Published in the Cape May Star and Wave Newspaper

CAPE MAY–Entering a new year, New Jersey's District One legislators have South Jersey’s well-being on their minds as 2024 comes to a close. 

District One – run by Sen. Michael Testa, R, and Assemblymen Erik Simonsen, R, from Lower Township, and Antwan McClellan, R, from Ocean City, – is made up of Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic County. 

The trio ran together for office in 2019 and are in the midst of their third consecutive term. 

Their priorities revolve around the unique aspects that affect more South Jersey than the rest of the state.

“You'll see the bills that we try to push forward are concerned with things in our area like the fisheries,” Simonsen said. “That's one of our major industries and we deal with tourism and hospitality too. There are a lot of rural areas in our district that we worry about getting internet to or public transportation.

Both Assemblymen have worked in their local school district, which has helped them realize the importance of advocating for school systems. 

“It gives us a different, well-rounded perspective of what we should be doing as a legislature to support our kids and help our teachers,” McClellan said. “We need to give those dollars and cents to our school districts to make sure our kids have everything they need to be successful.”

Every odd year is an election year for the assembly and they will be running for a fourth term. Entering 2025, running a successful campaign and being reelected is an added priority. 

“We’re only two-year terms,” Simonsen said. “The first year you’re in office you’re trying to figure everything out, and the second half of the term you’re back running again. This is the third term we’ll be completing and we look forward to a fourth.”

After six years together, they’re proud of the relationship they’ve formed with other constituents, and regardless of the party, find them an integral part of working with the people. 

“The things we've done for the people will carry over,” Simonsen said. “The longevity helps us and now we can get more done because we have established relationships.”

2025 is not only an election year for the assembly, but also for the governor. Governor Murphy is ineligible to run again after his two consecutive terms. 

“This will be our first term going in with a new governor,” McClellan said. “The hope is that the governor we select will be South Jersey focused because we know how important South Jersey is, not only to us but to the entire state.”

A new governor on the horizon leaves the legislators hoping for someone who will make South Jersey a priority. After three terms, they saw South Jersey be neglected and not given what was needed to fund the striving tourist region. 

“Invest in the fact that our tourism is the best tourism, not only in the state but probably in the country,” McClellan said. “Realistically, the things that Cape May is doing, with the amount of investment they don't receive from the state, is uncharted.”

Sen. Testa is on the Senate Budget Appropriation Committee and sees where money is divested. 

“The governor and their budget is going to have to be intellectually honest,” Sen. Testa said. “You look at Cape May County, and it’s the number two county for tourism tax dollars and so many of those tax dollars go to Trenton and go into the general fund. I see all this money going to other jurisdictions. ”

They’re looking for a governor who gives local legislators the opportunity and room to make the decisions they know will be best for their district. 

“Allow us to be us, and if we need your help, then work with us as opposed to trying to demand and tell us what we should be doing,” McClellan said. “We can lead that charge with Senator Testa with South Jersey in the forefront.”

Sen. Testa shared the same sentiments about prioritizing South Jersey. 

As Co-Chair of the Manufacturing Caucus, Testa is invested in New Jersey’s merchandising market. He believes it’s an opportunity to open up the job market and make it possible for New Jersey residents to have more livable wages. 

“I’ve been trying to highlight manufacturers in New Jersey and what the economic multiplier is,” Sen. Testa said. “The employment opportunities are there for so many people, and they don’t know manufacturing has so much growth potential.” 

Environmental plans and climate concerns are other important priorities for District One when focusing on South Jersey.

“We're all for it,” Simonsen said. “Growing up at the bay and ocean taught us about the way our life down here relies on wetlands and wildlife as well. When we pass or vote on bills, we're conscious of that.”

Living in South Jersey has given the legislators front-row seats to changing climates. 

“This should not be a partisan issue,” McClellan said. “I think protecting the climate is something that we all need to do together in a nonpartisan way and fight for our lives.”

While District One’s legislatures actively work to pass environmental policy, they want the room to make decisions on a local level. 

“One of the biggest issues is the NJ PACT,” Simonsen said. “We met with the commissioner of DEP last week. Antwan and I, along with Senator Testa, represent the Bayshore communities as well as the Oceanside communities of Cape May County.”

