Critical Need For Species
Forests provide a habitat with both food and shelter for different types of species, species that have adaptations that allow them to survive in those areas. You can predict where you can find certain species that use old growth or closed canopy forests, whereas you have successional areas that provide habitat for other species. The critical need for many of these species is dependent on the abundance of different types of habitats, and in the Highlands we have some large sections of relatively closed canopy forests which provide an unusual resource for birds that are in decline in many parts of eastern United States. So it's very important to retain these forests that have these closed canopy areas.
Ted Stiles

A Critical Stop for Birds
We have over one hundred species of birds that breed in the Highlands. For some it's a summer home, where they're coming from Latin and South America up to the forests of New Jersey, New England and Canada to breed. For other species it's a journey. They're following our ridge systems. The hawks are flying up off these ridge systems and continuing north. For other birds, it’s a stopover point -- they're leapfrogging through patches of forests, from South America up to their breeding grounds, including New Jersey. They fall from the sky about 3-4 in the morning, and they need these large forested tracts where they consume huge amounts of berries and insects, where they put on more weight for the next two- to three-hundred mile leg of their journey. For the Highlands, it's critical both as a place for year-round residents such as barred owls, the threatened species that live here year-round, to things that pass through, to birds that breed here like the warblers. So the Highlands is a critical location for birds in New Jersey.
Eric Stiles

Hopscotch Over The Highlands
In some ways I think people often were not aware of the Highlands because many of the parks were not state parks, they were county parks. People have hopscotched over the Highlands and have gone to the Delaware Water Gap. Many people have the feeling that to hike they have to go someplace far away and they get on a plane and go some place, when they could be having a perfectly wonderful hiking experience within an hour or two of where they live. They could be also saving gas that way, saving energy, which would benefit the total environment. So the Highlands probably will become more heavily used in the future as more public lands are acquired, as more public access is made available. And as people become more aware of it and as people decide they do want to save gas, save energy and do their recreation closer to home.
Wilma Frey