Highland Park, New Jersey Environmental Commission Highland Park Plantspiece of green plant

Highland Park Environmental News 2003

Metlar Burns
leaf Ayres Beach Natural Area Goes Public
leaf Volunteer Season is Now
leaf Environmental Games in the Native Plant Reserve
leaf The Eagle has landed
leaf Livingston Manor and Historic Register-NEW DATE NOV. 25
leaf Backyard Wildlife Program comes to Highland Park
leaf Greenway progressing
leaf Wood Chips Available
leaf Historic Metlar-Bodine House Burns
leaf More on the HP Environment (past news)
  • Ayres Beach Natural Area Goes Public. Ayres Beach Middlesex County's new public open space at our bend of the Raritan has been cleared of former buildings and debris and is ready for strolling. It is on the site of old Red's Marina, and before that of the Ayres Family beach that was once a center of Highland Park social life. The county has demolished the old, unsafe, buildings and given the site a new look with grading and seeding. The result: a surprisingly broad grassy open space with natural vegetation around the edges (good birding?). Much of this will flood each spring. More on Ayres Beach.1/04


  • Volunteer Season is Now. Now is the time. Each winter, the mayor appoints the next year's members to the Shade Tree Advisory Committee (STAC). If you're visiting this web site (and you are, aren't you) you're probably interested in our kinds of things: street trees, native plantings in open space, or giving horticultural advice to residents. We do a lot, learn a lot, and see real results: trees, shrubs, and flowers on our streets and in our open spaces.

    Particular STAC projects (or joint projects with the Environmental Commission) that you can help on for 2004 are a street tree planting, a nature trail leading into Donaldson Park, and expansion of the Native Plant Reserve, with its new environmental center.

    Take some definite steps now. Click "contact us" at the bottom of the pages on this web site: give us a phone number and we'll call and talk. Come to a meeting to see what it's like (second Wednesday of the month, 8 p.m., borough hall, 221 South Fifth: meetings are always open to the public). Fill out a "Talent Bank" form at borough hall, or ask the clerk to mail you one. 12/03


  • Environmental Games in the Native Plant Reserve. Japanese Honeysuckle The Native Plant Reserve hosted a youth outing--complete with environmental games--of Camp Power Girls, a day camp for girls ages 10-14 run by Who Is My Neighbor, Inc. Their environmental games began with an environmental version of scavenger hunt, searching out invasive plants to match the leaves they were given. In their environmental version of tag they "became" the various elements of a natural ecosystem, with predators running around eating prey and so on--until finally everyone got gobbled up by invasive species. See game descriptions. 10/03


  • The Eagle has landed. An adult bald eagle has been reported in Johnson Park (October 26) roosting in trees by the riverside pond near the zoo. Is this a return of the same bald eagle that visited for several days last winter? Or are we now an attractive stopover site for any bald eagle passing by? Has anyone else seen it? Let us know. 10/03


  • Livingston Manor and Historic Register-NEW DATE NOV. 25. The state’s Historic Preservation Office has notified residents of Highland Park’s Livingston Manor district of a community meeting and slide presentation AT THE NEW DATE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, at Borough Hall (7:30 p.m.). (The Historic Preservation Office changed the date from the previously announced Oct. 29.) The letter states that the district “will be considered by the New Jersey State Review Board for nomination to the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places” and instructs homeowners how they may submit comments. It also assures homeowners that “Listing provides recognition of the community’s historic importance and assures protective review of public projects that might adversely affect the character of the historic property... [but] does not mean that limitations will be placed on the properties by the State or Federal governments. Within the limits of municipal zoning laws, private property owners are free to utilize, renovate, alter, sell or demolish their properties.” An accompanying sheet mentions possible tax and other benefits for owners of listed properties.