Environmental policy is on McClellan and Simonsen’s forefront when entering 2025, but they question parts of New Jersey Protecting Against Climate Threats. The NJ PACT is a regulatory reform effort developed under Governor Murphy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through modernized environmental laws.

“This NJ PACT is pretty extreme,” Simonsen said. “It's just going to be very costly for our communities anywhere near the water.”’

Sen. Testa and the Assemblymen believe that the best way to combat the climate is direct action made at a local level. 

“We know that climate change is real,” McClellan said. “We're not going to pretend that it's not, so allow us to make the incremental adjustments that need to be made to secure not only our way of life but to secure our environment and make sure that it's good.” 

Sen. Testa and Assemblymen McClellan and Simonsen are eager to put their best foot forward with the possibility of a fourth term on their horizon.

“The people know us at this point,” Testa said. “The way we’ve gotten reelected is we continue to work hard for our legislative district and represent everyone. We continue to put in the work and make South Jersey a priority.”

Published in the Cape May Star and Wave Newspaper

Student and faculty researchers at Monmouth University have recorded the first confirmation of the anemone species Actinia equina, also known as the beadlet anemone, on North American shores.

Actinia equina is a common inhabitant of the rocky coastlines of the British Isles and Northern Europe. The Mid-Atlantic doesn’t have the ecosystems the anemone prefers, but they’ve made their homes in the man-made jetties that protrude off the Jersey shore. The shelter and food the jetties provide allow the non-native species to thrive in this new location. 

The team located the anemones on a half-dozen beaches from Long Branch to Manasquan in Monmouth County.

“I found it for the first time in the fall of 2023, but Dr. Adolf had seen it before. We were going out for class and learning about the jetties, and I was trying to identify everything I saw. I couldn’t find anything on this weird-looking blobby thing,” Diederik Boonman Morales, a senior marine and environmental biology and policy student at Monmouth University, said. “I ended up finding Actinia equina and then I went back to Dr. Adolf and we started approaching anemone scientists in England where it’s native to.”

Doctor Jason Adolf, Professor of Marine Science, came across the anemone years prior but couldn’t identify the species. He’d been sharing his findings with his classes, and Boonman Morales was the first student to identify the species. 

Boonman Morales first encountered the anemones while cataloging marine life in the intertidal zone at a beach near campus as part of a homework assignment. Neither he nor Dr. Adolf recognized what they were seeing, and couldn’t find any information from existing literature and databases. Around that time, a few other local beachgoers had posted pictures of similar specimens on a crowdsourcing website where nature enthusiasts and scientists can share information about wildlife and plants they’ve encountered. None were sure what they had found.

Without existing research and studies, it’s hard to predict how this invasive species will affect native organisms. Boonman Morales says the anemone was first observed in New Jersey in 2021, but there hasn’t been any major evidence proving that it’s displacing other native organisms. 

“It’s invading a human-made structure that’s not a part of the sandy environment,” Dr. Adolf said, referring to the jetties. “It’s probably not the most threatening of invasive species, but ecosystems are very complex and it's hard to predict what an introduction of an invasive species might mean over time. We’re just starting to understand what that might mean.”

So far, there isn’t much evidence to prove the anemone has spread to southern New Jersey beaches.

“I went out to do a survey up north from Long Branch to Sandy Hook and we couldn’t find any,” Boonman Morales said. “But there was an observation on iNaturalist that there was recently one in Long Island so we know it crossed to that side. Someone found it in Island Beach State Park, but that’s as far south as I’m aware.”

An invasive species is a non-native organism that disrupts native organism’s ecosystems. The Actinia equina is from England and not native to the Atlantic shores. After identifying the anemone, the next step in their research is to observe how the anemone affects other species in the area. 

“It definitely does disrupt the distribution,” Dr. Adolf said. “Otherwise there would be mussels on the wet parts of the rocks, but instead there’s the clusters of anemone. Ecologically, from a marine biology perspective, it’s interesting because this is what we study in terms of who gets the space. When a new species comes in and displaces something that would normally be there, it’s an opportunity to study community dynamics.”

Dr. Adolf and Boonman Morales's current focus is on the species’s distribution on the Jersey Shore. 

