Whether they’re small like a salamander or big and wide-roaming like a bear, animals need to be able to move through the landscape to find food, shelter, mates, and other resources. Without that ability to move, healthy populations simply will not persist over the long term. Here in New Jersey, wildlife are up against steady urbanization, a dense network of roads, and now a changing climate, all of which put the connectedness of our habitats and wildlife populations in jeopardy.

Introducing CHANJ

June 26, 2017

Time for CHANJ

Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey (CHANJ) is an effort to make our landscape and roadways more permeable for terrestrial wildlife by identifying key areas and actions needed to achieve habitat connectivity across the state. CHANJ offers two main products – an interactive Mapping tool and a Guidance Document – to help prioritize land protection, inform habitat restoration and management, and guide mitigation of road barrier effects on wildlife and their habitats:

The Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey (CHANJ) Mapping Tutorial

December 15, 2023

A step-by-step CHANJ Mapping Tutorial video walks you through the Mapping… give it a whirl!

For more information on these products, visit Tools of CHANJ.

Contact Us

How YOU Can Be Part of the CHANJ!

Tools of CHANJ
Explore our statewide CHANJ Mapping and Guidance Document, as well as other resources to guide your habitat connectivity efforts.

Projects & Partners
A growing reel of accomplishments and ongoing projects related to CHANJ.

What’s New

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• How can we make our roads safer for both people and wildlife? This video training series helps to answer that question. Created in collaboration with transportation and wildlife agencies across the northeastern U.S., including NJDEP and NJDOT.
• Road Wildlife Mitigation Projects layer : Updated with the latest information on Constructed and In Progress projects and photos.
• The Impact of Urbanization on Genetic Connectivity of 10 Mammal Species in New Jersey – Ecological Applications 35(7) 1-12.
• NJ to Establish Wildlife Corridor Action Plan – NJ State Legislature 6/30/25
• Green Acres State Land Acquisition Program: Engaging with Local Governments to Protect Land for Wildlife Recorded webinar hosted by Green Acres, June 12, 2025
• Critter Crossings, featuring CHANJ Recorded webinar hosted by The Nature Conservancy, February 25, 2025
• Nature Connectivity, featuring CHANJ: Recorded presentation from the NJDEP Sustainability Speaker Series, March 21, 2024.
• NJ Wildlife Tracker: New web app helps identify problem spots for wildlife along NJ roadways.
• Report: CHANJ connectivity assessment for mammals shows it’s tougher for animals to get around these days.
• Habitat suitability and landscape connectivity for an expanding population of bobcats – Landscape Ecology 38(6) 1-19.
• Waterloo Road Amphibian Crossing Project

Making Headlines

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• NJ’s “Bobcat Alley” and CHANJ efforts made the cover story of Nature Conservancy Magazine! – TNC, 8/7/25
• We’re on TV! Wild Crossings from PBS’ EcoSense for Living tells the story of three major habitat connectivity projects across the eastern U.S. CHANJ begins at 14:05.
• Commissioner LaTourette Announces Statewide Acquisition Initiative to Enhance Open Space and Habitat Connections (DEP News Release, May 15, 2025)
• New Jersey building tunnels to protect animals – CBS News Philadelphia, 4/1/24
• New Jersey’s wildlife tunnels ensure smallest creatures can safely cross the street – News12 New Jersey, 4/10/24
• Study of New Jersey roadkill looks at how critters move, or don’t move, around the Garden State – The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/15/23
• Tunnel vision: Helping wildlife cross the road – centraljersey.com, 2/29/20
• DEP Launches Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey (CHANJ) Project to Link Lands for Wildlife Movement (DEP News Release, 5/7/19)
• Salamandars Crossing: This Way To the Vernal Pool! – JSTOR Daily, 4/9/19
• Watch for Turtles Crossing Roadways – DEP News Release, 6/19/18
• New Underground Tunnel to Help Wildlife Cross Road – DEP News Release, 6/4/15

We’ll Be There

• Northeast Transportation and Wildlife Conference  – September 27-30 in State College, PA
• FoHVOS Community Conservation Conference  – April 18, Pennington, NJ

Related Efforts

• Wildlife Infrastructure Funding Guide to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions, from ARC Solutions
• Retrofitting busy highways to let wildlife travel safely, too – Washington Post, 10/11/19
• Wildlife corridors can mean life or death – The Hill, 8/16/19
• How wildlife bridges over highways make animals—and people—safer – National Geographic, 4/16/19
• This is why we need wildlife crossings – Mother Nature Network, 12/10/18

CHANJ Resources/News Archive

• Sessions from the Northeastern Transportation and Wildlife Conference (Sept 2022 in Atlantic City, NJ) are available to watch! CHANJ projects are among the many great talks.