Environmental Center Digging In; Check Here for Progress.

Construction is pressing forward on Highland Park's Eugene Young Environmental Center at River Road, with projected completion fall 2006.

The first actual cutting of the ground came on March 30, 2006. Three years after a formal design presentation and tree-planting ceremony suggestive of a "groundbreaking" on April 22, 2003, ground actually was broken. A bulldozer operator cut carefully into the staked outline for the proposed Eugene Young Environmental Center. Standing in the growing hole, with white coveralls and holding a rod for measuring the depth achieved, a worker wears a protective filter mask to avoid inhaling dust stirred up.

UPDATES AND PHOTOS: By April 6, 2006, excavation was complete and frames were being set up to pour the foundation concrete. By April 17, bulldozers were cutting trenches diagonally from the street-side utility lines to the building for connecting water and sewer lines. Concrete pouring for foundations began April 27. The first weeks of May saw the progressive rise of forms for the walls. First pouring of concrete into the wall forms came on May 23: the environmental center is finally rising from the ground. For a couple of weeks, the concrete portion of the walls stood alone (see June 11 photo), but on June 15 there was a sudden change of scale as frames for retaining walls started spreading out across the site and reminding us that the system of berms, raised planting beds, and shade structure make the center much more extensive than just its core building. The next day, June 16, the core itself suddenly grew as a tall crane lowered steel I-beams, and the frame of the roof canopy was quickly bolted together. On June 20, the sheet steel roof was laid over the frame in a single day. A big, literally big, change in the whole look of the center came over the next days as a web of concrete retaining walls were poured and the frames removed. By June 27 the complex had grown and the glass-walled building was now seen for what it will finally be, just the central point of a wide-spreading patio area with walls and berms planted with native species, extending from the street back nearly to the riverside tree line. Still to come will be the tall shade structure.

NEW IN JULY: Meanwhile by July 2, off the site itself, a pedestrian crossing was being built across River Road at Walter, with stripes and new universal-access curb cuts, handy to the environmental center. This is a temporary crossing to reroute pedestrians during construction of Centennial Park at the corner, but the temporary crossing will be replaced Fall 2006 by a permanent crossing with pedestrian-activated lights for safety. The lower portions of retaining walls received a protective coating of black tar on July 20 and 21, making visible the level to which earth will be bermed up against them to form raised display beds of flowers and grasses. On the 26th and 27th, the dirt was dumped and bulldozed into position, changing a view of walls into a view of rising and falling slopes of earth, seen as you approach the center. (Once inside the central plaza, you again see the walls enclosing the whole space and perhaps serving as perches for bystanders at some future event in the center.)

NEW IN AUGUST: During August, interior framing in the building began with the uprights for the wall around the restroom. Sometimes progress becomes hard to see, even though it happens. Other times we see something but are unsure what it is. A long roll of black material showed up on August 8, a mysterious object lying there. Our guess is that it's a roll of waterproofing for the roof, where we will have soil over the waterproofing to support plants as a "green roof." Keep watching, keep guessing. For the rest of August, little seemed to be changing if you just looked casually as you passed. Actually, hidden work was taking place up under the roof, where steel frames were being placed as the base to which the interior ceiling of "reclaimed" wood will later be attached. This wood will come from a company that gathers trees cut by various municipalities and turns them into lumber instead of dumping to a landfill.



NEW IN SEPTEMBER: Walls and roof are coming along. The first week in September showed the start of roof waterproofing and the rise of the steel vertical strips that will form the walls, with glass panels slipped between them much as in a plate-glass storefront. By the third week of September, action was back on ground level with the laying of crushed stone to form the central plaza and with more berming up of soil against the walls. This time it is top soil for plantings, raising the level beyond that of the more structural subsoil deposited earlier. This gives the building even more the air of rising up out of the ground.

NEW IN OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: October and November are scheduled as active months, installing roof waterproofing, glass walls, and the separate structure of the large shade canopy. The wood ceiling was installed on 23 October, and the glass walls on 31 October. The completion of all structures is expected by early 2007 (plantings may be later, in spring and summer). By the second week of November, the structural parts for the roof of the shade structure were perched on a flatbed truck awaiting installation, while workers spread bags of soil across the "green roof," the glass walls neared completion, and the frame of the large foldup door was in place. This larger door will be a section of the glass building wall that can be raised to create a large opening and allow events to flow between interior and exterior. By mid-November, the "green roof" had soil in place and was planted with succulents, plants whose fleshy leaves help them thrive in dry, sun-baked areas. By November 21, the gray edging had been placed around the building's completed "green roof" and the white framework (later painted green) for the adjacent shade structure was being assembled in the patio. On December 1, this unwalled roof was raised up, roughly doubling the area where people can gather under shelter. More on the Environmental Center (see more construction photos). 3/2006 rev. 9/2006 11/2006

Donaldson Park Gets Native Plantings. Plantings of native trees and shrubs are transforming the 1930s-era Donaldson Park in Highland Park, NJ, into something perhaps more satisfying to the ecologically minded twenty-first century.

