fire restoration Archives

*Bill Haines,* left, *the owner of Pine Island Cranberry Company, and Jimmy Sloan, right, of N.J. Fish and Wildlife, release wild quail onto Pine Island property in Chatsworth, New Jersey. Photo: John Parke/N.J. Audubon*

Fire has returned to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, and with it the fire birds that disappeared in the 1980s because of habitat loss.

New Jersey Audubon started reintroducing bobwhite quail to a Pine Island cranberry farm in 2015, toting the birds to their new home from Georgia.

The migrants built and populated nests later that year, and more reintroductions followed. Now Bill Haines, the farm’s owner, has been awarded the National Fire Bird Conservation Award from the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. [Read more…]