Since 1969, your generous support has fueled our success. Read Friends of Princeton Open Space’s annual membership letter to see how your contributions are driving vital conservation efforts, from habitat restoration to mentoring young environmental leaders. Help us make even greater strides in 2025.
FOPOS seeks a part-time program coordinator to work directly with FOPOS’s Director of Natural Resources and Stewardship to manage the organization’s year-round volunteer stewardship program and community events series. The selected candidate should be detail-oriented and able to manage emails, databases, program messaging and schedules as well as improve upon existing systems and workflow. Ideally, the program coordinator will be an enthusiastic person supportive of and tapped into land stewardship and preservation within the greater Princeton area. Web design skills, and experience in fundraising or marketing and promoting a business are a plus. This is an administrative job that offers flexibility in location, with the ideal candidate available to participate in regular in-person meetings and work sessions, as well as be present for key events located at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton, NJ.
This is an ongoing position that has the potential to grow with the right candidate, and is suitable for professionals as well as recent graduates with applicable skill sets.
Over the past twelve months, Friends of Princeton Open Space has focused on ecological restoration projects and on educating the next generation of conservationists, including those from communities of color. We are happy to report that, with your support, we have chalked up major successes.
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s photo contest. While it’s never easy to choose, we think these top three are pretty outstanding.
The past twelve months have been filled with new projects and new achievements for Friends of Princeton Open Space that advance our mission to preserve and care for open space, educate the public on environmental issues, and advocate for sound governmental decisions. Here’s some of what we’ve accomplished with your support.
Friends of Princeton Open Space is now accepting applications for our Land Steward Internship. FOPOS is partnering with D&R Greenway to offer two paid internships for the 2014 summer field season. Click here for information on the internship and how to apply.
2013 Stewardship Interns planting native wildflowers, as part of a stream bank restoration project in Mountain Lakes Preserve
In honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, a group of 15 volunteers from Rider University’s Athletic Department joined Friends of Princeton Open Space to help with land stewardship in John Witherspoon Woods.
A group of 4 students, led by FOPOS Board Member, Clark Lennon, carried lumber and installed much-needed boardwalk across three sections of the area’s muddiest trails. The additional 40 plus feet of boardwalk helps ensure year-round access to this beautiful wooded wetland.
Meanwhile, the remaining volunteers helped FOPOS’ Naturalist restore the wetland’s plant communities. They eradicated hundreds of invasive vines and shrubs, including Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, and Oriental bittersweet. The volunteers’ hard work has helped improve John Witherspoon Woods for all its visitors- people and wildlife, alike!
A big THANK YOU to the Rider University students for all of their help!
If you or your group would like to volunteer outdoors with Friends of Princeton Open Space, please contact us at info@fopos.org!
Join Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed’s Education Director, Jeff Hoagland, on a morning walk at Mountain Lakes Preserve to explore the wonders of the natural world in winter. Discover the unique survival strategies of local plants and animals, from milkweed to meadow vole and red oak to robin. Learn where animals store food and how they survive the season’s relentless chill. Enjoy the fun of the ‘Hibernation Game’. Dress warmly, boots are recommended, and bring your sense of wonder. Fee of $5 per person,payable that day. This hike is appropriate for adults and families, children 5 and older.
Registration is required – please email mpolefka@thewatershed.org.
When: Saturday, January 4, 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Where: Mountain Lakes Preserve, Princeton NJ
Three hundred newly planted native trees and shrubs will help restore a healthy forest to
a two-acre restoration site in Mountain Lakes Preserve. The planting was done on a brisk November afternoon by 15 volunteers from ZS Associates, a global sales and marketing consulting firm with offices in Princeton, along with members of Friends of Princeton Open space (FOPOS).
The planting follows on the efforts last August to clear the site of invasive plants and the construction of a fence around the site’s perimeter to prevent deer browse (project detailed here).
All the work has been supported by grants from Partners for Fish and Wildlife, a program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with additional funding from the Municipality of Princeton and FOPOS.
The project, spearheaded by FOPOS, has replaced multiflora rose, invasive honeysuckle, photinia, and other exotics with spice bush, winterberry, black cherry, and other native species. The invasives provide little food value for wildlife and threaten the long-term sustainability of the forest. The native plants will help create a balanced ecosystem, providing a vital habitat for a diversity of birds and animals and enabling the natural regeneration of the forest.
A big thank you to the hardworking volunteers from ZS Associates!
Volunteers interested in helping water and monitor the plants, even during the winter season, should contact our Natural Resources Manager, AeLin Compton, at aelincompton@FOPOS.org.
The Princeton Ridge East Conservation Area Partnership is developing a comprehensive stewardship plan. Input from the public is essential to manage this vital natural area, which now includes 600 acres of protected lands.
A simple online survey seeks feedback on land stewardship, forms of recreation to be permitted, and essential facilities. Please complete the online survey by November 30, 2013!
Fritillary on native Butterfly Weed flowers
The Princeton Ridge is a unique ecological area in Mercer County that extends westward from the Millstone River and the Delaware & Raritan (D&R) Canal State Park across the northern part of Princeton Township into Hopewell.
For more than 50 years, the Ridge’s forest and wetland habitats have been identified as among the most important and environmentally sensitive areas in the region. Its mature forests are home to numerous endangered and threatened species, among them the Wood Turtle, Eastern Box Turtle, Cooper’s Hawk and Barred Owl.
The Princeton Ridge’s 1,800 acres are being managed by Princeton Township, Mercer County, D&R Greenway Land Trust, Friends of Princeton Open Space, New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Stony Brook – Millstone Watershed Association. The Princeton Ridge East Conservation Area Partnership offers a map of this newly defined Conservation Area, so critical to native species, on the Princeton Township website.