    Earlier local studies, with several public presentations and discussions, have already portrayed the district as likely to be register-eligible because of the fine surviving ensemble of turn-of-the-twentieth-century architectural specimens (1907 to 1920s), mostly with Craftsman styling, and because of its historic role as one of the earliest planned developments. The original pre-Civil War farmhouse home (81 Harrison) whose land later became the manor development was found individually eligible and is already on the Register. Borough historian Jean Kolva’s detailed presentation to the state is the summation of these several studies and public meetings, together with her own extensive new research into the history and character of each house. Residents can see that illustrated document at the Highland Park Public Library.

    Those who have not been at the earlier presentations or seen the earlier studies will find those there also, particularly the detailed 1998 Livingston Manor District Historical Study and the more general 1993 Cultural Resources Inventory, which has a readable, brief summary of the overall importance of Livingston Manor. 10/03


  • Backyard Wildlife Program comes to Highland Park. The National Wildlife Federation has just certified its first Highland Park yard for its Backyard Wildlife Program. This program recognizes yards that help birds, butterflies, and other wildlife survive (even in urban areas) by providing food and shelter. The yard certified belongs to Arnold and Natalie Henderson, and like most in the program, has shrubs and trees that give birds berries and shelter, flowers that provide butterflies with nectar, a few food plants for butterfly larvae, a small water tray for bird baths and drinking, and bird feeders and houses. There are specimens of some 90 native plant species, and more than 35 bird species have visited at one time or another.

    If you, too, would like to make your yard more supportive of native plants and wildlife, you can contact the National Wildlife Federation through the LINKS box at the head of this web page. They provide advice on how to go about it, whether you just do some small corner or a full yard. If you want to do something in this line, let us hear from you by a message to our own Highland Park Environmental web site. 10/03


  • Greenway progressing. The big news in greenway development is the final action by Middlesex County in taking possession of the Ayres Beach area at the bend of the Raritan River (former site of Red's Marina). The county has taken out immense amounts of trash and debris and reseeded the area.

    Design work is continuing on other parts of the riverside greenway/environmental education project. The first to reach actual construction will probably be on the Southside in October and November. Design is complete for the reconstruction there of the path from the Southside Bikeway down to Donaldson Park. It will have a compacted stone surface suitable for bicycles, wheelchairs, and strollers, and native plants will be added alongside for double function as a nature trail.

    Other steps in greenway development have been weed clearance and the mulching of native plantings around the foot of the Southside Bikeway, and the placing of a Green Acres sign at Valley Place Ravine off South Adelaide. The previous lack of a sign was felt to have prevented some Highland Park residents from realizing this was public land and available for them to stroll down to the river. Now, with the fence removal at former Red's Marina, it becomes easier to walk from the Valley Place Ravine trail over to Ayres Beach (named after the early twentieth-century swimming beach). Meanwhile, on Northside, design for the River Road center is progressing, with work expected to begin in 2004 on paths, plantings, and a shelter. 10/03


  • Wood Chips Available. The wood chips piled at South Fifth and Valentine (across from DPW) are for residents to take for their yards. The freshest chips are best for use on paths, garden edgings, and mowing strips. Choose more weathered or partly rotted chips for mulching around plants. Fresh chips take up soil nitrogen as they decay, robbing nearby plants. Chips that have already partly decayed are gentler. Keep chips or any kind of mulch a little away from the base of trees or other plants, or the trapped moisture can cause rot in the plant itself.

    While gathering your chips, take a look at the nearby beds of fothergilla and blueberry shrubs, and catalpa and cherry trees. These have been recently rescued from weeds and mulched--with chips. 10/03


  • Historic Metlar-Bodine House Burns. Documents and exhibits as well as the building’s interior and parts of the roof were destroyed as fire swept the historic Metlar-Bodine House on River Road just outside Highland Park’s north boundary during the night of July 17-18, 2003. With portions built during the colonial era, it was one of two survivors from the town of Raritan Landing. As Piscataway’s history museum, it included exhibits of our area’s transportation history, from the Native-American Assunpink Trail and the colonial road that once passed through Highland Park and along the Raritan, to today’s nearby Interstate highway. See photos.7/03


leaf  HP Environment News Winter-Spring 2003
leaf  HP Environment News 2002
leaf  More on the HP Environment (past news)

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