Rutgers University Ecological Preserve

To Celebrate Earth Week a Trails Work Day was held on Friday April 26 1-5PM

15 Students from the Rutgers Naturalist and the Rutgers Outdoors Clubs participated.
We spread wood chip mulch made from a number of the Hurricane Sandy downed trees that were cleared from the trails back in January. Turning lemons into lemonade.

Cutleaved Toothwort blooming in Kilmer Woods

A number of spring wildflowers are starting to emerge from the leaf litter and bloom in the mid-Spring sun. The most common species in Kilmer Wood by far is the spring beauty, Claytonia virginica.   Another species that is blooming right now is the cutleaved toothwort, Dentaria laciniata (pictured above). An alternative name for this plant is the pepperroot as the roots are purported to have a peppery taste.  The speckled foliage of the trout lily, Erythronium americanum, is also commonly found through large sections of the woods. Unfortunately, the yellow bell-shaped blooms of the trout lily  are a rather rare occurrence due to overbrowsing by deer.

It will be interesting to track the prgoress of a deer exclosure that Natural Resource Management students installed last fall in a canopy gap opened last fall by Hurricane Sandy. The exclosure was put in an area known to harbor trout lilies as well as mayapples, (Podophyllum peltatum). The students hypothesized that without the stress of deer browsing that these flowers would have the resources to bloom. Can’t wait to see.

As recounted in my December 2012 posting, Hurricane Sandy blew over a number of large trees in the Kilmer Woods section of the EcoPreserve. However, no ill wind goes unstudied. In order to clear the trails of downed trees, we had to chainsaw a number of large red, white and black oak trunks. We recently went back to cut “cookies” from a several of these downed boles or stumps to be able to age the trees and fill in some of the pieces concerning Kilmer Woods history. The tree in the photo above was nearly 3 feet in diameter and approximately 160 years old.

Based on tree rings and other evidence such as scattered red cedar stumps and snags, it would appear that the Kilmer Woods was most likely abandoned pasture that was let return to forest sometime in the mid-1800′s. This initial forest consisted of a mix of oak and red cedar during the latter half of the 1800′s. The oaks grew rapidly in the open sunlit environment with some growth rings 5+ mm in width. Around 1900, the forest canopy started to close with 100+ year old oak trees showing a much slower growth rate during their initial establishment years. Other tree species such as beech also became established around this time. The red cedars were eventually overtopped and shaded out though they appear to last quite a while in the understory. With highly decay resistant wood, the red cedar stumps and snags have lasted to the present day. Many of these stumps show evidence of past understory fires.

A team of students from the Rutgers Outdoors and Naturalists Clubs helped to restore a remnant meadow in the SW corner fo the EcoPreserve. The objective was to open up and connect several existing patches of little bluestem, a bunchgrass, and black haw shrubs. This meadow and shrub thicket has been gradually invaded by red cedars and other tree species over the years. The larger goal is promote greater habitat diversity in this portion of the EcoPreserve by maintaining early successional vegetation communities.

With the assistance of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and Rutgers University Emergency Services, a controlled burn was undertaken Feb 21, 2013, on the large meadow interior to the EcoPreserve. This management action is part of a long term goal of restoring the ecological health and native species diversity to the EcoPreserve. An area of tallgrass meadow of approximately 1/2 acre in size in the interior of the Preserve was targeted. This controlled burn will have great ecological benefits in maintaining this meadow as habitat for a greater diversity of native grasses and wildflowers, improve the meadow as habitat for bird species such as woodcock, reduce flammable fuel loads and serve as a teaching demonstration of this commonly applied ecological management technique. The plan for the prescribed fire was first developed by several Rutgers undergraduate students in the SEBS Principles of Natural Resource Management class (Fall 2012) in consultation with Trevor Raynor of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) and Richard Lathrop, course instructor.

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. Of major concern has been the loss of native understory shrubs, tree seedlings/saplings and wildflowers.  Loss of this native vegetation represents a decline in forest ecosystem health, a loss of the overall biological diversity and enhanced vulnerability of the forest to invasion by exotic plant species.   Gaps created by fallen trees would normally be quickly filled by regrowing saplings.  Without advance regeneration of native tree seedlings and saplings, the forest is not able to respond to natural disturbance events such as the recent SuperStorm Sandy. Similar loss of native understory shrubs, tree seedlings/saplings and wildflowers due to deer browsing has been documented throughout the northeastern and midwestern United States.

 

Many preserves and open space conservation lands in central New Jersey employ managed hunting programs to reduce deer populations to levels that minimize the negative ecological and social consequences of overabundant deer.  A managed hunting program is planned for the Rutgers EcoPreserve from December 22, 2012 through January 18, 2013.  The deer damage management program is coordinated by natural resource and wildlife conservation professionals on the Rutgers University staff. The plan has been reviewed and approved by the members of a Deer Management Advisory Committee which includes participation from RU Police Department, Office of Risk Management, and Facilities, as well as by the RU EcoPreserve Advisory Committee and the Dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Conservation officers of the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife will also monitor the conduct of the hunt to ensure that all relevant NJ hunting regulations are followed.

 

This deer population reduction program will rely on ‘in-season’ bow hunting only.  The EcoPreserve will not be open to general recreational hunting but rather access will be limited to a smaller number of permitted hunters. Before being permitted to hunt, hunters must pass a background check with no prior NJ fish and game violations, pass a bow-hunting proficiency test, and post the required liability insurance. Each hunter will be required to shoot their bow to demonstrate their proficiency and safety to a Rutgers University designated official.

The following are links for more information about the RUEP Deer Damage Management Plan  and Frequently Asked Questions

 

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 hands.

 

 

 

MUDRUN-2012

The RU Recreation Program ran the 2nd annual RU Muddy Run this past Friday (September 28). The course wound its way through the EcoPreserve and finished up in the nearby rec park with a series of hurdles, a wall, barbed-wire army crawl and of course, the mud pit. Over 500 students participated.