Great Swamp Watershed — Natural History
Though called a swamp, the Refuge and adjoining public lands encompass a great variety of other habitats as well: grasslands, sandy knolls, ponds, brooks, marshes, woodlands and ridges. In this rich mix, Great Swamp displays plants from both southern and northern zones, including 215 species of wildflowers.
This varied vegetation provides a diversity of homes for the 220 bird, 33 mammal, 21 reptile, 18 amphibian and 29 fish species in Great Swamp. Of these species, 26 are listed by the state of New Jersey as threatened or endangered. Great Swamp also is home to one of the state’s largest breeding populations of Eastern Bluebirds, and it boasts a thriving Great Blue Heron rookery, which hatches about 80 chicks each summer.
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