Pinelands Commission science staff report long-term water-quality shifts and rising disease risk for snakes

Science staff told the Pinelands Commission on Feb. 13 that decades of monitoring show measurable shifts in groundwater and surface-water conditions, and that recent wildlife tracking reveals conservation challenges tied to disease and human activity.

Science Office presenter (first speakered at the Feb. 13 meeting) summarized nearly 40 years of groundwater-level data from forest plots and said staff operate 37 monitored ponds and 47 stream sites across the Pinelands. He said automated loggers and manual sampling revealed that 2024 was the driest period of record at some wells and that long-term water-quality monitoring shows rising pH and increasing specific conductance at many stream sites — 72% of monitored streams showed statistically significant pH increases and 53% showed upward trends in conductance over the study period.

The presentation connected those hydrologic and chemistry trends to ecological monitoring. Staff described a 30-year frog-and-toad calling survey, a radio-telemetry and PIT-tag program for rare snakes (including corn and pine snakes), and an eastern box turtle study. Staff said they have microchipped 2,668 snakes and recorded about 1,839 relocations with GPS coordinates to map habitat use and hibernacula locations. They reported 34 corralled pine snake dens, roughly 100 corn-snake corrals, and extensive nest-and-den monitoring used to inform permitting and management.

A substantial portion of the update focused on disease surveillance. Staff described partnership studies with Rutgers and Virginia Tech on Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola (snake fungal disease). Swab results from 2023–24 showed about 28% of sampled snakes across 12 species tested positive; the eastern hognose in the sample had particularly high detection rates. Laboratory and field collaboration indicate the fungus persists in hibernacula soils and that repeated den entry likely drives reinfection. The presenter said these dynamics, combined with long hibernation periods in northern populations, may explain higher prevalence in the Pinelands compared with more southern regions.

Staff also highlighted an operational conflict with Enduro motorized events. Telemetry data show that a substantial fraction of corn- and pine-snake surface activity occurs inside the commission/DEP Enduro window (Oct. 15–Apr. 15), when snakes can be cold and sluggish and therefore more vulnerable; the presenter recommended avoiding Enduro routes near known den sites and sharing data with permitting agencies.

Finally, staff discussed recent wildfire impacts: the July 2024 Teatime Hill fire damaged monitoring corrals and onsite cover, requiring rapid repairs. They described work to refine safe windows for prescribed burns using small temperature loggers on turtles and snakes, and prototype approaches such as external transmitters for box turtles and gestation-site monitoring for timber rattlesnakes.

The presentation concluded with staff commitments to continue analyzing long-term datasets (including a planned peer-reviewed analysis of 20+ years of stream pH and conductance) and to share findings with DEP and other permitting bodies to inform event permitting and land-management decisions.