Images from Donaldson Park in December 2006 show the formerly bare rim of the pond now covered with such native shrubs as winterberry holly and such native trees as red maple. The edge of the Raritan River now sports erosion-resistant native vegetation (reinforced by matting for protection while roots develop). A sprawling compacted-gravel parking area by the reconfigured boat launching ramp has been given a tighter shape (along with new paving, grass, and a gazebo). The most traffic-laden road through the center of the park has been completely removed. This forces traffic to split just inside the entrance into smaller, separate streams for the different use areas rather than continuing as a single, more massive traffic flow across the center before splitting. The effect of all these native plantings and traffic dispersal strategies is likely to improve the ecological value of this heavily used urban park, with its prime riverside location that has already attracted visits from such endangered/threatened species as bald eagle, osprey, peregrine falcon, Savannah sparrow, pied-billed grebe, and red-headed woodpecker. 12/2006

Bald Eagle Finally Photographed.
This web site has been reporting bald eagle sightings in Highland Park for some time now, but never with a convincing photograph—until now. Gabi Grunstein (whose bird photos are among those posted in our biodiversity section) finally got a clearly recognizable photo in October 2006 as this adult bald eagle passed over the WCTC radio tower in The Meadows. Joanne Williams’ bird lists on our web site show sightings every year since 2001, with the interesting fact that the eagles have over time been progressively seen in more months each year and right into the breeding season, not just as winter migrants passing through. This spread of sightings into the spring and summer, plus Arnold Henderson’s June 2006 sighting of an adult bald eagle catching a fish at Donaldson Park add up to a likelihood that our section of the Raritan River has become a foraging area for at least one pair nesting somewhere in the region. 12/2006

Centennial Park “Hardscape” Begins to Appear.
After long preparation of the ground for Highland Park's Centennial Park, the elements of "hardscape" are beginning to appear within the "landscape." These wooden forms will help create the steps of the new park, while an adjacent ramp will zig-zag down the same slope to provide universal access and easy strolling. This park, conceived during the 2005 centennial year of the incorporation of Highland Park, NJ, will become the visual center of attention for visitors approaching from the Raritan River (Route 27) bridge out of New Brunswick. Not seen in this photo is the last major element of the ground work, a broad hollow at the tip of the park that will catch storm runoff in a small but naturalistic wetland "rain garden" right at the busiest urban intersection in town and across the street from the larger natural area at the new Eugene Young Environmental Center. 11/2006

Donaldson Park Phase I Nearing Completion.
In Donaldson Park along the Raritan River in Highland Park, NJ, the first phase of a major reconstruction is nearing completion for the end of 2006 or early 2007. That phase covers the central third of this county park, with new boat ramp, gazebo, many native trees and shrubs planted around the pond and elsewhere, relocated and resurfaced parking areas, and a winding bicycle/pedestrian path separate from vehicular roads. The native plantings will shape the park into more of a natural area for “passive recreation,” while improvements to playing fields will enhance “active recreation.”

Next year is expected to begin Phase II, which will treat the two ends of the park and include an additional restroom at the east end of the park, near to the community garden and nature-watching opportunities at Highland Park’s only tidal marsh, in the extreme east end of the park adjoining The Meadows Natural Area. 11/2006

Coyote Photo Op.
A few people have seen them since the first sighting we have heard of, 1984. More have heard them (as reported in our 2005 News). But at last your newswriter got to see one of the fabled coyotes of the Rutgers Ecological Preserve--and get the first photo as it posed patiently at the edge of the woods opposite the Livingston College Student Health Center. Canis latrans has for decades been moving east from its original prairie home. From the colonists on, we've been fragmenting the woods and clearing out the coyote's few predators (bears, wolves, mountain lions), until we've turned the East into lovely coyote-friendly habitat. 11/2006

Meadows Trail Ceremony Held. A ceremony has been held for the start of work on a more walkable trail through the 16-acre Meadows Natural Area downstream of Donaldson Park. The kick-off ceremony for the trail-clearing project took place Friday, October 27, 11:30 a.m., with an “unveiling” of project signs at the trailhead off the Southside Bikeway, South Fifth and Valentine. An article with photos appeared in The Home News Tribune the next day.

After comments by Mayor Frank, by Arnold Henderson (chair of the Environmental Centers Working Group), and by Bob Spiegel (Director of the Edison Wetlands Association), the crowd explored the opening portion of the coming trail down to the river. A red-tailed hawk obligingly landed on the WCTC radio tower just as Arnold was pointing the tower out to the crowd as a regular raptor perch. Eventually the trail will be improved in a full loop down to the river and around the woods. The signs were created by Edison Wetlands Association, our partner in this project under a Recreational Trails Grant.

