1st Annual FOPOS Give Thanks for Nature Photo Contest

The Contest

Friends of Princeton Open Space and REI are encouraging the Princeton Community to OptOutside and enjoy nature this Thanksgiving weekend.  Plan a visit to Mountain Lakes Preserve on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday and bring your camera to participate in the 1st annual FOPOS Give Thanks for Nature Photo Contest. 

Take your best shot of all that Mountain Lakes Preserve has to offer, and submit your photo for a chance to win an REI gift card!

Directions to Mountain Lakes

Mountain Lakes Preserve is located at 57 Mountain Ave, Princeton, NJ 08203.  Contestants can park at the Community Park North parking lot.

File Format

Files must be in JPG format.  Any aspect ratio is acceptable, but please size the file so that the longest dimension is 1500 pixels and set the quality to “high.”

Filenames MUST include your name brief description of picture:

For example:  if your name is Joe Smith and you are submitting a photo of an oak tree, you might name your file:

JoeSmith-Oak tree.jpg

DO NOT send files with your camera's default filename!

In order to ensure anonymous judging, please include no signatures or watermarks that would reveal the name of the photographer on the photo itself.

Entries must be submitted by midnight, Tuesday December 1st.  Please e-mail jpeg files to info@fopos.org, with Photo Contest in the subject line.

Copyright

The photographer retains full copyright to his or her images. However, participation in the contest requires the contestant to give Friends of Princeton Open Space permission to use the photographs without compensation on the website as well as in news releases which may appear in print or on third party websites for the purpose of publicizing the contest.  Friends of Princeton Open Space will always include the photographer's name when using a photograph for any purpose.

Timeline

• Submission:  You may submit starting November 26.  The deadline to submit is midnight, Tuesday, December 1, 2015. (Eastern Time)
• Judging:  mid-December
• Finalists Announced:  January 15, 2016

Friends of Princeton Open Space

Come Join Us for a Night Hike!

Exploring the Night

Adults and families with children 8 and older are invited to join Jeff Hoagland, Education Director of Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, on an autumn evening walk of the Watershed Reserve trails.  Gain an intimate glimpse into the nocturnal world as we look for glowworms, listen for flying squirrels and call for owls.  Bring a flashlight.  Registration is required – please email mpolefka@thewatershed.org or call 609-737-7592 for more information and to sign up.   Fee is $8pp for members of either organization, $12pp for non-members..  This program is co-sponsored by Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.

When:  Friday, October 9, 2015, 8:00-9:30PM

Where: Watershed Center, 31 Titus Mill Road, Pennington, NJ\

Adam Schellhammer

Natural Resource Manager

Friends of Princeton Open Space

D'Ambrisi Ribbon Cutting

FOPOS HELPS ADD IMPORTANT LAND TO PRINCETON BATTLEFIELD

                On September 16, 2015 President Wendy Mager and several board members joined Mayor Liz Lempert, County Executive Brian Hughes, State Park Service Director Mark Texel, State Senator Kip Bateman and many others to celebrate the addition of the D’Ambrisi tract to Princeton Battlefield State Park.  Kip Cherry, Vice President of the Princeton Battlefield Society, organized the event and was instrumental in working with the D’Ambrisi family to preserve their land.  Mrs. D’Ambrisi and two of her sons looked on proudly as they were commended for their decision, and the Mayor referred to all of the citizens who helped make this happen as modern-day heroes,  who compliment the heroes who fought on this land during the American Revolution.

                FOPOS contributed $200,000 toward the acquisition, consisting of a grant from the County’s open space program and $100,000 of funding from the DEP’s Green Acres program.

                As part of the acquisition process, the D’Ambrisihouse was removed and the dam for the on-site pond was repaired by the municipality.  A tributary of Stony Brook flows through this and adjacent lots, all of which were once part of the landscape of the Drumthwacket estate designed for Moses Taylor Pyne after the Revolution.  The site contains many lovely, mature trees, and a new trail provides access from the area of the colonnade in Battlefield Park.

                The 4.6-acre D’Ambrisi property provides a critical link from Battlefield Park to Stockton Street (Route 206 South), and was the site of critical events in the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777.  That event  was a turning point in the Revolutionary War, the first battle won against professional British soldiers.  After the battle, 21 British and 15 American soldiers were buried in one grave in this area due to the frozen ground and the need for American troops to hasten away from the approach of General Cornwallis and his 8,000 soldiers.  The Battlefield Society has received a federal grant to study the site, and has already performed ground penetrating radar studies.

