Ecological Preserve

Morgan Mark is a PhD student in the Maslo Lab who is studying wildlife interactions, such as scavenging, that could facilitate disease transmission. This winter, Morgan is deploying cameras and roadkill deer carcasses across New Jersey to determine how scavenging communities and efficiencies vary across a wildland-to-urban gradient. After only a week, her site in the Rutgers Ecological Preserve yielded interesting footage and piqued the curiosity of multiple bucks, a red fox, and a raccoon. Morgan will continue to monitor her…

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Two Chronolog posts have been installed to promote citizen scientists to upload photos that document seasonal changes of the EcoPreserve forest and meadows.  The way it works – place your smart phone in the grey plastic slot atop the pole, snap a photo and upload it to Chronolog (instructions on post). You can then watch a time lapse animation of all the photos.  You can also visit the Chronolog website (https://www.chronolog.io/) to see the EcoPreserve time lapse animations but also…

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A series of informational signs highlighting the natural and human cultural history of the EcoPreserve have been installed across the preserve. The signs are sturdy and weatherproof. Funding for the signs were provided by a student crowdfunding campaign organized by Muggle Mayhem with additional support by the Charles Kontos family.

Under the able leadership of the EcoPreserve Land Steward, Kendall Eldredge, the Summer 2023 Trail Crew started construction of an accessible trail that leads from the parking lot down towards Buell Brook before looping back. The trail is composed of crushed red shale stone dust overtop landscaping fabric and contained by plastic edging or landscape timbers. The trail winds through the woods to reduce the steepness of the slope. When completed the trail should provide access to wheelchairs, walkers and…

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