If you want to explore, follow the blue streamers and small white disks with the dancing heron logo marking the provisional trail down to the river. Watch out for groundhog holes and other obstacles. Note that trails marked by blue streamers alone are not at this time fully open. They are there to let workers in to clear them properly; we do not suggest that the public try to follow them deeper into the site (toward Edison). The bulk of that area has not yet been sufficiently cleared for public use. 10/2006 rev. 11/2006

Recycling Goes Literate: Book Sale Nov. 3-5. Friends of Piscataway Library are having their 2006 book sale at the Kennedy Library, 500 Hoes Lane. Since Highland Park is not gathering book donations this year, the Kennedy Library is a handy spot to donate your unwanted books, CD’s and vinyl records. Many are sent on to Africa if unsold. The sale hours are Friday Nov. 3, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday Nov. 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday Nov. 5, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. 10/2006

Triple C Ranch Reopens Oct. 15: Environmental Fun..
Yes, there’s a surprising, hidden ranch in this very county. The Triple C Ranch is not far above the Highland Park line at 206 Tyler Road in Edison township, NJ. Woods, fields, farm animals, and tree trunks carved into Native American faces appear magically off some tiny roads tucked behind the usual suburban sprawl. It’s reopening Sunday Oct. 15 (12-3 p.m.) after refurbishing. This preserved farm property is under the Green Acres program and run by the Edison Wetlands Association, who are also our partner in the Meadows Trail project in Highland Park. To find your way, download a map or directions from the usual web map places or the Edison Wetlands site. 10/2006

East Coast Greenway Plans a Route for Northern NJ.
The East Coast Greenway Alliance has announced a further detailing for the northern New Jersey segment of its Florida-to-Maine biking and hiking route. The route passes through Highland Park (on the Johnson Park bikeway), and as it passes north it will join proposed greenway sections in Edison and beyond. It forms a more coastal version of the Appalachian Trail, but instead of running through mountains, it is a trail connecting cities. The ECG web site contains further information on the route and on ways you can help sponsor it. Once there, click on New Jersey and then Middlesex County to see a more detailed map of our area, with notation of a "Proposed Highland Park Riverfront Greenway." 10/2006

Volunteers From Latter Day Saints at NPR.
Volunteers from the Latter Day Saints of Edison braved rain to rip out invasive shrubs and put down layers of weed-suppressing mulch on September 23. Volunteer groups such as this help keep our EPA-award-winning Native Plant Reserve from being overwhelmed by invasive plants, in this case Japanese knotweed and Morrow honeysuckle. 9/2006

Environmental Information Shared at Raritan River Fest.
This year, like last, the Raritan River Festival that for years was held across the river in New Brunswick’s Boyd Park was held on our side in Johnson Park (9/30/06). The Highland Park Environmental Commission and Shade Tree Advisory Committee presented an information table where Tim Coffey and Arnold Henderson (your newswriter) passed out environmental posters and information on our Environmental Center and Meadows Trail projects.

The River Fest as a whole also centered on an environmental theme this year: Climate Change/Global Warming. More information on River Fests is at the Raritan River Fest web site. (Let’s see, if global warming raises sea level, how far under water do we go along the banks of a tidal river like ours?) 9/2006 rev. 10/2006

Green Beats Concrete in New Brunswick. The Star-Ledger reports that Monument Square in downtown New Brunswick NJ is again being transformed—back to the green park it once was. The original park, surrounding a Civil War memorial, was replaced in the 1980s by a large (paved) plaza and fountain. But the fountain proved a maintenance headache, and now has been demolished. The once and future trees will return. 9/2006

Strange Beasts, Strange Plants in Highland Park.
Black squirrels are fairly rare. The Princeton University campus has them, but not Highland Park—until now. Now these black (melanistic) squirrels are being seen in parts of Highland Park, such as South Fourth and South Ninth/Tenth Avenues. This is not a separate species from our ordinary gray squirrel, but a genetic variation. Watch for them.

Meanwhile, in the plant world, ginko trees are not themselves rare anymore, now that we’ve planted this ancient Chinese tree along the streets, but female ginkos are rare indeed. Females bear a fruit with a, well, pungent odor. Considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine (but only with special preparation), they are nonetheless not a popular thing squishing under foot or invading your nose. Few cities would plant any deliberately. Yet now and then a female slips through. (Nurseries may not recognize the sex of a tree before it flowers, by which time it is too late.) Frank Deis recently sent us photos of a black squirrel (on Fourth) and a fruitful female ginko (in Donaldson Park). 9/2006

YM/WHA Debate on Rezoning & Future Plans. The land at the top of the high land of Highland Park, on the cliff overlooking the Raritan at the entrance to town, is now occupied by the YM-YWHA of Raritan Valley and zoned Quasi-Public. They wish to rezone so as to sell part of the property to a developer who would then construct a hi-rise residential building and new low building for the Y, while in the process demolishing the nineteenth-century Meyer-Rice mansion. There will be controversy. Come to a special Planning Board meeting Thursday, September 28, 2006, to hear the report from Borough Professionals on a study they are conducting. The meeting will be at the Senior/Youth Center, 220 South 6th, at 7:30 p.m. 9/2006

Watch Out for Raptors! Highland Park has been seeing some exciting birds lately, the big hunting birds called raptors: eagles and hawks. And not just any ones, but endangered and threatened ones. Look up at the WCTC tower from Donaldson Park or The Meadows and you may see the red-tailed hawk that often perches there, and sometimes the peregrine falcon (endangered) that was photographed there September 7. Rather tantalizing a few days earlier was a big dark bird that some think was an immature bald eagle (threatened) and others a dark form of red-tailed hawk. We’re watching that tower: possibly three very big and very special birds doing musical chairs on that one spot!