                The vision for the future is to connect the D’Ambrisi property with many other  preserved lands on both sides of Battlefield Park, by continuing a bike path from the eastern side of the Park over to Stockton Street and along Stockton Street to Edgerstoune Road.

CELEBRATION OF NEW FOOTBRIDGES!

CELEBRATION OF NEW FOOTBRIDGES TO BE HELD AT BILLY JOHNSON MOUNTAIN LAKES NATURE PRESERVE

On Sunday, October 18th at 1:30, Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS) and the Municipality of Princeton will celebrate the completion of two new footbridges at the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. The bridges will make the beautiful natural setting more accessible for walkers.  

Members of the public are invited. Refreshments will be served at Mountain Lakes House after a ribbon-cutting at the footbridges.  

The bridges afford lovely views of tributaries of the Stony Brook, and are now part of a trail system of over eight-and-one-half miles in the greater Mountain Lakes Recreation Area.  They cross two small streams that were obstacles to hikers in the southwest section of the Preserve.  FOPOS collaborated with the municipal Engineering Department to obtain needed permits and organize the construction.  Princeton contracted for the laying of the bridge foundations and erection of the steel supports, while FOPOS members donated their time and labor to build the wooden superstructure.  

The costs of the footbridges were met by a combination of a $50,000 grant to FOPOS  from a private foundation; the time of members of the Engineering Department; and the time of FOPOS volunteers.  FOPOS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting open space in Princeton, and holds the conservation easements on the Mountain Lakes Preserve and Mountain Lakes House.  FOPOS  has also “adopted” the adjacent Mountain Lakes North and John Witherspoon Woods tracts through the municipal  adopt-a-park program, and maintains the trails there as well as in Mountain Lakes Preserve and Community Park North.

Friends of Princeton Open Space Annual Meeting 2015

• Talk by Shana S. Weber, Director, Office of Sustainability at Princeton University.

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

PRINCETON, NJ, March 23, 2015 — Shana S. Weber, Director, Office of Sustainability at Princeton University, will be the featured speaker at the 2015 annual meeting of the Friends of Princeton Open Space at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 19th. Her talk, “Sustainability Uncovered: The Gritty Underbelly of Meaningful Environmental Endeavors at Princeton University,” will focus on the unprecedented levels of sustainability and environmental stewardship integrated into the University’s current strategic planning and visioning process.

The meeting will take place at Mountain Lakes House, 57 Mountain Avenue in Princeton. Dr. Weber will speak after a brief business meeting at which new trustees will be elected. Refreshments will be served. A walk through Mountain Lakes and adjacent Tusculum led by FOPOS naturalist Adam Schellhammer will follow Dr. Weber’s talk.

The meeting is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested by April 15th; RSVP to Friends of Princeton Open Space, 609-921-2772.

Dr. Weber has coordinated Princeton University’s efforts in implementing cross-disciplinary and repeatable campus-based sustainable demonstration systems since 2006. Prior to joining Princeton University she was a founding director and faculty member for the Santa Clara University Environmental Studies Institute and a producer for a nationally-syndicated environmental radio talk show. Dr. Weber received a B.S. in Zoology from the Ohio State University and an MSES and Ph.D. in Environmental Science from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Her past research areas include the intersection of climate change impacts and land use history, and population biology of culturally-significant wetland vegetation.

About Friends of Princeton Open Space Founded in 1969 to preserve open space in the face of development pressures, Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS) is a non-profit organization that has helped to establish over 1,000 acres of parkland and a network of interconnecting trails that nearly circles Princeton. Through the contributions of hundreds of people in the community, FOPOS has helped to raise $4.5 million for the purchase and acquisition of easements on properties that might otherwise have been bulldozed for development. Mountain Lakes Preserve, Greenway Meadows, Coventry Farm, the Institute for Advanced Studies Lands, the Woodfield Reservation, Tusculum, Turning Basin Park, as well as the Ricciardi and All Saints tracts, are among the properties in Princeton preserved with the assistance of FOPOS.

Contact: Kathy Cook (609) 921-2772