FPPF

Franklin Parker Preserve Fish.

Redfin Pickerel

The Franklin Parker Preserve is a former cranberry farm that the New Jersey Conservation Foundation is returning to native Pine Barrens habitat.

A big part of this is restoring the hydrology to a more natural state.

Which means many of these "pothole" ponds.

That's our friend Lori providing a bit of scale. (Hi Lori!)

Mud Sunfish

Modern cranberry operations here in the New Jersey Pinelands use the "wet harvest" method, (which you can see in the blog post: Harvest Time). A layer of material is put down at the bottom of the cranberry bog, which holds the water in and prevents other plants from growing.

Part of the restoration process was to use heavy equipment to punch holes in the bottom of the bog, breaking up that layer. One expected result was the return of native vegetation from the buried seed bank.

Banded Sunfish

The surprising thing, to me anyways, was the return of fish. Especially as the ponds are disjointed in many areas. (I was surprised when a fish showed up in our back pond as well, as told here: The Fish.)

Ironcolor Shiner?

And one day a couple years ago, we ventured out to Franklin Parker to see what fish had made these pools home.

Redfin Pickerel

Redfin Pickerel fry

Blackbanded Sunfish

The folks doing the catching had a big seining net and dragged it through the ponds. I was there to watch and take pictures.

Lori again

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There were some larger but shallower ponds. These were not seined that day. But as you can see they are full of bladderworts. In this case Utricularia inflata.

Which is carnivorous, although it's only a threat to very tiny creatures. So the folks walking about are in no danger. At least from the bladderworts.

And the fish were pretty small, so not much of a threat either.

There are some big snapping turtles in the pines though ...

Spoiler alert, no one got hurt. And the fish were all returned unharmed to the pool they were found in.

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