Engage Toms River’s Community Mural Project Contest Entry

One of my projects in early March was to create a mural design entry in the 2015 Engage Toms River’s Community Mural Project Contest. In celebration of the beauty and diversity of Toms River, I chose Cattus Island Park salt marsh as my subject for the mural. Cattus Island has been a special place to my family since our first visit in 1991. My husband and I are active birders and Cattus Island is one of our favorite natural places for birding, hiking and photography in Ocean County.

The 530 acre park ecosystems include a maritime upland pine/oak forest, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes and the Cooper Environmental Center. While walking the 4.8 mile boardwalk loop, visitors can enjoy seeing a wide variety of New Jersey flora and fauna.

The birds featured in this mural are; a pair of nesting osprey, mallard duck, great egrets, a marsh wren and common yellowthroat. The mammals shown are white tailed deer, raccoon, mother and kit fox. Butterflies rely on our native perennial flowers and plants for their survival over the warmer New Jersey months. Black swallowtail, monarch, tiger swallowtail and buckeye butterflies are just some of these species that deserve our protection. Last but not least is the painted turtle sunning himself in the grass.

As you can see, Toms River does have “Great Places and Familiar Faces”. I hope to see many more familiar faces visiting the Cattus Island Park in the near future.