Added to 17,000 acres of coastal wildlife preserve in Cape May, NJ: 140 additional acres of ecologically sensitive wetlands. The preserved area provides habitat to more migrating bird species than almost any other place else on earth—including, most spectacularly, sixteen species of raptor. Observers once watched more than 21,000 hawks darken the sky in a single day.
New Jersey paid a $1 million for the acreage, using a grant from the federal government. A quarter of the thousand or so bird species in the US (not just in wetlands, but forest, grassland, arctic and island birds) are considered to be at risk. Various sources cite the percentage of US children at-risk (for poverty, drugs, alcohol, sexual abuse, crime, mental illness, etc.) as about the same. Clipped wings.
