For today’s Fun Fact Friday, we’re switching things up and featuring someone whose efforts played a central role in how many of us experience the Jersey Shore. This is Joe Jacobs, whose groundbreaking work with Ospreys became a model for conservation of the species and helped establish the importance of Cedar Island, leading to its protection by New Jersey’s Green Acres program.
Jacobs was a member of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, the New Jersey Audubon Society, and the Eastern Bird Banders Association. His long history of Osprey research and banding in and around Avalon provided clear evidence of the site’s importance as a breeding ground for the Ospreys. He pioneered the use of Osprey platforms to provide pairs with stable nest sites and encourage nesting birds to return to this area. His legacy lives on in the many Osprey platforms you can see dotting the South Jersey marshes – which provide homes for 75 percent of the state’s Osprey population, and are absolutely crucial to their survival.
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