Ecological Preserve

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) are unfurling their mini-umbrellas. Elsewhere spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) and trout lily (Erythronium americanum) carpet the forest floor.  While the white and pink blooms of the spring beauties are everywhere the yellow flowers of the trout lily are few and far between.  It takes number of years for the trout lilies to build up the energy reserves to bloom but the speckled foliage is still wonderful addition to the forest floor.  Anecdotal accounts suggest that some species of wildflowers were much more…

Read More Read More

    Sometimes you’re at the right place at the right time. Driving home one rainy winter’s evening along River Road in Piscataway, Nicole Golden from the Mercer County Wildlife Center spied the flashing lights of police car and a cluster of people gathered around the cowering form of a red fox. Nicole pulled over and jumped out ready to help the hapless fox, evidently hit by a car while crossing the road from the Rutgers Ecological Preserve towards Johnson…

Read More Read More

Students from the Principles of Natural Resource Management Class undertook a number of management/restoration projects out in the EcoPreserve this past fall 2011, including: trailbed restoration, Buell Brook stream restoration, invasive species removals, bathouse installation and deer exclosures with native shrub/tree planting. Instructor: Rick Lathrop