Sunday February 12, 2017 2-4pm Tour/Hike Leisurely stroll through the RU EcoPreserve with EcoPreserve Director Rick Lathrop with a special focus on the “The Woods in Winter”. Meet at the EcoPreserve trailhead kiosk (south of the Ave E roundabout, across from the Business School, Livingston Campus. Park in Scarlet Lot of the RAC).
Kiosk designer, Brian Curry, inspecting the completed Kontos kiosk To foster greater connections between the EcoPreserve and adjacent Livingston Campus, a new set of trails and gateway kiosk linking to the Rockafeller Road-Avenue E Roundabout were developed in 2013-2014. The newly completed gateway kiosk is dedicated to the memory of Charlie Kontos, Jr. At the time of his death in 2010, Charlie was in the process of completing the doctoral program at Rutgers in the Department of Ecology, Evolution…
In the fall of 2013, Principles of Natural Resource Management students Sara Morris-Marano, Danielle Podmayersky, Brittney Chrans and Noha Haggag built and installed 6 tree swallow boxes around the newly constructed stormwater detention basin/wetlands adjacent to Avenue E on Livingston Campus. Four of the 6 boxes are now occupied with the swallows swooping back and forth across the wetlands snatching up insects to feed their young. Tree swallows have a violet-green back, white underside with a slightly forked tail.
Cutleaved Toothwort blooming in Kilmer Woods A number of spring wildflowers are starting to emerge from the leaf litter and bloom in the mid-Spring sun. The most common species in Kilmer Wood by far is the spring beauty, Claytonia virginica. Another species that is blooming right now is the cutleaved toothwort, Dentaria laciniata (pictured above). An alternative name for this plant is the pepperroot as the roots are purported to have a peppery taste. The speckled foliage of the trout lily,…