But bald eagles do show up here, even if we can’t yet prove the tower one. An adult fished our river in June (see news item below), and one has come every year since 2001. As for smaller hawks, Donaldson the other day had the tiny (and rapidly declining) kestrel. Even backyards with bird feeders can draw the midsize Cooper’s (threatened) and sharp-shinned hawks. Should you spot any of the endangered/threatened trio (peregrine falcon, bald eagle, Cooper’s hawk), and you’re certain of your identification, report it to the Department of Environmental Protection. See a few news items down for how to report. 9/2006

Donaldson Park Paths Laid.
Renovations continue at Donaldson Park, with new asphalt paths the latest completed element. Some roads planned for closing have now been removed, and parking areas appear to be under construction. 9/2006

Free Chips Again. Once again, wood chips are available free at the Native Plant Reserve on River Road at the edge of the gravel parking area nearly opposite Harrison Street. Our volunteers used the last wheelbarrow load from last year’s pile toward the start of August, spreading wood-chip mulch. Then within days some anonymous tree cutter brought us a new load, more than we can use right now. So help us use it up. Take fresh chips like these for paths and mowing strips; prefer more rotted chips closer to plants, but never put any kind of mulch right up against the base of a plant. You want your mulch to trap moisture in the ground, not in the actual stem of your tree or flower, where it just causes rot. 8/2006

Reporting Endangered Species. Highland Park is a rare bird among towns: urban in density, yet with enough nature to attract rare birds of a more literal sort, those on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s list of endangered and threatened species. Reporting any listed species you see (birds, turtles, whatever) is important but takes some care. Not every report gets into the Natural Heritage inventory, especially if DEP suspects that your creature was just passing through or (worse) not what you thought it was. A photo could be the convincer. Hunt down the nest if you can. To report, you need to see the DEP web site for the reporting instructions. That page has links to the required form and to the maps or aerial photos you need.

Below are birds seen in the last few years, mostly along the river in Donaldson or Johnson Park. (Our literal rare birds are often littoral rare birds. Ouch.)
Endangered Birds: Peregrine falcon, Pied-billed grebe, Least tern.
Threatened Birds: bald eagle, osprey, Cooper’s hawk, black-crowned night heron, Savannah sparrow, red-headed woodpecker. 9/2006

Centennial Park Taking Shape. Watch Here for Updates.
Centennial Park was designed in Highland Park’s centennial year of 2005. This was the year of independent incorporation, though the area was settled by Europeans in the late 1600s and early 1700s, and by the Lenape long before that. Now, in July 2006, park construction has begun.

This will be the borough’s entry park, a visual presence with many deep green ginko trees forming a mass behind flowering crabapple trees. Native flowering plants and grasses in the foreground will link it to the Native Plant Reserve and Eugene Young Environmental Center across River Road. Centennial Park is meant to be seen up ahead as the first thing most drivers and pedestrians see of our borough as they enter from the Route 27 Raritan River bridge. 7/2006

Meadows Trails Moving Ahead: Watch Here for Updates.
An old photo calls the land downstream of Donaldson Park “The Meadows”: formerly marsh, farm, orchard, and (in the highest part) town dump. Today, the lower 16 acres are zoned conservation, and trail improvement has begun across fields and woods under a $10,000 Recreational Trails grant and in cooperation with the Edison Wetlands Association. The EWA is also developing trails and "brownfields to greenfields" sites all along the Raritan below Highland Park. This makes our own greenway and trail something like the "headwaters" of a much larger system. Watch here for updates.

The goal for The Meadows is a walkable circuit of hiking paths as shown on the Meadows map . First we marked a route (tagged with blue streamers by Arnold Henderson, with help from Bill Bonner and others). The first actual clearance along the blue-tagged route was the ‘field trail’ cut at the start of July by DPW across from the foot of the Southside Bikeway to the stream at Crowells Road. Later we will connect field and river trails into a full circuit. For now, just sample the easy-walking parts (beginning where the Southside Bikeway meets the road to the WCTC radio tower). Return the way you came. As in any natural area, watch for poison ivy, groundhog holes, and things to trip over.

