Wildlife

Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge was established to conserve and enhance populations of wildlife and their habitats, to protect and enhance water quality, and to provide opportunities for wildlife-dependent recreation and research. The refuge conserves the biological diversity of the Wallkill Valley by protecting and managing land, with a special emphasis on forest-dwelling and grassland birds, migrating waterfowl, wintering raptors, and endangered species. The North American Waterfowl Management Plan identifies the Wallkill River bottomlands as a priority focus area for waterfowl management within New Jersey.

Jenna and I took a walk on the Wood Duck Nature Trail in the Wallkill River National Wildlife refuge this afternoon.  I told her that I wanted to walk for at least 40 minutes.  The next thing I knew, we were at the end of the trail, 40 minutes had passed, and we still had to walk back.  I commented on the difference between walking by oneself and with another person, how when I am by myself, I am aware of the time, but when I am with someone else, it passes by without my even being aware of it.  She responded with a reprimand by Henry David Thoreau, who felt that he was not one with nature unless he was alone within it.

And that's true.  I might have been more observant if I'd been by myself.  But I relished the company of this daughter who will be returning to her home in Vermont in two days.

As for wildlife, other than a few birds, we didn't see too much wildlife.  But we knew it was there, as we passed a beaver dam, several nests in the scrub bushes, a duck blind, and all the posted signs informing us of whose habitat this actually was.  We were winter intruders in a world that did not belong to us.

The stark beauty of this wildlife refuge, the lowering winter sun, the gradual insistence of ice . . . it was peaceful and deliberate.  This is a place to which I will return.  By myself, but with the companionship of the hidden wildlife that calls it home.  And with the memory of an afternoon stroll with someone I love.