On America’s first official “Earth Day” — April 22, 1970, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was born. New Jersey became the third state in the country to consolidate its past programs into a unified major agency to administer aggressive environmental protection and conservation efforts. For decades, the DEP’s Endangered and Nongame species Program has been working to restore and protect wildlife such as bald eagles, bobcats, bog turtles, red knots, piping plovers, osprey, Pine Barrens tree frogs and much more.