Annual Meeting
Sunday, April 29,
2007 - 3 pm, Mt. Lakes House
57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton Township
Leslie Sauer, a pioneer in the field of restoring and managing native landscapes and the author of The Once and Future Forest, will be the speaker at the Friends of Princeton Open Space annual meeting. The title of her talk is Nurturing Nature in the Modern World—Landscape Management and Preservation.
Despite a remarkable system of parks and reservations, both public and private, in New Jersey and throughout much of the United States, native plants and animals are disappearing from protected lands. Even once-common species, such as trillium and bloodroot, are now disappearing, while a few aggressive non-natives, such as loosestrife and autumn olive, increasingly dominate the landscape. Local animals, including many amphibians, are declining, while pigeons and cats abound. In her slide show, Ms. Sauer will present an array of landscape management projects and case studies that focus on sustaining native biodiversity. The park projects include forest lands, streams, and meadows. The case studies include examples of the management of private lands adjacent to parkland; illustrating how homeowners, institutions, and the community can advance preservation of native species rather than unwittingly contribute to their demise.
The meeting will be held at the Mountain Lakes House, located in the Mountain Lakes Nature Reserve on Mountain Avenue (just off Route 206) in Princeton Township.
Ms. Sauer will speak after a very brief business meeting at which new trustees will be elected. Refreshments will be served. A walk through Mountain Lakes and adjacent Tusculum (led by Stephen Hiltner, Natural Resources Manager for Friends of Princeton Open Space) will follow Ms. Sauer’s talk. The meeting is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested; RSVP to Friends of Princeton Open Space, 609-921-2772.
Ms. Sauer has directed the reestablishment of natural systems in a wide range of sensitive, degraded, and developed environments. She has been a key player on such landscape-scale watershed projects as the Flood Protection Plan for the Passaic River in New Jersey, the Conservation Plan for the Manumuskin Watershed in New Jersey, and the Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan for the Rockaway River Watershed. Her park projects range from urban greens, including both the Woodlands of Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City, and Wissahickon Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to National Historic Monuments like the Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia.
Ms. Sauer’s book, The Once and Future Forest, is a guidebook for restoring and managing natural landscapes--especially remnant deciduous forests.
Friends of Princeton Open Space is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving open space. For additional information, call 609-921-2772.