Pictured at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve are Friends of Princeton Open Space interns Felicia Sanders, Kat McLaughlin, Reena Dave, Anna Corichi (Director of Natural Resources & Stewardship), Sam Sebasto, Hollie Lane, Casey Burton, and Bailey Glenetske.
Summer 2022 is in full swing and we couldn’t more grateful for the amazing team of seven Land Steward Interns working with us to develop ecological monitoring protocols and educational programming at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton.
Projects include turtle, insect, and botanical surveys, macroinvertebrate sampling, water quality and soil health assessments, GIS (Geographical Information System) surveys of the preserve, and instructional events. Recently, intern Hollie Lane led a well-attended educational walk focused on identifying birds by song.
This year's team of student interns represent Rutgers University, Mercer County Community College, Raritan Valley Community College, and Princeton University's High Meadows Environmental Institute.
“This is the largest intern team we've had yet, and the support has really helped to advance FOPOS' goals of growing our ecological monitoring capabilities and offering more environmental educational programs to the community,” noted Anna Corichi, FOPOS Director of Natural Resources & Stewardship.
“The data they collect will help to inform us about habitat quality as well as the efficacy of our management efforts,” she continued. “We’re answering questions such as 'Do we have endangered wood turtles at the Preserve?, and 'What are the most effective ways to manage invasive stilt grass?' This is in addition to the ongoing fieldwork required to steward our restoration project sites, which involves ongoing FOPOS and community volunteer efforts, like invasive species management, deer-exclusion fence repair, and planting thousands of native species.”