Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
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The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is located in Morris County and Somerset County, New Jersey, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Manhattan's Times Square. It is one of more than 544 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System that is administered by the United States Department of Interior's United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is a source of the Passaic River.
The Great Swamp Refuge was established by an Act of Congress on November 3, 1960, after a prolonged legal battle that pitted naturalists against government officials who wished to turn the Great Swamp into a major New York Area regional airport (to replace the then minor Newark Airport). It consists of 7,600 acres (30.4 km²) of varied habitats and over the years, the refuge has become a resting and feeding area for more than 244 species of birds. Fox, deer, muskrat, turtles, fish, frogs and a wide variety of wildflowers and plants also call the refuge "home".
The Great Swamp is essentially the remnants of a lake bottom of a once mighty glacial lake called Glacial Lake Passaic that extended for 30 miles (48 km) in length (10 miles (16 km) wide) in northern New Jersey about 15,000 to 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Lord Stirling Park, which is part of the Somerset County Park System, is located on the southwest perimeter of the Great Swamp and offers excellent hiking facilities, including boardwalks and naturalist exhibits related to the swamp in the park office.
The Great Swamp Watershed Association works to protect the swamp and the watershed that surrounds it.
Within the Great Swamp Grounds, there is also a non-profit bird-rehabilitation centre called the 'Raptor Trust', mainly specializing in birds of prey, such as eagles and owls.
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