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Pond - Vernal Pond / Pool

Description: Vernal pools (VP) are confined depressions, either natural or man-made, that hold water for at least two consecutive months out of the year, and are devoid of breeding fish populations. There are different types of vernal pools – woodland VP & open canopy emergent VP, scrub-shrub VP, vernal swamps, and man made VP.

Location: Duck Pond – Swartswood State Park, Sussex County

History: Swartswood State Park was established in 1914 as New Jersey's first state park. Swartswood Lake was formed by glaciers thousands of years ago and is now home to a variety of fish. Duck Pond is a woodland vernal pool in close proximity to Swartswood Lake. There are estimated to be 3,000-5,000 vernal pools in New Jersey.

New Jersey has recently adopted legislation to protect vernal pools. Although the NJ Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act has been in place since 1989, it has done little to protect vernal pools because wetlands smaller than 1 acre (most vernal pools in NJ are less than 0.25 acre) are exempt from the regulatory protection. Vernal pools can be filled, drained, or modified with a general permit. The new vernal pool (or 'vernal habitat,' as it is known in regulatory language) regulations protect vernal pools that are known meet the following certification criteria:

Occurs in a confined basin depression without a permanently flowing outlet.
Provides documented habitat for obligate or facultative vernal habitat species (these species are identified in N.J.A.C. 7:7A, Appendix 1).
Maintains ponded water for at least two continuous months between March and September of a normal rainfall year.
Free of fish populations throughout the year, or dries up at some time during a normal rainfall year.

Type of water: Fresh – rain water or ground water.

Plants:
High Bush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum)
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
Spicebush (Lindera sp.)

Animal species:
Mammals
Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis)
Opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)
Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

Birds
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea)

Fish
None

Reptile/Amphibians
Jefferson Salamander (Ambystoma jeffersonianum)
Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)
Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum)

Invertebrates
Two-Spotted Lady Beetle (Adalia bipunctata)
River Jewelwing (Calopteryx aequabilis)
Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica)