INTRODUCTION

The following report prepared by TNH Consulting of Rockaway, NJ, contains the results of a limited survey of vertebrate and some invertebrate species in Mountain Lakes Borough during late November and December, 2008.  It also contains a lists of all the vertebrate species--fish, reptiles and amphibians, birds, and mammals--known to occur historically or currently in the town, as well as a list of invertebrate butterflies and odonates.  This information was compiled from database searches, a few state sources, and unpublished material.

AREA DESCRIPTION

Mountain Lakes Borough is in central Morris County, bordered on Boonton Township on the north, Parsippany on the east and south, and Denville on the west.  It totals approximately 2.9 square miles in area; a little less than a third of this total is open water in the town's man-made lakes and ponds.  Historically, the site of present-day Mountain Lakes was cleared and farmed extensively by the early settlers.  It began to return to woodlands after the Civil War, when coal largely supplanted wood and charcoal for domestic and commercial purposes, and area forests began to regenerate.  The first houses were built after 1910; the area was extensively developed in the teens, 1920s, and 1930s, as a planned suburban community based around a number of recreational lakes.  It is now an older, almost entirely built-out suburb with large, mature deciduous trees and a number of undeveloped mature deciduous forested tracts of varying sizes, which have been preserved by the town or by deed restrictions.  There are four large forested tracts remaining in the borough.  These are Richard M.  Wilcox Park; Halsey A.  Frederick Memorial Park; the area bounded by Tower Hill Road, Laurel Hill Road, and Condit Road, referred to here as Tower Hill; and the area in the southeast corner of Mountain Lakes, bounded roughly by Route 46, the New Jersey Transit rail line, and Intervale Road.  The latter is referred to in the report as the Yorke Road forest. 

Geologically, Mountain Lakes is part of the Highlands Region, with its ancient gneissic rocks, ridges, and rugged glacial terrain.  The borough sits atop the Terminal Moraine, the area where the ice reached its southern limit in the Wisconsin Glaciation, less than 20,000 years ago.  Evidence of this most recent glaciation can be seen in the boulder fields, rock striations, recessional moraines, and large glacial erratics found in the town.  Plant species which occur here, and to a lesser extent animal species, are reflective of the glacial history and glacial soils of the area.

Habitats present in the borough include suburban (roads and roadsides, residences, mowed lawns and landscaped areas, athletic fields, commercial sites, paved areas); lacustrine (lake); palustrine (streamside); red maple swamp; marsh (uncommon); scrub-shrub (rare); mixed deciduous uplands; forested wetland; forested ecotones; and flooded woods and developing marsh caused by beavers.  There are a number of small microhabitats present: boggy spots with sphagnum moss, a ravine, seepage areas and seepage slopes, and intermittent streams.  A few amphibian species are of potential occurrence in some of these wetland habitats.  Other vertebrate wildlife present in the town is reflective of the larger habitats, and is representative of the Highlands region as a whole. 

SURVEY METHODS

A total of fifteen site visits were made between mid-November and December 23.  Areas covered included Wilcox and Halsey Frederick Parks, Tower Hill, the Yorke Road forest, and Mountain, Wildwood, Sunset, Crystal, and Birchwood Lakes.  A number of smaller ponds were also surveyed, as were smaller wooded tracts with vernal ponds; stream habitats; areas around the high school; and the remaining woods around the Lakeland Hills YMCA.  Because of the lateness of the season, the targets of most of the surveys were birds, but mammal tracks and signs, and potential areas for reptiles and amphibians, particularly vernal ponds, were also noted.  Mammals were identified on sight and by signs and tracks.  Recordings of Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, and Screech Owl were played at dusk on several days.  Owls will often respond to recordings of their calls, as will eastern coyote.  Other bird species were identified by binoculars or by their characteristic calls and flight notes.  Database records in the possession of the writer, compiled for this area of Morris County beginning in 1974, were consulted for occurrences within the borough or in its immediate vicinity.  Results of that search are presented after the survey results.. 

RESULTS OF NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2008 SURVEYS

Deer

Whitetail deer and their tracks and signs were observed throughout Mountain Lakes; in the larger wooded tracts and smaller ones, in athletic fields, occasionally crossing roads, and in yards and lawn areas.  However, compared to similar areas in surrounding Boonton Township, Denville, and Parsippany, the total number of deer is relatively small; perhaps as few as ten.  No road-killed animals were seen on Route 46 or near the Boulevard, and no deer remains were found in the woods.

The snowfall in late November and December made it relatively easy to roughly assess relative numbers by tracks.  No ?deer yards?--places where more than several or many animals congregate over a period of time--were observed in any area of Mountain Lakes.  Tracks seen were of single animals, usually larger individuals.  One bow hunter recently killed a 300-pound buck, a huge whitetail by any standards anywhere in the animal's range.

Very few smaller tracks or actual sightings--of young deer or females--were found anywhere in Mountain Lakes during the survey period.  Larger animals, primarily bucks, are more experienced, warier, usually faster, and more difficult to hunt than younger deer.  This suggests that the bow hunting program has been very successful in removing age and sex classes of deer, and reducing the potential of the remaining breeding population.  But recruitment from populations outside the town's boundaries will remain a constant until deer populations in surrounding Boonton Township, Denville, and Parsippany are reduced.  Deer control needs to be region-wide or statewide concern for deer-overpopulation-related habitat destruction to be controlled.