Open space work surrounds the borough under the overall Environmental Centers/Greenway project. This Meadows trail project anchors the south end of the riverside greenway. Other project parts have been creating a streamside path to Donaldson Park at Fifth (also Recreational Trails), clearing the Ayres Beach Natural Area (old Red’s Marina) and Valley Place Ravine, and on-going construction of the Eugene Young Environmental Center and of Centennial Park. 7/2006 rev 9/2006

Groups Use the Reserve. Youth groups have often used the Native Plant Reserve or helped out with maintaining it. We don’t even always know they’ve been there. Your newswriter just happened to drop by and discover the boys’ group of the Who is My Neighbor program dashing all over the place. They used our display beds for a sort of plant-identification treasure hunt, first together seeing and learning about four of the native species from the signs we place by each, then hunting individually for two more species on their own, making it a six-species learning day. After that came the mad game of capture the flag that I walked in on. The girls’ group of the same organization played environmental learning games there in an earlier year. Coming next is expected to be Boy Scout Troop 55, followed by adults from a Johnson & Johnson training workshop the afternoon of July 28. 6/2006

Yes, Virginia, There Are Deer at the Reserve.
At Highland Park’s Native Plant Reserve, despite it’s being on one of the busiest roads in the county, we have deer (Virginia whitetail). We can always find deer tracks, we can often find adult deer, and now two fawns and their mother have been hanging around the construction site for the environmental center, watching the workers as the workers watch them. Your newswriter saw one of the fawns on 6/27 and followed it around, getting a few photos as it nibbled the greenery. Watch your driving on River Road: our busy little urban street is becoming a deer-crossing corridor. 6/2006

NJ Wildlife Report: Some Ups, More Downs. Each year, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issues a brief summary of wildlife trends, printed in the Conserve Wildlife newsletter of the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (www.njfishandwildlife.com) . Here are highlights for 2005 for some of the threatened and endangered bird species in the state. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons are both up, to 53 and 20 nesting pairs respectively, and ospreys and black skimmers are also inching upward, though all, of course, remain threatened or endangered. Smaller shorebirds, however, are not doing so well, with piping plovers and least terns dropping in numbers and also reproducing at too low a rate for sustainability. Red knots, ruddy turnstones, and semipalmated sandpipers are also declining. 6/2006

Morning at Donaldson: With Eagle. It’s about 6:30 a.m., June 10, Donaldson Park on the Raritan. A half dozen rough-winged swallows criss-crossing low over the water, chimney swifts in the next layer up, not quite competing for the same insects and air space. Canada geese and mallards are leading chicks seemingly everywhere you look. At the boat ramp, the cofferdam is gone now, so the underwater part of the new ramp must be completed. Over the ramp, a red-tailed hawk races across the river, pursued by a kingbird that…did it really land on that hawk’s back to peck it?! Certainly it disappeared down between the hawk’s wings for a couple of seconds. It must at least have been right up close harassing the far bigger bird. There’s an old “Aesop’s” fable of a small bird riding on a large bird’s back; was it based on someone’s observation like this? Over on the pond our pair of Egyptian geese now have their pair of chicks swimming close, as a great blue heron flies low over them with a fish shining in its beak, then lands on the pond edge for breakfast.

As I turn to leave, there’s a funny crumpled silhouette in the sky over the river. In the binoculars it becomes the bald eagle, back in Highland Park for the sixth year in a row (since 2001), a full adult with white head and tail clear. Now with its wings half folded in this crumpled shape, it stoops down in stages. It drops strangely slowly as it carefully lines up on a fish that it finally picks from the river surface, and heads back up to eat elsewhere. As the eagle starts to depart, but is still in my binoculars, the red tail returns, now without its pursuing kingbird, and the two great raptors cross paths, both at once in the field of my binoculars, heading toward the opposite sides of the river. We can’t promise an eagle every day, but mornings at Donaldson Park can sometimes be more of a “wild nature” experience than one might expect in so urban a part of the nation’s densest state. By the way, for a broader view of where the eagles are, there’s a web site tracking bald eagle reports that people send in nationwide. 6/2006

Latest News: From 1790.
We’re posting to this site a map of Highland Park: an historic map from 1790 made by Benjamin Manning (color added). A prominent feature you can see by enlarging the thumbnail image is the marshy edge all along our shore, with larger marshes where Johnson and Donaldson Parks were later constructed on landfill that indeed ‘filled’ those marshes. In 1790 there was no bridge but a ferry, George Washington was still new on the job, and Mill Brook really had a mill on it. Road locations have shifted over the years since then, so exact placement is difficult, but the Native Plant Reserve site seems to have been at a shallow spot on the river, for the inscription along that stretch says "This bar bare at low water." 6/06

Rutgers Gardens Helps Highland Park. Rutgers Gardens, a program at Cook College, has provided flowers for the planters along Raritan Avenue. The planters this year are also grouped in a new and more impressive way, with numbers of them clustered at key spots rather than spread out.

