Building Bobcat Alley
Once nearly extinct in New Jersey, bobcats are trying to make a comeback. To survive, they need room to roam.
Key Takeaways
- Bobcats are on the threatened species list in New Jersey and what they need most right now is room to roam.
- The Nature Conservancy is protecting critical habitat for these native wild felines by connecting preserved land between two great mountain ranges: the Appalachians and the Highlands.
- TNC and our partners aim to protect 500,000 acres in Bobcat Alley by 2050.
Bobcats Without Borders
In 2014, The Nature Conservancy launched an ambitious initiative to build Bobcat Alley, a protected wildlife corridor that provides state-endangered bobcats and other wildlife space to move between the Kittatinny and Highlands ridges within New Jersey’s Appalachian Mountains.
The project is critical for safeguarding a habitat stronghold within our own small and heavily populated state, which is under constant pressure of landscape fragmentation from roads and development. And further, it is of outsized importance on a continental level, as a migratory pinch point along the Appalachians that connects forested migratory routes between Central and Northern sections of the range.
We know that many species live and migrate through the Bobcat Alley region. Studies also show that plants and animals are moving 11 miles northward and 36 feet upslope every decade in response to changing environmental conditions, and that the Appalachians are a resilient refuge where this occurs.
Help Protect New Jersey Bobcats
Bobcats are New Jersey’s last remaining wild cats. Once nearly extinct in our state—and still threatened here—they are trying to make a comeback. What these elusive cats need most right now is room to roam.
Wildlife of Bobcat Alley
It's more than just bobcats in Bobcat Alley! Meet a few of the many species live and migrate through the Bobcat Alley region. These images were all captured in Bobcat Alley by iconic photographer NatGeo Steve Winter.
Black Bear: Black Bear in New Jersey's Bobcat Alley. © Steve Winter
Fox: A fox in New Jersey's Bobcat Alley. © Steve Winter
Coyote: A coyote in New Jersey's Bobcat Alley © Steve Winter
Raccoon: A raccoon in New Jersey's Bobcat Alley © Steve Winter
Quote: Eric Olsen
Protecting and connecting high quality habitat in New Jersey’s Appalachians is existentially important for biodiversity to persist.
The Appalachians: Nature's Superhighway
More than 400 million years ago, natural forces conspired to make the Appalachians one of the most resilient, diverse and productive places on Earth. This ancient chain of forested mountains, valleys, wetlands and rivers spans roughly 2,000 miles from Alabama to Canada. Bobcat Alley is a small but mighty component of this landscape.
Branching Out in Bobcat Alley
Since 2013, TNC has been leading land protection efforts in Bobcat Alley, a 96,000- acre habitat stronghold in New Jersey’s section of the Appalachian Mountain range. The forested corridor runs between and along the Kittatinny Ridge and southern portions of the Highlands, connecting more than 230,000 acres of preserved public lands including the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Stokes State Forest, Allamuchy Mountain State Park, Pequest Wildlife Management Area, and expansive natural areas in neighboring New York and Pennsylvania. Bobcat Alley is critical not only as a home range for New Jersey’s iconic wildlife, it also plays an outsized role for species migration in eastern North America.
Our ambitious goal is to conserve an additional 10,000 acres in the area by 2030 so that 40% (about 40k acres) of these most important lands are locked in as connected green space. So far, with the help of our partners and supporters, we have protected more than 2,600 of those 10,000 acres. There is much more to be done, and the work has taken on even greater meaning as we advocate for New Jersey to preserve 500,000 acres (about 50% of remaining land) by 2050.
Updated Land Priorities
Now, recognizing the magnitude of Bobcat Alley’s significance to biodiversity in eastern North America, we are reimagining the project’s scope, tripling its planned size to more than 96,000 acres.
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Bobcat Bridge
Bobcat Alley’s original 32,000-acre habitat bridge between the mountain ridges contains limestone forests, cold-water streams and rock outcrops that provide hallmark conditions for charismatic fauna like state-endangered bobcats and bog turtles. Animals moving along the Appalachian Mountain range need the connectivity at Bobcat Bridge to access protected land in other states and mix with other populations within their species to ensure genetic diversity.
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The Kittatinny Ridge
Large, mature and undisturbed forests along this mountainous span in northwestern New Jersey are prime habitat for roaming species like black bears and red foxes, and for neotropical birds like cerulean warblers. The woodlands’ unique geological features support hemlock, oak, pine and rare plants like the Hammond’s yellow spring beauty, which grows nowhere else in the world.
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The Southern Highlands
The Southern New Jersey Highlands have already been touched by development and remain vulnerable to fragmentation from housing and construction. The Southern Highlands contain important intact stands of oak, beech, maple and hickory where gray foxes, barred owl and river otter thrive. The forests protect drinking water for most residents of northern New Jersey, and the Pequest and Musconetcong Rivers, which are stronghold habitats for brook trout, New Jersey’s state fish and only native trout.
