Bald Eagle Site Cleanup in Camden

I was looking forward to this event in Camden (Camden County)-- a cleanup, and an important one, too! The cleanup site is right off Farragut Ave. near Petty's Island, the location of several bald eagle nests. Unfortunately, this area is a popular dump site-- bottles and trash littered the open space along with tires and construction debris deep in the forested area. Numerous ambassadors joined South Jersey Land & Water Trust (SJLWT) volunteer coordinator Mike Hogan and other members of the community to help keep this area clean for our protected species, the bald eagle!

Bald eagles can be found throughout the state of New Jersey, but they are an endangered species in NJ we need to protect with only 70 active nests throughout the state. The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey has a fantastic fact sheet on bald eagles to read up on their life cycle and threats to their species.

We worked until about noon after arriving around 9am, and we did a great job collecting over 100 tires, several bags of litter, and multiple truckbeds of construction debris. 

A glimpse of some of the litter, tires, and debris we collected (photo credit: Mike Hogan)

However, there is still more to be done. Please hold on to trash and recyclables until you reach a proper disposal receptacle-- don't litter your watershed! All our bodies of water are connected, so issues upstream will most definitely affect those downstream. This is our home, and I cannot stress that enough-- a thought to take with you!

A few of the Yr 14 ambassadors plus one amazing volunteer!