Highland Park residents should know that Rutgers Gardens off Riders Lane (about at the Route 1 or the Sullivan Road intersection) has some of our area’s top spots of interest for gardeners and environmentally minded people. Most obvious is the big display garden on your right as you follow the entrance road. It features some proven garden selections for our area, plus samples of the latest award winners so that you can see them “in the flesh.” Groves of dogwoods, hollies, rhododendrons/azaleas, and lilac display numerous types of each.

Somewhat more hidden is their own native plant area. It is behind their “shade garden” and a little white house on the entrance road just past the big display garden. Most plants are identified. Behind the planted native area, an extensive wild woods sits on a cliff high above Lawrence Brook and is one of the best natural areas in our immediate region. The several events at Rutgers Gardens during the year include an upcoming Open House on July 29, 2006, with presentations and garden tours starting at 9:15 a.m. 6/06

Chips and Chairs and Orioles: The Reserve in May.
As the months move along, the Native Plant Reserve keeps changing. A new mulch of wood chips has been spread by 4H of Highland Park (5/22), and we’ve set out a couple of chairs for you on the beds of chips. The gold of golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) and the blue of our two species of starflower (Amsonia) hit their peak in mid-May and are tapering off now as the pink of Carolina rose becomes dominant. The bright orange and black of the northern (Baltimore) orioles are visible now at every visit if you know how to zero in on their song (sort of like a robin’s but with the phrases broken up more). They must be building a nest, but we haven’t found it yet: if you find it (a hanging bag of plant material high in a tree), tell us where, or send a photo. And do come watch the seasons change, or just sit and watch the clouds roll by. 5/2006

Scentennial Garden Gets Planted: Come Visit.
The “Scentennial” Sensory Garden at Highland Park’s Senior/Youth Center came to life on May 14, with a planting day. The name comes from the inclusion of plants noted for appealing aromas, such as fragrant viburnum. High school students joined the planners for the actual planting of more than a dozen species of shrubs, groundcovers, and small trees in a reconstructed patio and garden area between the Senior/Youth Center and Borough Hall. Educational content is added by metal hanging tags on enough of the individual plants to identify every species planted.

Councilperson Fern Walter Goodhart coordinated the effort. Site planners included professional landscape architects, designers, and horticulturists donating their expertise: Rutgers professors John and Connie Webster, and Shade Tree Advisory Committee members Ruth Bowers and Karen Swaine. 5/2006

Happy Endangered Species Day! Yes, the same Senate that has been considering limiting the Endangered Species Act does still have a soft spot for the endangered species themselves, and has declared TODAY, May 11, 2006, to be Endangered Species Day. This news comes to us from Audubon Advisory, a useful environmental newsletter you may be able to get by email (ask at: audubonaction@audubon.org). They are encouraging letter-writing and other activities supporting endangered species. We quote the first paragraph of their article:

“The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution proclaiming Thursday, May 11 as Endangered Species Day, the first-ever national celebration of America's commitment to the protection and recovery of our nation's most vulnerable plants and animals. On May 11, America will celebrate endangered species success stories, including the protection and recovery of the American Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Gray Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Humpback Whale and many others.”

Highland Park has its own endangered and threatened species (New Jersey list, some national), either resident or visiting: peregrine falcon, pied-billed grebe, northern harrier, bald eagle, Cooper’s hawk, black-crowned night-heron, osprey, Savannah sparrow, red-headed woodpecker, and barred owl. Watch for them. 5/2006

Tree Trimming for Power Lines.
The Nelson tree-trimming trucks you see around town are here to clear tree branches away from PSE&G power lines (aiming for about six feet of clearance). Branches can cause outages if they short out bare wires or wires with partially worn insulation (it happened in this writer’s back yard once, sparks everywhere!). Trimming has to be cautious work to avoid shocks to the workers. The long fiberglass handles of pole saws insulate workers trimming branches, and boom trucks lift workers to within reach of higher branches without their having to climb near wires. 5/2006

We're Third--For Worst Light Pollution (Wanted Seventh).
What if you looked up at the sky at night and the stars weren’t there? Well, they aren’t, at least not all of them, not in Highland Park. A just-completed worldwide citizen science survey called
“Globe at Night” asked participants from school kids to astronomers simply to go out on a clear night in the period March 8-23 and see how much of the constellation of Orion they could see. You then compared what you saw to a set of charts showing what Orion would look like with only first magnitude (brightest) stars visible, or first plus second, and so on down to magnitude seven, the approximate limit of the human eye (i.e., what you should see, and what everyone on the planet used to see!).

The result for Highland Park, when your newswriter tried it, was just third magnitude (see chart). Even going into the woods made little difference: sky glow obliterates stars everywhere. For Orion, this seeing down to third magnitude means seeing the three stars of his ‘belt,’ and only one or two of his ‘sword,’ but nothing dimmer. Not good. (And don’t expect to see the Milky Way, either!) In the analysis summary published today on the web, of around 4,600 reporting sites (18,000 participants), some 800 sites were actually worse than Highland Park, 1,000 were like us, and all the rest better. We’re third rate. We should have been seventh. So if you want to do your tiny bit toward restoring the stars, shield those porch and yard lights and turn them off when not actually needed. Or wait for the next regionwide blackout. 5/2006

Donaldson Park Reconstruction Starts in Earnest.
The road closing is what you see first. Farther down, at the river’s edge, a cofferdam holds water back from the first major construction work in a planned revamping of almost the entire Donaldson Park. Inside the cofferdam, a new boat ramp is being built up on the site of the old. Black-plastic silt fences wriggle across much of the east end of the park, protecting water quality against any soils that might otherwise be washed from this or later construction.

