Getting Wild On The Web
New Internet site devoted to NJ wildlife & conservation issues

USING PROMOTIONAL TIMING appropriate to its ecological mission, Wild New Jersey, a new Internet site devoted to wildlife and conservation issues in the state, premiered on International Earth Day (April 22) last week. A production of InTheGardenState.com, Comcast's New Jersey online publication, Wild New Jersey can now be found on the World Wide Web at www.lnTheGardenState.com/WildNJ.
Karen L. Siletti and Lynda Hester D'Orio, New Jersey wildlife and environmental advocates and communications professionals, will serve as editors of the site, working in collaboration with James Irwin, editor of InTheGardenState.com.
"Nature is far more complex than we realize. We need to learn so many things," said Ms. Siletti. "There are beautiful pristine areas tucked away all over the state, some right next to highly urbanized and densely populated ones. It's not enough to know they're there. We need to actively protect and cherish them, for ourselves and for the wildlife that lives there."
Ms. Siletti's more than fifteen years in communications planning
includes work on behalf of environmental non-profits such as Baykeeper, the Coalition to Restore Urban Waters, the Passaic River Coalition, and the Hackensack Estuary and River Tenders Corp, (H.EAR.T.)
Ms. Siletti's grassroots credentials are matched by co-editor D'Orio's national and international affiliation with, among other organizations, the Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Federation.
"Our hope is to create a cyber community to increase awareness of our natural resources," said Ms. D'Orio, a television producer and writer for Comcast Video Productions. "I'd love to see teachers, kids and parents visit this site and give us their feedback and suggestions."
Wild New Jersey features original articles, book reviews and opinion pieces, as well as an extensive list of annotated links and a forum for readers to participate in the site. Special articles and reports from New Jersey Monthly Magazine, The Bergen Record and other notable contributors are being solicited for the site.
InTheGardenState.com is an online "community center" that combines original features, area content providers and advertisers, interactive services and a regional site directory, all with a New Jersey focus. Better known features of the online publication include Weird New Jersey (novelty), Our Man in Hong Kong (travel) and recently, the award-winning Jackie Robinson Interview, a discussion taped in Boston during January, 1962.
Certain to attract attention is a proposal to present live camera action of osprey nesting areas and bears in the wild.
"We hope people will visit the site and realize that you don't have to go to Yosemite to see an eagle, you don't have to go to Alaska to see a whale, and you don't have to go to Canada to see otters" Ms. Siletti noted. "They're all here in New Jersey."

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Lynda Hester D'Orio
Karen L. Siletti