South Mountain Conservancy e-Bulletin. July 2020

Local Scouts Help Rebuild Fairy Trail Bridge

Scout Troop 16 of Livingston and Gene Lu led efforts to build a new bridge for the Fairy Trail (Rahway Trail) just off the Locust Grove Parking Area. The bridge is one of many new features you will be seeing as SMC works to restore trailways and surrounding habitat along this popular trail. 
Our volunteers are the stewards of South Mountain Reservation

Trashtacklers Adapts to "Virtual" Plogging & Trail Clean-Up Events

With in-person volunteer programming limited, SMC's Trashtacklers partnered with Sassquad Trail Running to host "virtual" events. To date SMC has hosted two weekend-long events where visitors are encouraged to clean-up trash in picnic areas and along hiking trails. Prizes were awarded to people that collected the most amount of trash bags and for those that found the weirdest item! 41 bags of trash were removed during the June event! Look for more weekend contests this Fall!

Trail Work Crew Returns to Work on Dogwood Trail 

Volunteers led by John Verzani, SMC Vice-Chair, and Dennis Percher, SMC Chair, continued work on the Dogwood Trail west of Brookside Drive. A small group of volunteers, registered via Meetup, wore masks and socially distanced. Steps were added at the entrance to the side trail down to the northmost parking area on Brookside drive to invite hikers to cross over to the west side of the Reservation. Others worked on improving and extending the trail northward to the West Ridge Trail. That part of the trail is nearly complete. This part of the trail will take 1-2 more workdays to finish before turning our attention South, which will connect to the Painter's Point Trail. 
2019 Bio-Blitz Results Are In!
In June  2019, the South Mountain Conservancy partnered with Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs and the Rahway River Watershed Association to perform the county's 2nd South Mountain Reservation Bio-Blitz. This event was a follow-up of the 2008 event. "The purpose of a Bio-Blitz is two-fold: first, to determine the relative health of a given local ecosystem by documenting as many species as possible; and second to raise public awareness about the significance of species biodiversity in and around our parks, reservations, and open spaces." David Alexander, Essex County Senior Naturalist.
BioBlitz Results

Assessing SMC's Forest Regeneration Strategies


In the past two years, the SMC's Forest Regeneration program has increased its focus on several of the SMR's 41 smaller forest regeneration sites beyond the Wildflower and Forest Preserve. This effort, started by Tanya Prescott and Christy Zolty,  has focused on six sites. In several cases, site fencing needed repairs to ensure deer are kept out and forest restoration can occur. Some of the fencing was repaired by Eagle Scout Jackson Magdanz last fall. This month, a 37,000 sq. ft. site with fence damage dating back to Sandy in 2012, was done by SMC volunteers and is 90% completed. Materials for these repairs came from a $1,300 Franklin Parker grant from the NJ Conservation Foundation. Now that the fencing is nearly complete and will be maintained by Scout Troop 21 of Maplewood as part of the SMC's Adopt-a-Regen-Site program. 
 
The Conservancy's stewardship of all 42 sites is being informed by a site assessment taking place this summer by forest ecologist Mike Van Clef, PhD. This $6,400 study was championed by the Conservancy and is being funded by Essex County Parks. This study will allow a comparison of the overall success of SMC's Forest Regeneration strategies. Results of the current study will be available this fall. 
You can help support South Mountain Reservation!
Donate
12-Month Membership
 
SHOP 
THE 
STORE
Facebook
Link
Website
Email
Copyright © 2020 South Mountain Conservancy, All rights reserved.