Join FOPOS and the NJ Invasive Species Strike Team for invasive species ID training at Mountain Lakes Preserve. Learn how to identify and properly eradicate emerging invasive species, like Linden viburnum and Oriental photinia. We’ll start the day with an indoor lecture, then take it to the trails for field ID training. RSVP is required, to aelincompton@fopos.org.
When: Monday, June 4, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Where: Mountain Lakes House, 57 Mountain Ave, Princeton, NJ
Friends of Princeton Open Space is a partner of the New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team.
The Strike Team is an organization aimed at eradicating New Jersey’s newly emerging invasive species before they can cause significant ecological damage to our forests. Friends of Princeton Open Space is contributing to this cause by working to reduce emerging invasive plants on our own preserves. We’re striving to turn Princeton’s open spaces into sources of biodiversity, to the benefit of local wildlife and neighboring ecosystems.
If you’d like to volunteer with FOPOS, to help stop the spread of invasive plants at Mountain Lakes Preserve, please contact AeLin Compton at info@fopos.org. Please also visit the New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team website for more information on invasive species in the state of New Jersey. Learn how to ID invasive plants with their Target Species Fact Sheets. Also, help to stop the spread of invasive species in your own back yards by following their Do-Not-Plant List!
Friends of Princeton Open Space is working with Sustainable Princeton and other organizations in the community to create an interactive map of Princeton’s natural resources. The Princeton Green Connections Map is intended to show key green spaces and resources available for public enjoyment. Many FOPOS preserves, including Mountain Lakes, John Witherspoon Woods, and Community Park North, are featured for their hiking trails and beautiful natural landscapes.
Follow the link to explore the Princeton Green Connections Map and to suggest a site!
Emile DeVito, Ph.D., Manager of Science and Stewardship for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, will be the featured speaker at the Friends of Princeton Open Space 2012 Annual Meeting on Sunday April 29th at 3:00 PM at Mountain Lakes House. He will speak on “Using Shade to Restore the Forest Floor.”
“Our state and region are facing critical forest management issues and Dr. DeVito is a leader in helping to inform and shape public policy.” said Wendy Mager, FOPOS president. “His talk on restoring the forest floor will be of special interest to the Princeton community, where we are working actively to provide effective stewardship for our more than 1,000 acres of preserved woods and fields. ”
Mountain Lakes House is located at 57 Mountain Ave, Princeton. Following the meetings, refreshments will be served, and Dr. Devito and AeLin Compton, Natural Resources Manager for Friends of Princeton Open Space, will lead a walk in Mountain Lakes Preserve and adjacent Tusculum.
Anyone Wishing to attend is urged to RSVP by April 23 — phone (609) 921-2772.
Dr. DeVito received his doctorate in Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988 for research on bird communities and vegetation landscapes in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Rutgers University. Dr. Devito develops management plans designed to protect and enhance biological diversity for NJCF’s 20,000-plus acres of holdings. He is a trustee of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the NJ Natural Lands trust, and serves on the Endangered and Non-Game Species Advisory Committee within the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife; the New Jersey Invasive Species Council; and the Science Advisory Committee of the NY-NJ Trail Conference.
JOIN FRIENDS OF PRINCETON OPEN SPACE ON APRIL 14th FOR A SERIES OF WALKS TO CELEBRATE PRINCETON’ S NATURAL AREAS.
The walks, over long, medium and short courses, will commence at three different starting points and traverse paths and trails leading to Mountain Lakes House in the Mountain Lakes Preserve.
The Long Walk, about 90 minutes each way, will commence at the Hun School at 1 p.m. Walkers will follow a trail along the Stony Brook to connect to a bike path, local sidewalks, and ultimately across Coventry Farm into Mountain Lakes Preserve to Mountain Lakes House. Meet at the flag pole by the Athletic Center parking lots.
The Medium Walk, about 30 minutes each way, will start at the Stuart School parking area at 1:30 p.m. Participants will walk through the woods and fields of the 280+ acre preserve that is Princeton’s “central park” on their way to Mountain Lakes House.
The Short Walk, about 20 minutes each way, will begin at 1:45 at the Community Park North parking area off Mountain Avenue. The walk will go through the “piney woods” and across the fields of Tusculum on the way to Mountain Lakes House.
Each walk will be have a leader to show the way, and routes will be clearly marked. Walkers are urged to wear sturdy shoes that can get muddy and to be prepared to navigate some rocks and tree roots along the way as they explore our local open space.
The event is designed so that all walkers will meet at Mountain Lakes House at approximately 2 p.m. for refreshments before completing the round trip back to the parking areas. At Mountain Lakes House, Steve Hiltner, clarinetist with the Sustainable Jazz Ensemble (sustainablejazz.com), will be joined by Janet Vertesi on harp to play original compositions and standards with a spring theme. Steve also maintains the nature blog princetonnaturenotes.org.
Thanks to Good Food Naturally and Whole Earth Center for providing delicious and healthy snacks for hungry walkers! Please follow the links to their websites for more information.
