So how does the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project of New Jersey achieve huge returns at very low costs? Rather than organize as a typical US wildlife project, heavy on paid staff and costs, we modeled our work on that of the British Trust for Ornithology and other similar organizations. The BTO has a relatively small staff that produces abundant high-quality data on bird populations that serves their nation in all kinds of important regulatory and conservation endeavors. For the most part it is done by volunteers organized by paid staff. One dollar of staff time produces hundreds of dollars of data, because most of the data gatherers are not being paid. Not surprisingly, the volunteer banders and surveyors do their work with enthusiasm, something often lacking in paid agency staff. The banders actually pay a steep price for bands.
Our project on the Delaware Bay relies on volunteers. From the beginning , professionals, retired professionals and other experts like Clive Minton (of the Victoria Wader Study Group an Australian all volunteer ringing group) came for no more than food and lodging (which for Clive is no small price). 
Clive Minton and I In that time our team has grown with people from New Jersey and the surrounding states to include people retired from a variety of professions, empty nesters and young people looking for new opportunities . For the last three years we have had volunteers manning stations at each of the 10 areas now protected for shorebirds along the bayshore. They help inform residents and visitors why stewardship is needed and call conservation officers if they witness any blatant violations of the laws protecting these areas. A team of students led by Dr. Daniel Hernandez of The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey survey crab egg densities. The students are paid only a minor stipend.
We even have volunteers helping volunteers. For the last three years Jane Galetto’s group, Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River, has cooked and delivered dinners for our team. This year we had a dinner every night. Coming back from a tough day afield to a delicious, cooked dinner underpins everything the team accomplishes.
At the helm are paid professionals, including Amanda Dey of NJ Fish and Wildlife and I. And it relies on the leadership of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, NJ Fish and Wildlife and other Divisions in the Department of Environmental Protection. But the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project stands apart because it is truly run by the passion and hard work of people whose main qualification is this: they care.
