With the help of RU Facilities, TreeTech and a dedicated crew of students, the SuperStorm Sandy damage to the EcoPreserve was finally cleared away. A number of blowdown trees were chainsawed to open up the EcoPreserve trail system. The students, several with chainsaw certification from summer jobs with the US Forest Service, were able to put their skills to good use. So get out there and enjoy the trails in this great wintry weather.
There is an over population of White-tailed Deer occupying the Rutgers Ecological Preserve. The deer are causing increasing damage to the plant life and causing a danger to vehicles traveling on the perimeter roads. Over 85 deer-induced vehicle collisions in the vicinity of the EcoPreserve have been reported to police between 2010-2012. Recent vegetation inventories conducted by Rutgers University faculty and students document a change in the natural ecological characteristics of the EcoPreserve when compared to studies conducted in the 1970’s….
Superstorm Sandy on October 30-31 1012 caused a lot of blowdown timber in the EcoPreserve. Students in Natural Resources Management are undertook an inventory of the damage (see map above). We will be clearing the trails over the next several months.
A joint clean-up event was on Saturday September 29 with participation of 2 dozen students from the RU Outdoors Club, the Naturalist Club, Principles of Natural Resource Management class and local homeowners through the Friends of the Rutgers EcoPreserve. The stream corridor to the east of the Ross Hall neighborhood was our target. We hauled out a ton of dumped trash – a lot of metal and glass was recycled. Other junk was trashed. Its amazing what you can do with many…