Students from the Principles of Natural Resource Management course undertook a series of hands-on projects out in the EcoPreserve during the Fall 2015 semester. These projects included everything from the installation of bat maternity colony nesting (see photo above),solitary bee and bluebird boxes to riparian zone, pollinator meadow and vernal pool restoration projects to monitoring of small & large mammal populations, invasive plant species and diseased trees.
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…
Students in the Principles of Natural Resource Management class were doing stream surveys on October 7, 2014 and found this foot long American eel (Anguilla rostrata) (dead) in a pool along Buell Brook. Eels have a fascinating life history that connect the EcoPreserve to the distant waters of the Sargasso Sea. Adult eels leave the US coast to swim out to the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda to spawn. The young hatch and move north with the help of the prevailing…
The 2014 summer trail/land stewards crew has been hard at work maintaining and upgrading the trails in the EcoPreserve this summer. Highlights include improvement of the boardwalk on the Green Trail, trail bed filling/chipping, and the construction of a new bridge on the Blue Trail. The crew has also assisted in the construction of the new trailhead kiosk off of the Livingston Campus Avenue E/Rockafeller Road roundabout.