To register, click here. For more information, email info@fopos.org or call 921-2772
On Saturday, March 24, the Westerly Road Church Youth Group volunteered their time to help with land stewardship at Mountain Lakes Preserve. Friends of Princeton Open Space Naturalist, AeLin Compton, with the help of Steve Hiltner and Andrew Thorton, led the group of volunteers in a morning of invasive plant removal.
The day began with a short talk by AeLin on the importance of preserving native plant communities and the threats posed by invasive species. Then the group learned to identify a few plants, including native spicebush and invasive honeysuckles. For the remainder of the morning, they worked along the entrance of the Mountain Lakes driveway, removing invasive shrubs and vines. The energetic volunteers cleared entire patches of Oriental privet, Amur honeysuckle and multiflora rose, and rescued several large spicebush from aggressive Japanese honeysuckle vines. Through all of their efforts, they’ve given the Preserve’s native plant communities an opportunity to grow and flourish into the growing season!
Below are a few pictures of the day’s fun!
Special thanks to Westerly Road Church Pastor of Youth, Robert Olszewski, and the wonderful group of volunteers for all of their hard work!
If you’d like to volunteer with Friends of Princeton Open Space, please contact AeLin Compton at aelincompton@fopos.org.
AeLin Compton, Natural Resource Manager
Friends of Princeton Open Space welcomes its new natural resource manager, AeLin Compton. AeLin succeeds FOPOS’s outgoing resource manager of 6 years, Steve Hiltner. She comes to Friends of Princeton Open Space after working with the NJ Invasive Species Strike Team, where she helped defend the state’s native ecosystems through the mapping and rapid removal of emerging invasive plant populations. She has her BS in Ecology and Natural Resources and certificate in Environmental Geomatics from Cook College at Rutgers University.
As natural resource manager, AeLin plans to to continue Friends of Princeton Open Space’s land stewardship efforts through strategic invasive species management and active habitat restoration across its preserves. She looks forward to working together with members of the Princeton community to help improve the biodiversity of our open spaces.
Please contact AeLin Compton at aelincompton@fopos.org for volunteer opportunities or additional information on land stewardship at Friends of Princeton Open Space’s preserves.
The FOPOS trails committee continues its year-round volunteer work to maintain and improve Princeton’s many nature trails. Here, “corduroy” is being laid over a muddy stretch of trail heading to Witherspoon Woods from Mountain Lakes. A fuller writeup can be found here.
On October 3rd, 2010 Princeton Township and Friends of Princeton Open Space celebrated the opening of a new pathway along the scenic Stony Brook. The pathway includes new 125-foot and 60-foot pedestrian bridges, completing a critical linkage enabling cyclists and pedestrians to travel from the Princeton Battlefield and Institute Woods area to Mountain Lakes Preserve and Woodfield Reservation.
The new pathways and bridges can be accessed from Rosedale Road at Greenway Meadows Park or from Route 206 at Hutchinson Drive, north of the service entrance to TPC Jasna Polana.
Leading up to the celebration, Steve Hiltner, Naturalist for Friends of Princeton Open Space, led a walk from Greenway Meadows to the bridge, and members of the Princeton Joint Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee lead a bike ride along a different route.
The celebration recognized the many partners who have worked for over fifteen years to achieve this important pathway linkage, which Friends of Open Space advocated through a brochure and video they produced in 1997. After Friends of Princeton Open Space obtained Township Committee’s support, other partners have worked to make the project possible including the New Jersey Department of Transportation, D&R Greenway Land Trust, TPC Jasna Polana and The Hun School of Princeton.
Special recognition was given to longtime Friends of Princeton Open Space trustee, Helmut Schwab, who has advocated tirelessly for this project for almost two decades.
Linking Princeton’s parks to each other and to the surrounding communities has been a goal of Princeton Township and Friends of Princeton Open Space since the early 1990s. In 2002, the Township Engineering Department obtained a $500,000 Federal Transportation Enhancement grant for the construction of the main bridge. A National Recreational Trails grant, a State Livable Communities Grant and a State Bikeway grant were also received, which provided an additional $290,000 in grant funding to finance the $950,000 construction project. With the help of D&R Greenway Land Trust and Friends of Princeton Open Space, the Township purchased land above the Stony Brook to enable handicapped accessibility on the pathway. Let It Grow, Inc. of River Edge, New Jersey constructed the bridges and new pathway linkage to Route 206. Friends of Princeton Open Space constructed the pedestrian pathway along the Stony Brook to connect the bridges and southern pathway to Greenway Meadows Park and Rosedale Road.
Awards Given for Bridge Concept and Installation
On May 24th, the Princeton Township Committee specially recognized Helmut Schwab, Robert von Zumbusch and the Friends of Princeton Open Space at its meeting for their contributions to the creation of the Stony Brook footbridge near Jasna Polana/the Hun School, and for developing the concept of a loop trail around Princeton.
Helmut came in for special commendation as the person without whom it would not have ever happened and for his long years of work on the project, and Robert for his help as a member of the Historic Preservation Commission in working out those aspects of the project.
Robert Kiser, the Township Engineer, received an award from the NJ Engineers’ Society for this project. A lot is also owed to Anthony Soriano, another member of the Engineering Department, who – starting when he was an intern – successfully put together grant applications that provided 80% of the total funding.
