For residents of the Princeton Ridge, a major focus of the past few years has been the natural gas pipeline that the Williams Transco company is adding to an existing line running through the area. Concerns about how this project will affect the surrounding environment have been paramount, particularly for members of the Princeton Ridge Coalition, which was organized soon after the plans were announced.

Construction is scheduled to begin during the middle of next month.

Recently, neighbors got some welcome news when Barbara and Michael Blumenthal, who own a 15.38-acre property on the northern side of Ridgeview Road, decided to dedicate an 11-acre portion to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. Ms. Blumenthal, who has been a key member of the coalition, said she and her husband will continue to own the front 4.39-acre portion of the property, which includes their house. Another building, which they have used as a guest house, sits on the property they are donating and will be offered for sale.

“We started working on this a few months before I ever heard about the pipeline,” she said. “We own a beautiful piece of property, not where our house is. We purchased the second piece of property some years ago. It has a house but also includes 10 acres of forest that run behind four different properties, so it’s a big swatch of the forest. We were planning to sell the second lot we own and wanted to make sure the back portion would never be developed. So we asked for a subdivision.”

The subdivision was approved providing for the dedication of the rear portion to the Conservation Foundation. Linda MacCollum, assistant director of land acquisition for the foundation, was pleased to discover the variety of flora and fauna when she examined the property.

“I’m a birder,” she said. “I walked through the property last spring, and the number of migratory birds was just tremendous. We hit it on a perfect morning last May. The bird life was just amazing. There is an incredibly intact forest as well. There are very few invasive species, which is not easy to see nowadays. It’s just a beautiful piece of forest.”

The property will fall under the New Jersey Greenacres program, in which non-profit organizations that keep their land for open space and recreational purposes are tax exempt. The Conservation Foundation is obligated to keep the site open to the public. “We don’t have to have trails open right away, but it is open and available and we’ll post it as such and put a sign up,” Ms. MacCollum said.

Among the 15 migratory birds Ms. MacCollum saw on her tour of the property were black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, black and white warbler, northern parula, ovenbird, woodthrush, scarlet tanager, turkey, and red-eyed vireo. She also listed a red fox, and plants including showy orchis, spicebush, jack-in-the pulpit, trout lily, wood geranium, Christmas fern, and sensitive fern.

“Many of the birds we saw are neotropical migrants that have come from South America to nest here in our temperate forests,” she wrote in a letter to the Blumenthals. “While some of these birds may nest here, many will use it as a stopover and will continue farther north to breed. They depend upon forested areas such as yours to feed on insects to fuel their journeys. In the fall, they will likely pass through again, this time depending on the fruit of the Spicebush shrubs that are so abundant on your property. This important shrub produces lipid filled berries that fuel their journey back down south.”

Ninety percent of the property is wetland or flood plain. “So it’s a piece that needs to be protected,” said Ms. Blumenthal. “There is a buildable lot on it, so if we had just sold it, somebody could have asked for a subdivision and built on the upland part of it. It’s a remarkable piece of forest and the Conservation Foundation was happy to get it. So it’s a little bit of good news in the midst of the pipeline construction.”