Girl Scouts Celebrate Earth Day with Service Project at Mountain Lakes Prerserve

The Princeton Girl Scouts Service Unit joined Friends of Princeton Open Space for an Earth Day Celebration at Mountain Lakes Preserve, on April 21. The group honored the holiday with a service project to plant 40 new trees and shrubs along the Preserve’s woods and lake. Afterwards, the girls enjoyed crafts and snacks at the Mountain Lakes House. FOPOS’s naturalist also led them through a nature scavenger hunt in Witherspoon Woods, where they explored the many trees, flowers, and fungi growing in our local environment.

A big thank you to Jean Crider, Elizabeth Monroe, and all the wonderful Girl Scouts for donating their time to bring new life in Mountain Lakes’ forests.

Thank you also to the New Jersey Tree Foundation for providing trees and shrubs, as part of their Celebrate Arbor Day program to plant over 10,000 trees across the state.

Explore Witherspoon Woods

Adults and families with children 6 and older are invited to join Jeff Hoagland, Education Director of Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, for an enlightening look at the geology, ecology and human history of this unique forest in Princeton. We will discover ‘life and death’ in the forest while examining a myriad of adaptations in various species. This hike will take us through mature forest, along old stonewalls, across small streams and through a memorable boulder field including Devil’s Cave. Registration is required – please email mpolefka@thewatershed.org or call 609-737-7592 for more information and to sign up. Fee is $5 per person, payable that day. This program is co-sponsored by Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association and Washington Crossing Audubon.

When: Saturday, May 4, 2013, 9:30AM – 12:00PM

Where: Cherry Hill Road, Princeton, NJ. Meet at gravel parking lot; sign at entrance reads “Witherspoon Woods”

Friends of Princeton Open Space Annual Meeting 2013

• Talk by Dr. Anthony Broccoli, Professor of Atmospheric Science, Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University.

• Walk through Mountain Lakes' Tusculum, lead by FOPOS' naturalist.

Dr. Anthony Broccoli, Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University, will be the featured speaker at the Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS) 2013 Annual Meeting, Sunday, April 28th at 3:00 P.M., at Mountain Lakes House. He will speak on “Climate Change and Extreme Weather: A New Normal?”

“In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and other recent powerful storms in our region, there is tremendous interest in the relationship between climate change and extreme weather events,” said Wendy Mager, FOPOS president. “Professor Broccoli will discuss this relationship as well as the implications for how we prepare for the impacts of future extreme weather events.”

Mountain Lakes House is located at 57 Mountain Ave., Princeton. Following the meeting, refreshments will be served, and AeLin Compton, Natural Resources Manager for Friends of Princeton Open Space, will lead a walk in Mountain Lakes Preserve and adjacent Tusculum.

The talk is open to the public. Anyone wishing to attend is urged to RSVP by April 24th — phone 609-921-2772.

Dr. Broccoli serves as Director of the Rutgers Climate and Environmental Change Initiative. His primary research interest is climate dynamics, especially the simulation of past climates and climate change. He currently serves as Chief Editor of the Journal of Climate, and he has been a contributor and reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Dr. Broccoli spent 21 years at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, one of the premier climate modeling centers in the world. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Welcome Winter Walk

Adults and families with children 5 and older are invited to join Jeff Hoagland, Education Director of Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, on a winter morning walk at the Mountain Lakes Preserve in Princeton. Together we will 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. And enjoy the fun of the ‘Hibernation Game’. Dress warmly, boots are recommended, and bring your sense of wonder. Registration is required – please email mpolefka@thewatershed.org or call 609-737-7592 for more information and to sign up. Fee is $5 per person, payable that day. This program is co-sponsored by Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.

When: Saturday, January 5, 2013, 9:30-11:30AM
Where: Mountain Lakes Preserve, Parking area at 34 Mountain Avenue, Princeton
(Community Park North Parking Lot)

Flowers in Bloom at Mountain Lakes Preserve

Mountain Lakes Preserve features a wonderful diversity of native plants and summer wildflowers. This collection of photos offers a taste of the beauty found in MLP this time of year. Please visit soon, to see these and other species in their full splendor!

Jewelweed’s orange flowers speckle this wetland meadow, near one of the Preserve’s several stream crossings. Jewelweed is a common native plant, valued for its ability to attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators, as well as its medicinal uses as a natural fungicide.

Hundreds of white wood asters line a trail in the Preserve, creating a beautiful and delicate border on either side.

The Mountain Lakes House rain garden is in full bloom! The rain garden is an important feature to Mountain Lakes Preserve. It helps protect our waterways by reducing storm water pollutants, and it provides important food and habitat to our local wildlife. More than that- it’s absolutely gorgeous!

The following link provides great information on the importance of rain gardens and offers support materials to help build your own! http://water.rutgers.edu/Rain_Gardens/RGWebsite/raingardens.html

Here we have a closer view of the rain garden. The garden’s great diversity of plants provides a beautiful array of colors and textures. From the showy pink flowers of rose mallow, to the less conspicuous, white flowers of boneset, each species in this rain garden was selected for its unique set of aesthetic and ecological benefits.

Here is a third photo of the Mountain Lakes House rain garden. Each year, as the plants self seed, the garden will grow into a richer and fuller display of native wildflowers.

Black eyed susans provide a splash of color to this small lake-view meadow. This wildflower’s seeds and nectar attract many species of birds and butterflies, respectively.

This wildflower meadow sits just north of Mountain Lake. It hosts a diversity of sun-loving plants, not found elsewhere in the Preserve. This photo shows some of the rich textured sedges and colorful wildflowers found in MLP’s wildflower meadow.

Here is a closer view of MLP’s wildflower meadow, featuring a beautiful cluster of cutleaf coneflowers.

A lone cardinal flower contributes to visitors’ view of Mountain Lake. This wildflower’s brilliant red color is known to attract humming birds and humans, alike! Friends of Princeton Open Space volunteers just planted 10 more cardinal flowers along the lake shoreline, so look forward to next year’s grander display.