The Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve

Friends of Princeton Open Space is based in the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve.  The Preserve’s 76 acres are located in the center of over 400 acres of protected public land that include the boulder fields in John Witherspoon Woods, the stream flowing through Mountain Lanes North, the boardwalk and pastures of Coventry Farm, and the meadows of Tusculum.  With its two lakes, numerous rocky creeks, wooded wetlands, and upland forests, this park provides a diversity of ecosystems for native flora and fauna.  These features combine with the area’s 9 miles of maintained trails to make the Mountain Lakes Open Space Area an important source of beauty and recreation for the community.

In 1987, FOPOS was instrumental in the acquisition of the Preserve.  Today, we not only hold the conservation easements that protect it, but have officially adopted the Preserve and the adjacent Mountain Lakes North and John Witherspoon Woods totaling 140 acres through Princeton’s Adopt-A-Park Program.  As a result, the Mountain Lakes Open Space Area has become a focus of the organization’s land stewardship efforts, including trail maintenance and ecological restoration work.

The Mountain Lakes House, located in the Preserve, contains the offices of Friends of Princeton Open Space and is rented for events, to raise additional funds for land preservation and stewardship.  Find out more about rentals and events below.