RESTORATION GRANT: The State of New Jersey has awarded $552,000 to Princeton for ecological work at Community Park North. It is one of the state’s first Natural Climate Solutions grants.

By Donald Gilpin

Princeton will be receiving $552,000, one of the state’s first Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) grants, to be used for the ecological restoration of 40 acres at Community Park North.

Wendy Mager, president of the Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS), which collaborated with the Municipality of Princeton in applying for the grant, explained why the award is so important.  “It demonstrates that Princeton is recognizing and acting on the fact that open space, which happily we have a substantial amount of, doesn’t just take care of itself,” she said. “It has to be taken care of.”

She continued, “That’s particularly true because the impacts of invasive species and deer have made it difficult or impossible for forests and other open spaces to naturally regenerate, and this area in Community Park North is a dramatic illustration of that. There are big open areas where the forest canopy is gone because of natural events like wind storms.

What happens is that they are taken over by invasive species, and the young saplings that would otherwise regenerate are either crowded out, shaded out or choked by vines. This project is going to address that in a big way, so that we don’t lose a forest that we made an effort to preserve.”

The NCS grant program seeks to mitigate climate change caused by the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide by funding projects that create, restore, and enhance New Jersey’s natural carbon sinks, according to a FOPOS press release. Natural resources that sequester carbon play a critical role in meeting New Jersey’s 2050 goal of an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases below 2006 levels.

The funds that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) makes available for NCS grants come from New Jersey’s participation in the 12-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which provides the state with carbon allowance auction proceeds to invest in programs and projects designed to help meet its climate, clean energy, and equity goals, the press release reported.

Princeton’s Community Park North project proposes to help achieve those goals through restoration of sections of the park currently populated mostly by invasive plant species, which have choked out native wildflowers, shrubs, and tree saplings. Deer have also prevented new native trees from growing, and as mature trees are lost the critical carbon sequestration declines. 

The project aims to reverse that process by planting native trees and shrubs, focusing most of the plantings within six targeted areas that lack canopy, with each area enclosed by a fence to exclude deer.

The grant proposal was prepared by Princeton Municipal Open Space Manager Cindy Taylor, FOPOS Director of Natural Resources and Stewardship Anna Corichi, and Mager, who were assisted by environmental scientist and Princeton resident Randye Rutberg and by the engineering firm Princeton Hydro, which the municipality designated a partner in the project. 

“Since I was hired in 2020, I have been focusing on collaborating with the nonprofit community to properly manage the open space that Princeton has wisely preserved,” said Taylor in the press release. “FOPOS has been a great partner in working towards that goal, and without their professional and financial support, the application for this grant would not have been completed.”

Mager noted that Community Park North is directly adjacent to the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve, which FOPOS manages and where it conducts major ecological restoration projects with funds raised from individuals, foundations, corporations, and public sources such as NJDEP’s Green Acres program.

Emphasizing FOPOS’ reliance on volunteers for ecological restoration work, Mager went on to note that people from the community will have the opportunity to work with Corichi and with summer interns in completing significant project work in removing invasive species and in planting.

“Anna [Corichi] will be wanting to use the stewardship work sessions to educate people about invasive species and hopefully teach them how they can use some of these same techniques in their own backyards, and introduce them to native plants they might like to incorporate on their own properties, and why that would be a good idea,” said Mager. “We hope to involve people from all different age groups and walks of life, including schoolchildren, in this whole process.”

Corichi emphasized the importance of creating large contiguous areas where active plants can thrive and invasive species are managed on an ongoing basis. “We’re fortunate to have such enthusiastic support from our members and volunteers,” she said. “They understand that the native ecosystem we are preserving and restoring sustains the wildflowers, pollinator insects, birds and other animals that are an integral part of the same ecosystem that supports human life.”

Corichi and FOPOS interns assisted Taylor and Rutberg on tasks necessary to complete the proposal, including measuring carbon capture by cataloguing numbers and species of trees, measuring trunk diameters and heights, and taking core samples to determine tree ages. Rider University Professor Daniel Druckenbrod also contributed expertise for the forest inventory.

Corichi noted that FOPOS will be hosting a series of educational sessions to kick off the project and engage the greater Princeton community.