitler are further representatives of world-forming social science publications. Representing the world of science is Nicolaus Copjernicus's De Revolu t i o n i b u s O r b i u m Coelestium . William Harvey's De Motu Cordis. which was the dawn of scientific medicine, Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica. Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species, Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams and Albert Eins tein's Relativity, the Special and General Theories. All such lists are somewhat arbitrary, but I mention this list comprised by Downs to encourage those who want to digest ideas and read something with some depth.

18l 18 Dor is Ward STILL TOGETHER — Mr. and Mrs. Charles Helms of North Wild wood were honored last week on their 61st wedding anniversary. Reception was held at the home of Clara Foster of Cape May Court House. The Helmses were married in Elkton, Md., and are the parents of three children, 10 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. They enjoy crocheting, cards and making hooked rugs which the frequently donate to organizations.

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