April 30, 2025, Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

05/12/2025 02:23:28 PM Page 77 to 80 of 116 20 of 48 sheets 77 would be O-7 then.1 MR. AFRAN: Okay.2 MS. MCGOVERN: Because that one slide was3 part of that.4 MR. AFRAN: I think that's right.5 MS. MCGOVERN: So that was probably the6 first one and I called it that in my notes.7 MR. PLOCKER: Yeah. Right now exhibit O-78 it says, West Orange Core Map 2025 and right under that9 it's not marked as exhibit specific, but West Orange10 DeVito Slide Presentation.11 MR. AFRAN: It was meant to be one document,12 I believe.13 MS. MCGOVERN: All right. Okay. So O-12 is14 going to be Dr. Burke's --15 MR. AFRAN: Butler.16 MS. MCGOVERN: Butler, I'm sorry. Slide17 show and how many slides are there?18 THE WITNESS: 18.19 MR. AFRAN: They're not numbered, right?20 Okay.21 MS. MCGOVERN: Okay. So it would be Dr.22 Butler's side presentation, 18 slides. And then I don't23 know, what is O-8? Colorized slide by Walsh objector I24 have. Do you have something different? And then O-925 78 Colorized --1 MR. AFRAN: I don't have my list with me.2 MS. MCGOVERN: Just for purposes of the3 record, we'll do O-13 will be the slide show from Dr.4 DeVito, just to make sure we have it.5 MR. PLOCKER: And just for housekeeping6 record, I think the Boards doing an excellent job7 maintaining everything on the agenda, but doesn't appear8 all the O exhibits are actually marked as O exhibits on9 the agenda. So if it would be possible to.10 MR. AFRAN: I appreciate Mr. Plocker saying11 that, because we had some questions about making sure12 things were fully posted.13 MS. MCGOVERN: So the color diagram by14 Ecological Solutions, the one side slide is marked O-7,15 but the balance is how many slides?16 MR. AFRAN: Ten, I believe. Total is ten.17 MS. MCGOVERN: Ten slides will be O-13.18 Okay.19 I'm sorry for interrupting your testimony.20 So you're O-12.21 MR. AFRAN: Okay. Thank you.22 Thank you.23 A. So you can, you had plenty of time now to study24 how much time I spent at each site. You see a total25 79 around a little over two hours, two hours five minutes1 total time. And so I walked along Howell Drive and2 stood around the south side and these were good3 conditions to watch birds, nice mornings, nice middays4 and in that short sample I detected 20 species of birds.5 These 20 species, I'm sure a lot of these are backyard6 birds, a lot of you are familiar with them and almost7 none of these were a surprise

4 and in that short sample I detected 20 species of birds.5 These 20 species, I'm sure a lot of these are backyard6 birds, a lot of you are familiar with them and almost7 none of these were a surprise to me. If I hadn't seen8 them I would've been surprised. This is exactly what9 one would've expect at this time of year exactly where I10 was standing in a quality forest that contains typical11 bird life. Especially where I was standing in between12 the forest and the neighborhood. So as you can, like as13 I mentioned, a subset of all these birds are kind of14 like backyard birds actually not forest interior birds.15 So I am going to skip ahead to that first.16 So there were only seven of the species that I17 saw were really considered a forest bird species, the18 rest of them were backyard birds, it's exactly typical19 for where I was standing which is on the -- in the20 margin between the forest and open space, like the21 neighborhood around here. And so this a very expected22 result. I forgot to mention I probably should have told23 Mr. Afran to bring this into the record, I have been24 teaching courses on birds in New Jersey and species up25 80 here where I taught courses doing bird surveys for1 almost my entire time as a professor, also doing adult2 education. So I'm extremely confident in the ID's I3 zeroed down about these identifications or the grouping4 that I saw.5 MR. AFRAN: Could you just identify the6 seven species on the sides?7 Well, sure. The seven species highlighted right8 A. now are pileated woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker,9 blue jay, black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, white10 breasted nuthatch and worm-eating warbler.11 So part of this could seem maybe not impressive12 or maybe impressive depending how you think about how13 much time I spent looking. So one of the things I did14 was I analyzed my, the detections of new species that I15 made the longer I surveyed. And so what this figure is16 showing you along the horizontal access is the amount of17 time that I spent observing, you can see goes from zero18 time up to 125 minutes. And on the Y access what you're19 seeing is the percent of all the species that I showed20 that I observed at that point in time. So of course by21 the end of my observation I saw 100 percent species I22 was going to see and before I started I had not seen any23 of them, but you see in the first 20 minutes

at that point in time. So of course by21 the end of my observation I saw 100 percent species I22 was going to see and before I started I had not seen any23 of them, but you see in the first 20 minutes I saw24 almost 75 percent I was going to see. And adding25