Our earlier news report (6/2002) shows the park reconstruction drawings that the Middlesex County Parks Department originally proposed. There have been some changes, but those drawings still show the general idea: the reconstructed boat ramp, work on playing fields but also adding native plantings, a restroom at the east end, and various means to calm traffic, including the closing of the central road. 4/2006

Wild Turkey in Donaldson Park.
A wild turkey was seen strolling by the river in Donaldson Park on April 17. Gabi Grunstein of the Environmental Commission followed it uphill to the edge of houses at South Third, where he got this photo. This is the farthest south they’ve been seen in Highland Park. Telling wild from domestic turkey is easy: much slimmer, with tail ending in a bronze-color band (not white like the domestic).

When wild turkeys first began appearing in the Rutgers Ecological Preserve perhaps some 10 years ago, your newswriter contacted the Department of Environmental Protection to ask if these had been deliberately introduced there. Nope. Middlesex County, I was told, is one of a very few New Jersey counties judged too urbanized for turkeys to survive, so none were introduced. Our flock just wandered in. Urbanized we may be, but the turkeys are still here, both in the preserve (especially behind the Parker nursing home, where grain is left for them) and now Donaldson. Upriver at Meuly Wood off River Road in Piscataway is another good spot to see them (one of the best but little-known nature spots in our area, by the way, with pond, river, and woods). Let us hear of any turkey sightings you make in Highland Park. 4/2006

Chips Available, but Avoid the Volcanos. Wood chips are again available at the Native Plant Reserve on River Road. Help yourself. Fresh chips make good garden paths. More weathered, half rotted ones are better for mulch around plants. As with any mulch, remember to leave a space between mulch and plant. Piling the mulch right against the trunk of a tree or the stalk of a garden plant risks rotting the plant you thought you were protecting. And if your landscapers go ahead and mulch in a heap up around the trunk of your new tree, just tell them that the state has a nice official pamphlet for them called "Volcanos are Killing Trees in New Jersey" (mulch volcanos that is). Don't let anyone give you the heaped-up mulch volcano shape; you want the mulch donut instead, with a ring of space around the trunk. 4/2006 rev. 8/2006

Eagles and Woodpeckers, Alive Alive O! Highland Park has a couple of rare birds to sing about this month. A bald eagle was reported in Donaldson Park March 22 (by Belinda Beetham), and earlier (February and last October). So it’s been a regular visitor for some years now, if only a couple of times each year. A pileated woodpecker (normally a haunter of deep woods and swamps) was reported from Johnson Park on a couple of occasions in March (and confirmed by our own Joanne and Alan Williams). The eagle was over the Donaldson pond, but would likely follow the river, too.

The pileated was in the part of Johnson Park just past (north of) Landing Lane. They do sometimes settle in parks if there are enough really big trees, so there’s just a chance it will settle in (if there’s a pair). Let us know your sightings, and whether you saw the male (red crest, including forehead) or female (red crest but black forehead).

The pileated is reputedly the bird Woody Woodpecker was modeled after, and is the nearest anyone will get around here to seeing the purportedly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker that may (or may not) have been rediscovered last year in southern swamps. In fact, the controversy over whether it really was an ivory bill hinges on how very much the pileated looks like one, only a bit smaller (crow size) and with the white on a different part of the wing. But if the pileated is a confusing annoyance to the searchers for the ivory bill, for us it’s quite the rarity, almost unprecedented in town (we hear that one visited the Rutgers Ecological Preserve in the 70s). Keep looking. Keep reporting. 3/2006

Nature/City Photo Show in March at Library, Reception 12th.
During March (starting March 4), the Highland Park (NJ) Public Library will be showing a cycle of black-and-white nature and city photographs by Arnold Clayton Henderson (yes, your newswriter and general content supplier for this web site). The exhibit flows around the four walls of the exhibition room, suggesting a cycle. “City” starts on the first wall. It is represented by close shots of the jumble of things to be seen in shop windows and on walls in various U.S. and European cities. Straight shots, no montages. Facing “City” is “Nature” on the opposite long wall. Connecting them, the short walls of the room show various interactions of city and nature as they penetrate each other. There's a reception on Sunday, March 12, 2 p.m., in the library meeting/exhibit room.

