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Important Bird and Birding Areas
Big Brook Park Region Grasslands

IBBA Site Guide

66
Monmouth County
Coordinates: N 40.33721
W 74.23509
Piedmont Plains: New England / Mid-Atlantic Coast

Area: 809 Acres     

Habitat: Deciduous woods, shrub-scrub, grassland and riparian habitat

Site Description: Big Brook Region Grasslands consist of a mixture of habitats located on the border of Colts Neck and Marlboro in Monmouth County. This site includes Monmouth County’s Big Brook Park, originally acquired to help protect the Navesink River watershed, and adjacent lands. Big Brook Park has been recognized as a major site for fossils from the Cretaceous and Pleistocene ages.

IBA Criteria:
CriterionSpecies
Conservation Concern – Conservation Priority (B)Northern Bobwhite
Regional Responsibility Species - BCR 30 Scrub-shrub/Barrens (B)American Woodcock, Blue-winged Warbler, Brown Thrasher, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Field Sparrow, Northern Bobwhite
Significant Migrant Stopover/Flyover (FM, SM)Landbirds
Loggerhead Shrike
Loggerhead ShrikeJim Gilbert
 
Birds: Scrub-shrub habitats support Blue-winged Warblers, American Woodcocks, Field Sparrows, Northern Bobwhites, Eastern Towhees, Brown Thrashers and Eastern Wood-Pewees. Vesper Sparrows are regular visitors during spring and fall migration.

Conservation: Succession of fields and scrub-shrub habitats to forest, overabundant deer and several invasive plant and insect species have been identified by Monmouth County’s Park System as threats to the habitats of the Big Brook Park region. The County manages several fields to benefit grassland and scrub-shrub dependant species. The Monmouth County Board of Recreation Commissioners recently approved the Monmouth County Park System’s Deer Management Program to control growing deer populations on county-owned land. The Park System has identified numerous invasive plant and insect species, including purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), multiflora-rose (Rosa multiflora), porcelain-berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata), Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) and the Asian longhorn beetle, which displace native species and reduce habitat and species diversity. The Park System has initiated an inventory of invasive species, implemented projects involving large-scale removal of invasive plants and insects and produced educational brochures to reduce their impacts. Protection of undeveloped, privately-owned lands adjacent to the Big Brook Region Grasslands can be achieved by promoting landowner incentives for protecting and managing habitat and by prioritizing parcels for acquisition. NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres Program, the Monmouth Conservation Foundation, Friends of Holmdel Open Space and the State Agriculture Development Committee continue to identify and preserve open space parcels in Monmouth County.

Additional Information: Site Report