The success of the hunting program can be seen in the vegetation of the larger wooded tracts.  Wilcox Park and the Yorke Road woodlands now have a healthy and growing understory of shrub and tree saplings.  Young oak, tulip, and other tree saplings are increasing, as are shrub species such as spicebush, blueberry species, huckleberry, maple-leaved viburnum, and elderberry, along with vines such as grape and greenbrier.  Deer browse on the buds and young stems of these plants is minimal and usually not recent, indicating that they will continue to grow and spread.  When large trees fall due to storms and disease, there will be populations of young trees to take their place.

Woods in the Tower Hill and Halsey Frederick Park tracts also have a recovering sapling and shrub layer, but there are more deer tracks at these sites, and deer browse on buds and young stems is more extensive and more recent.  In other words, there are more deer at these sites, and hunting has not thinned the herd as extensively in these spots.  Deer tracks at these two sites are of smaller animals.

Smaller tracts--those in the vicinity of the municipal building, near St.  Catherine's Church along Pocono Road, and areas around the YMCA and the high school also have healthy recovering sapling and shrub layers, with some deer browse; though very little appeared to be very recent.

In comparison with other surrounding towns, where forested tracts continue to decline due to extensive deer overbrowsing of shrubs, vines, tree saplings, and herbaceous plants, Mountain Lakes' larger and smaller woods are returning to forest health.  This is a condition where understory birds such as Ovenbird, Wood Thrush, and Veery--species which have decline to deer damage of their habitat--can remain to breed or return to an improving forest.  It also means that older trees that fall due to disease and blowdowns will be replaced by the young trees growing under them. 

Black Bear

Black bear tracks and scat were found on the Wilcox Park, Tower Hill, and Yorke Road woodlands tracts.  The sizes of tracks and scat indicate that at least three and perhaps four black bears were present in the borough during the survey period, including a large animal -- possibly a male because of its size -- and a small, young bear; the other two were of intermediate size but differing tracks.  One animal -- estimated by a police officer to be 800 pounds^* -- was photographed apparently attempting to den-up under a deck on Robinhood Drive, on the southern end of the Yorke Road woodlands.  This is novel behavior for the species.

Because Mountain Lakes is surrounded by large contiguous tracts of parkland and preserved land in Boonton Township and nearby Rockaway Township, where black bears are known to be year-round residents, the borough will continue to have stray bears wandering through, particularly in late fall and spring.

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* Surely an overestimate.  The largest of New Jersey black bears average around 600 pounds.

Coyote

A group of three eastern coyotes was seen in Halsey Frederick Park along Morris Avenue in late December.  Coyote tracks were also seen in Wilcox Park, Tower Hill, and the Yorke Road woodlands; along the Boulevard near the Wilson School; in the parking lot of St.  Catherine's Church; in the train station parking lot; around the municipal building parking area and in woods across the street; and in the parking area at the rear of the YMCA.  Several animals also howled in response to a Screech Owl tape played near Birchwood Lake in early December.  This indicates that coyotes are distributed throughout the borough, with a population of perhaps fifteen to twenty animals; perhaps three family groups.  That they are rarely seen by residents is not surprising, as coyotes are usually nocturnal and are very wary and remarkably intelligent, traits produced by centuries of hunting.

Beaver

Beavers, an actively maintained beaver dam, and evidence of beaver foraging activity were seen along the small stream which arises in Wilcox Park, continues through the Tourne, and drains into the Rockaway River near St.  Clair's-Riverside.  Although a number of small and medium-sized trees have been killed, and the rise in the water level will kill larger trees in the future, this is an entirely natural process which creates new types of habitat.  The flooding will attract ducks, herons, salamanders, frogs, and other species, and will eventually produce a marsh in future decades.

No signs of beavers were found in other areas of the town, though the animals may seek new habitats in the lakes and ponds in the future. 

Vernal Ponds

Vernal ponds are essential as breeding habitat for a large variety of breeding salamanders and frogs, some of them rare and endangered, and Mountain Lakes has many vernal ponds.  At least five are in the Yorke Road woodlands; six are in Wilcox Park; two in Halsey Frederick Park; three in Tower Hill; a large complex of vernal ponds is present immediately to the west of St.  Catherine's Church on Pocono Road; two are in woodlands in the vicinity of the municipal building; and others are scattered in small wooded tracts throughout the town.

The vernal ponds in the Yorke Road woodlands are home to the endangered blue-spotted salamander; other rare mole salamanders such as spotted, Jefferson's, and marbled; wood frogs; spring peepers, and other treefrog species.  The other vernal ponds in the township are potential breeding habitat for these and other species.

Critical Areas

The most critical areas in Mountain Lakes for species diversity, population sizes, critical habitat, and migration habitat for birds, are the largest wooded tracts.  These include Frederick and Wilcox Parks, Tower Hill, and the Yorke Road woodlands.  Also important, and not as protected or secure, are the vernal pond complexes present near St.  Catherine's Church on Pocono Road; the vernal ponds in woods near the municipal building; and vernal ponds in scattered small woodlots in several areas of the town.  Vernal ponds are a habitat that has only recently come into consideration in preservation efforts, and they are not widely familiar to the general public.  An effort should be made to map all vernal ponds in the borough, and to consider their importance in future planning decisions. `