This photo show coincides with the expected start of construction in March for the Eugene Young Environmental Center at the Native Plant Reserve on River Road. Once completed, exhibits and activities there will similarly be exploring concepts of nature and city interacting in the larger “environment.” 2/2006

Record Snow Brings Out Snow Sliders and Nature Admirers.
The Nor’easter storm of 11 to 12 February brought a record snowfall to our area. We don't have a Highland Park exact figure, but we've seen 21 inches cited for Middlesex County. New York City had more than 2 feet, besting the record set by 1947’s blizzard. Where has global warming gone, say some as they shovel and shiver. But our unusually warm winter so far is not at all incompatible with record snow: it’s more a matter of the exact mix of temperature and airborne moisture. Warmer air can mean wetter air, and that can mean more snow, not less (as when wet air from the south moves up the coast to meet colder air here, as seems was the case this time). As the photos show, more snow then means more kids out sliding down the slope of Donaldson Park (with not a true sled to be seen—what are those plastic sliding gadgets called?). Snow also means plenty of transformed scenes in all Highland Park’s open space, such as a photo here looking down at the stream in our first Green Acres property, Valley Place Ravine. 2/2006

Centennial Park to Receive Trees.
We've heard that the state’s Cool Cities program, which has already planted well over 100 trees in some of the hottest, most treeless portions of the borough, now intends their next round of plantings to be at Centennial Park (old limo lot at Lincoln Avenue and River Road). These plantings necessarily will wait until completion of any construction work that might damage the trees if they were in the ground already. We will have to wait to see when construction gets going, with trees to follow. This would bring trees to what is now a hot, dry patch of gravel and fill.

The plans for Centennial Park call for bumping out the curb somewhat to guide traffic better and to give the park more planting space. Its predominantly native plants will relate well to those at the Environmental Center/Native Plant Reserve, as well as giving the borough an attractive gateway. After those plantings, the largely treeless downtown portion of Raritan Avenue appears to be next in line for Cool Cities’ trees, with the timing depending on how the street redesign project progresses. 2/2006 rev. 6/06

Environmental Center Construction for March. Construction of the Eugene Young Environmental Center on River Road is now scheduled to start in March, 2006. In the process, the construction area (most of the south half of the whole 3-acre Native Plant Reserve site) will be getting a new top coat of clean soil. Although this better-quality soil may help us in planting our native species, its main purpose is to cap any contaminants in the existing fill. (An earlier plan to use a geotextile barrier under the topsoil was not finally needed, so we have just the soil.) 2/2006 rev 1/2007

The Old Black Willow Falls.
The old black willow tree, once our most prominent landmark at the Native Plant Reserve and beloved perch of the red-tailed hawk, fell during the rains of late January. It has now moved on in the forest cycle, its rotting wood joining the brush heap we had created at its base. Such fallen trees and piles of brush become home to life from fungus and beetle to snake, wren, rabbit, and who knows what. Unfortunately, in its fall the willow’s main trunk clipped the tops from a small sweetbay magnolia and from the red oak planted in memory of Linda Greenwald, a member of our committee. Both oak and magnolia survive as branchless trunks, and we’ll watch for regrowth, but that is uncertain. The willow, though, might easily sprout from the root, creating another of the willow thickets so common on riversides. But what new perch will the red-tailed hawk now find? If you see it favoring some spot, let us know. 1/2006 rev. 2/2006

Dredging Delayed.
The dredging crane has been idled across the Raritan River from Highland Park. We don't have details, but it seems the general issue is that some of the dredging was in an unauthorized spot and that the intended techniques were not being fully followed. We hear that the dredge bucket used was the type that allows water to spill back into the river, but that it should have been the type to prevent this. (Spilling water back into the river risks spilling back particles that would then be in suspension and a possible trouble to some species of river life.) If someone has more details, let us know. 1/2006 rev. 2/2006

Environmental Center At Last!
Preliminary fencing and site staking began in November 2005 for construction of the Eugene Young Environmental Center at the Highland Park Native Plant Reserve on River Road (opposite Walter Street). Designed by architects Sage & Coombe, with advice from our own Working Group for Environmental Education Centers, the glass-walled building will provide space for environmental programs and will itself demonstrate energy-saving and “passive solar” techniques. Overall site design is by MKW & Associates, landscape architects. On River Road itself, Middlesex County will install pedestrian-activated crossing lights (flashing yellow) at three intersections in spring 2006 for safer pedestrian access to the center and reserve.

Arnold Henderson (your news writer) chairs our Working Group of representatives from the Environmental Commission and Shade Tree Advisory Committee. Members are: Ruth Bowers, Mike Rosenberg, and originally Eugene Young, who died during the planning stage and was replaced by Loren Muldowney. The center will be named for Eugene Young, who spent many years championing open space and environmental quality in Highland Park.

The first signs of work, as of mid-November, are the positioning of a construction trailer at the extreme south end of the project site (near the apartments and Route 27) and a construction fence surrounding most of the southern half of the Native Plant Reserve. The display beds in the northern half of the reserve remain outside the fence and available to visitors. Watch this site for updated news and photos as work progresses on the center. 11/2005 rev. 1/2006