Award presented to exceptional women wildlife biologists for achievements in the field
During National Women’s History Month, the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ honored Hannah Bonsey Suthers of Hopewell Township with its 2006 Women and Wildlife Inspiration Award.
The award is presented to exceptional women wildlife biologists for their achievements in the field, for the advances they have made for women in the profession and for their contributions to protecting New Jersey’s wildlife.
The awards reception took place March 26 at the Prallsville Mills in Stockton.
For more than 28 years, Ms. Suthers has voluntarily researched bird populations and the habitats that support them in north central New Jersey. While her main focus has been on birds, Ms. Suthers has surveyed the natural resources of the Sourland Mountains area, providing valuable data on the herptiles, plants, mammals and insects in the region.
She also founded the Princeton Skinners, a project to prepare salvaged birds into scientific skins for the Princeton University Biology Museum.
Ms. Suthers has mentored many students pursuing advanced degrees and has trained and inspired a large body of wildlife volunteers.
In 1978, she founded a Bird Banding and Research Station on the Sourland Ridge in fields undergoing succession from farmland to natural state. Since that time, she has been banding birds and recording information on their physical conditions.
She has supervised aspiring bird banders and is certified to train, examine and field-certify these banders. She has inspired a large body of volunteers. Her field station recently was approved as a New Jersey Important Bird Area.
Mr. Suthers’ work has contributed to the Monitoring Avian Productivity Project, the Sourlands Natural Resources Inventory, the NJ Breeding Bird Atlas, the Atlantic Flyway Project and the Herp Atlas Project.
The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, a nonprofit organization located in Trenton, protects endangered and threatened wildlife by supporting the work of the internationally acclaimed NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP).
Because rare wildlife is subject to many challenges in this densely populated state, the Foundation helps ENSP obtain grants, corporate contributions and individual donations to support its work. The Foundation also directs education and outreach activities focused on the more than 70 endangered species of wildlife that make their home in New Jersey.
For more information, visit www.ConserveWildlifeNJ.org.

