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Southern New England
(Area - 4,425,100 ha)
Description - The Southern New England physiographic area covers parts of
northern New Jersey, southern New York including Long Island, the majority of Connecticut,
all of Rhode Island, most of eastern Massachusetts, the southeastern corner of New
Hampshire, and south-coastal Maine. This area has experienced the greatest amount of
urbanization of any part of the Northeast, including the entire Boston-to-New York City
corridor. Urbanization and associated human activities severely threaten remaining
high-priority habitats, especially maritime marshes and dunes, relict grasslands, and
mature deciduous forests. Forest fragmentation, which is not a major issue in most parts
of the Northeast, is a severe factor threatening forest bird populations. Currently, urban
land covers roughly one-third of the physiographic area, with an additional 25 % of the
region in agricultural production, primarily in the Connecticut River Valley, eastern Long
Island, and northern New Jersey. Remaining forests are a mixture of oak-hickory and other
hardwoods, white pine-red pine forest, and pine-oak woodlands or barrens.
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Conservation recommendations and needs - In addition to many local threats to remaining breeding-bird habitats, this area contains numerous critical stopover sites for landbirds and shorebirds. The total value of these sites has not been fully assessed yet, and conservation strategies for priority species during stopover lag behind those for breeding species. Intensive studies and surveys of salt-marsh sparrows are ongoing in this region, as are complete inventories of grassland habitats, and an atlas of present Cerulean Warbler populations. Many important forested sites are privately owned, but state forest and “reservations” will contribute greatly to sustaining populations of priority forest birds, especially in Massachusetts. New York’s Important Bird Areas program has identifies key sites on Long Island and is developing conservation strategies for these sites. Specific conservation recommendations for this physiographic area include:
• complete intensive survey and monitoring for high-priority species to identify most important areas in need of protection;
• identify and designate Bird Conservation Areas (BCA), within which long-term sustainability of priority bird populations is a primary management objective;
• protect and restore coastal wetland habitats to enhance breeding and wintering populations of American Black Duck and ensure long-term sustainability of marsh sparrow populations;
• protection and management of remaining mature forests to maximize benefits to Cerulean Warbler; e.g., preserve tallest trees, encourage maturing of canopy species, prevent fragmentation of existing forests;
• identify critical sites for migration stopover; integrate habitat objectives into local land-use planning and outreach efforts (Cape May model).
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