Claudia Rocca is the definition of a New Jersey wildlife champion. From re-nesting America’s favorite bird – the bald eagle – to reestablishing native pollinator meadows and mitigating the flight risk for songbirds, she is helping balance PSE&G’s mission to provide safe and reliable electricity with the protection of wildlife and their habitats. The licensing project manager has had an interest in nature for as long as she can remember. At PSE&G, she’s turned that love of nature into a number of environmental stewardship and biodiversity initiatives, with support from the company.
“I guess it started off with my dad. He is an avid outdoorsman and I followed suit from a very young age. We did a lot of outdoor activities like fishing, and I just took up a general interest in the outside world,” she said.
Claudia has helped rescue, re-home birds’ nests on PSE&G’s poles and towers over the past 10 years. One of her success stories is the Roseland – Pleasant Valley transmission line upgrade, where she rehomed an eagle’s nest from an old lattice tower being removed to a specially designed nest platform on the new monopole structure. With the help of consultants, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection biologists and US Fish and Wildlife Service, they were able to design a bald eagle nest platform and install a live nest camera to watch the activities.
The eagles returned to the tower and nested in the platform, a first in New Jersey. Two chicks hatched from the nest; onlookers were able to watch all the excitement from Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey’s (CWFNJ) live camera feed. In 2023, while the eagles nested elsewhere, there was still a lot of eagle, hawk and kestrel activity on the nest cam, which garnered almost 23,000 views this year and 3,700 hours of watch time.
Her job at PSE&G entails working with various regulatory agencies to obtain permits for projects and maintenance, and working with different PSE&G teams to understand a project’s potential impact on the natural environment.
Claudia unwinds outside of work by hiking, skiing and gardening. She also serves on the New Jersey Wetland Mitigation Council.
If Claudia could have one superpower to restore the planet, she would have icy breath to slow global warming.
Great job Claudia!!!!