FOPOS
2025 Annual Membership Letter

Dear Friend:

2025 has been a stellar year for FOPOS’s impact on the health of our ecosystem and for our volunteer conservation work. We’ve expanded our educational offerings with new programs, completed and adopted a new strategic plan, moved forward our major restoration projects, and made our Program Coordinator a full-time employee. It’s been a busy year!

2025 Annual Membership Letter
FOPOS
FOPOS Summer 2024 Newsletter

PRESERVATION OF 90 ACRES ON HERRONTOWN ROAD

We look forward to a closing on another critical large tract on the Princeton Ridge – 90 acres on the north side of Herrontown Road, adjacent to Herrontown Woods Preserve. Friends of Princeton Open Space is contributing $390,000 of State Green Acres grant funding plus a private gift of $1 million towards the acquisition of this land, which was subject to intense development pressure before a preservation agreement was reached with the Municipality, FOPOS, and other non-profit partners. State grants to the consortium, County grants to the Municipality, our local open space tax and other private funds are all helping secure this important link in the forested tracts on Princeton’s perimeter, which provide important environmental services such as slowing stormwater runoff and habitat for threatened species.

Read on for more programming and event highlights…

FOPOS Summer 2024 Newsletter
FOPOS
FOPOS Seeks Program Coordinator

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.

FOPOS Seeks Program Coordinator
annual appeal, land preservation, nature
FOPOS
Recruit A Friend To Be A Friend

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.

Recruit A Friend To Be A Friend
FOPOS
Meet the 2023 interns

FOPOS provides Internships for young people actively pursuing a degree or career in ecology, natural resource management, environmental education, or related fields. Each summer, FOPOS welcomes a roster of budding naturalists to work with our Stewardship Team and interface with volunteer groups and our community. Read more about FOPOS's Internship program. FOPOS is also proud to offer Internships to high school students in partnership with the Outdoor Equity Alliance. Thank you to FOPOS's partners and friends for helping to make these Internships possible.

Please meet the 2023 Land Steward Interns…

Meet the 2023 interns

Janssen Cares Volunteer Day

Volunteers from Janssen Pharmaceuticals pulled on their work gloves and hefted trimmers, loppers, and chain saws to work with members of Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS) recently. Their task was to get a start on ridding the area along the driveway of the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve in Princeton of some stubborn invasive species.  

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After a quick lesson by FOPOS Natural Resource Manager, Jeff Geist, in identifying the most prevalent invasives, (honeysuckle, grapevine, porcelain berry, and multiflora rose), the eight Janssen personnel enthusiastically tackled their assignment, undeterred by poison ivy and two areas of ground-nesting yellow jacket wasps.  In record time 250 linear feet on both sides of the driveway had been cleared.

Clark Lennon, FOPOS board member and supervisor of the day’s work, said he was impressed by the Janssen crew.  “I never thought we would get this much accomplished in just a few hours”, he said.  “They worked really hard and did a great job.”

FOPOS plans to remove invasive species along the full half-mile length of the driveway into the Nature Preserve with the help of volunteers and board members. This work complements the 18 acre forest restoration project on the west side of Mountain Lake which FOPOS has also undertaken.

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Friends of Princeton Open Space is always interested in partnering with corporate groups who are looking for volunteer opportunities.  For more information, contact us at www.fopos.org.

Mountain Lakes is now a Monarch Waystation

The Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve is now a certified Monarch Waystation, sponsored by Monarch Watch.  Monarch Watch is a non-profit organization started by the University of Kansas, Department of Entomology.  On their website you can view a map of certified Monarch Waystations, report a tagged monarch butterfly, and read up on monarch conservation. 

These butterflies are endangered due to lack of habitat and pesticide usage.  Monarchs only lay eggs on milkweed plants, as it is the only plants the caterpillars can eat.  Tusculum Meadow and the J. Seward Johnson, Sr. Trail, bordering Coventry Farm, starting on Great Road, are both fantastic monarch habitats and contain lots of milkweed and nectar providing plants.  Mountain Lakes is proud to be a certified stop for monarchs on their incredible migration south to Mexico for the winter. 

For more information on monarch butteflies and how to help their conservation efforts, visit Monarch Watch and The Xerces Society. 

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Woodfield Reservation Update

This summer, the FOPOS Trail Crew has been hard at work restoring and repairing the trails at Woodfield Reservation.  Last year, the crew cleared several thousand feet of trails to make it walk-able.  This year’s project has been constructing boardwalks over swampy and wet trails.  Thus far, in June and July, the team had 9 workdays with a total of 14 volunteers resulting in 162 work hours, 360 feet of constructed boardwalks and 130 feet of relocated trails.

 

If you are interested in helping our volunteer crew for the remainder of the summer, and into the fall, please email us at info@fopos.org. 

Friends of Princeton Open Space Receives Franklin Parker Grant

Friends of Princeton Open Space (“FOPOS”) is pleased to announce that it has recently received its third Franklin Parker Excellence Grant, through a grant program administered by New Jersey Conservation Foundation.  Previous grants were used for projects in the 400-acre Mountain Lakes Open Space Area that surrounds FOPOS’s headquarters at Mountain Lakes House, and included installing native plants, constructing deer exclosures to protect native trees, shrubs and plants, and removing invasive species.

This year’s grant will be used to purchase resources to teach children from local schools and summer camps the importance and wonder of the natural world.  The children will be able to use equipment such as microscopes, insect nets and water quality testing kits to study plants and animals in our parks, and will also be given supplies for activities to do at home.

Since receiving the grant in June, FOPOS has already hosted 36 children from the Princeton YMCA Outdoor Living Skills camp.  FOPOS Natural Resources Manager Jeff Geist, along with summer interns Anna Korn and Katrina O’Donnell, gave the children a guided hike, pointed out edible wild berries, identified trees and wildlife, and taught basic outdoor first-aid.  FOPOS hopes to partner with many other school and camp groups to continue its environmental education work with the new equipment.