“We haven’t had a chance to survey the beaches in the south,” Dr. Adolf said. “What we really hope that comes out of this media is getting people to go out and take a picture and post to iNaturalist or send it to us.”

Dr. Adlof said relying on the community to find and talk about the species is the best way to identify where else the anemone is living. Researchers can establish where the anemone is if residents observe their beaches and document anything that might look like the anemone. This will help create a map of the species’s distribution. 

Although the species can be a variety of colors, the ones found in New Jersey have a blue ring at their bottom, pale green bodies, and matching green tentacles with blue tips. They are known as aggressive predators because their tentacles produce a toxin to stun prey. Their tentacles don’t pose a serious threat to humans and can’t penetrate the skin, Boonman Morales said. They also tend to live in areas that most beachgoers don’t go near, like the crevices between the rocks.

The researchers believe the anemones most likely arrived as hitchhikers aboard an international ship traveling to the Port of New York/New Jersey. They release clones into the water that can float and survive extreme conditions until they find a surface to cling to, Boonman Morales said. These juvenile organisms may have been discharged in a ship’s ballast water or from an anemone living on a hull and carried by the currents from the New York Harbor area to Northern Monmouth County.

Boonman Morales and Adolf are working on a GIS map showing the locations of sightings in the area in an effort to track their spread. Anyone who sees one is asked to email jadolf@monmouth.edu with the date and location of the observation.

A study by the group, “First record of the sea anemone Actinia equina (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) on the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States,” was published this month in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom.

Published in New Jersey Digest Click here for article

Fall is right around the corner, and New Jersey is the best place to be. The state is a beautiful example of east coast fall because of its diverse trees, migrating birds, and perfect temperatures. 

There’s no better way to spend a breezy fall afternoon than walking through one of NJs picturesque hiking trails. (link recent article) 

One way to make your hike more memorable and immersive is to learn about the local flora and fauna you might come across. Here’s a simple yet comprehensive guide to some plants and animals you might see while walking through NJ this fall. 

New Jersey Trees are Changing Colors and Losing Leaves

Keep an eye out for oak and maple leaves; two of New Jersey’s most common trees. The Essex County Lenape trail is covered with fallen leaves from these trees. 

Two oak trees in New Jersey are the red and white oak. Both are similar in structure but are easy to tell apart. Red oak leaves tend to have pointy lobes while white oaks have rounded ones. The lobes are the finger-like parts of the leaf. 

Both are native to New Jersey, and the red oak is our state tree. 

The most common native maple you’ll see on a walk in New Jersey is the red maple. You'll find this small, three-lobed leaf covering dirt trails and park paths. Like its name, the red maple takes on a vibrant red hue. 

Once you can identify these three trees, you’ll realize how many you have just in your neighborhood. 

Look Out For These New Jersey Birds

Fall is peak migration time, and NJ is a stop for many birds. 

Hawks are an easy bird to spot when you’re hiking because of their large frame and distinct flying habits. 

New Jersey sees a wide variety of hawk species in the fall, and resources like the Mills Reservation Hawkwatch can give you detailed numbers on who is migrating through. Visiting a local hawkwatch always ensures a great view of migrating birds. 

Generally, you can look for a rounded wingspan with a short and wide tail. Hawks are soaring birds, meaning they fly long stretches without flapping their wings. 

On a smaller note, all New Jersey residents know are blue jays and cardinals. These native birds are resilient to cold temperatures and hang around New Jersey for the winter season. They can easily be spotted due to their vibrant colors. 

These New Jersey Animals are Prepping for Winter

These two animals might not be new to you, but it’s nice to know their names. 

White-tailed deer frequent New Jersey and are easy to identify when they’re nibbling on your flowerbeds. 

As their natural foods diminish in the colder temperatures, you’re more likely to find deer eating the last scraps of your summer garden. 

Eastern chipmunks don’t fully hibernate like other animals but hunker down by the end of October. For the rest of September, you might see chipmunks scurrying around to finish storing their cache of food that will last them most of the winter. 

Even though it’s getting cooler, fall is a perfect time in New Jersey to be outside. This small guide will remind you that nature doesn’t stop just when summer ends. Take advantage of New Jersey’s many trails and parks and get outside. 

Click here to view my articles where I interview local business owners.