Treasures In Your Backyard: Celebrating Harding Township’s Natural and Historical Riches

The Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) is combining efforts with Kemmerer Library Harding Township (KLHT) throughout the month of April to highlight the Township’s natural and historical treasures.  Several programs for children and adults are planned to educate members of the public about Harding’s unique environment and its rich history. Township residents will also have an unprecedented opportunity to participate in a discounted well water testing program.

April’s activities get an early start on March 30 when the Harding Township Treasure Hunt begins. Don your fedora, summon your inner gumshoe, and then head to KLHT between 4PM and 5PM to pick up your special Harding Township treasure hunter’s kit. All participants will have two weeks to scour the landscape in search of answers to several town-specific brainteasers. Budding sleuths can solve these mysteries at their own pace, but the ultimate goal of the hunt is to learn more about the environment, history, and culture of Harding Township.

“We hope this fun adventure will engage families in discovering our Township’s rich history and environmental riches,” says Lotte Newlin, Director of KLHT.

The Harding Township Treasure Hunt will conclude on Friday, April 11, with a special prize award event at KLHT starting at 4PM. All scavenger hunt participants are encouraged to attend and share results.

One week after the treasure hunt, on Saturday, April 19, KLHT and GSWA will hold two workshops about native plants and native wildlife in Harding Township. One workshop will be geared toward adult participation and the other will be for children and their parents. From 10AM to noon at KLHT, GSWA’s Director of Education and Outreach Hazel England will present Wildlife “Berried” Treasures, a program that teaches adults how to use native plants to attract beneficial wildlife into their back yards. Participants will leave the workshop armed with a trove of information about what they need to plant in order to support local bird, bee, and butterfly populations. From noon to approximately 2PM, KLHT and GSWA will offer a special hands-on bird and bee box building workshop for children and their parents. Each child/parent team will create their very own bird or bee box that they can take home and use at the end of the event.

On April 26, from 9AM to noon, local volunteers are needed to assist with a special clean-up of all the natural treasures at Harding Township’s Bayne Park. Under the direction of GSWA’s Director of Water Quality Programs Laura Kelm, participants will tend shrubs and native grasses that were planted around the perimeter Bayne Pond in 2011 in an effort to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff. Following the clean-up activities all volunteers are invited to attend a free luncheon across the street at KLHT.

As all of these special events progress, KLHT and GSWA plan to spotlight another one of Harding Township’s most important natural treasures—its precious water supply. Unlike many other New Jersey municipalities, Harding Township relies on private wells for its water. For many years, residents have taken advantage of a free well water test for E. coli bacteria offered by the local health department. This year, and only during the month of April, residents will be able purchase an expanded water test offered through GSWA at a discounted rate. The GSWA test not only detects the presence or absence of E. coli, it also measures the level of several other important indicators of water purity, including nitrates, pH (acidity), iron, arsenic, and lead. 

Harding Township homeowners who are interested in taking advantage of the new well testing program may register with KLHT or GSWA between March 30 and April 22. All participants will be required to make a $10 deposit and pick up a self-guided water sampling kit when they register. Participants must use the supplied kit to sample well water at their home on the morning of Wednesday, April 23. All samples must be returned to KLHT between 8AM and noon the same day. (Note: Water samples that do not follow specific timetable instructions may not return reliable test results.) Homeowners may customize their well test by choosing specific testing parameters from a prepared list at time of registration. The cost for a basic, multi-parameter test will not exceed $110. Test add-ons may be purchased for an additional charge.

GSWA will collect all water samples from KLHT on April 23 and send them to Garden State Laboratories, Inc. in Hillside, NJ, for testing. Following the testing period, GSWA will mail final results to individual homeowners.

“We hope this initiative will enable Harding homeowners to learn valuable insights about the quality of their drinking water,” says Hazel England, director of education and outreach at GSWA. 

To register for any of these programs, or to receive additional details, please contact KLHT or GSWA.

Find KLHT online at HardingLibrary.org or call (973) 267-2665.  KLHT is located at 19 Blue Mill Road in New Vernon, NJ.

Find GSWA online at GreatSwamp.org or call (973) 538-3500 x22.  GSWA is located at 568 Tempe Wick Road in Morristown, NJ.

Winners of GSWA's Primrose Farm Photo Contest Announced

Tropical Storm Andrea blew herself out of New Jersey just in the nick of time! Happily, that meteorological coincidence set a sunny stage for the Great Swamp Watershed Association's much-anticipated Essence of Primrose Photo Contest on June 8, 2013.

Click here to learn more about the photo contest.

More than 20 individual photographers, along with a host of parents, partners, and other impropmtu artistic assistants, descended on Primrose Farm to join in the day-long event aimed at capturing that one picture capable of saying 1,000 words about the newest piece of preserved open space in New Jersey's Harding Township.

Click here to learn more about Harding's Primrose Farm.

Although competition was fierce in all three photographer age groups—13-and-under, 14-to-22, and 22-and-over—a panel of expert judges handpicked three submissions to take home top honors.

Each of the three winning photos is a true work of art.

Among those 22 and over, Michelle Hacker of Belcamp, Maryland, took the judges' collective breath away with her gorgeous, sepia-toned landscape, titled "Vintage Meadow," taken under the sheltering limbs of Primrose Farm's most distinctive oak tree.

"Vintage Meadow," by Michelle Hacker, Belcamp, MD.
Copyright ©2013 Great Swamp Watershed Association.

Among the 14-to-22-year-old contestants, Peri Levine of Bedminster, NJ, demonstrated a true facility and passion for wildlife photography with her snap of a perching dragonfly.

"Untitled," by Peri Levine, Bedminster, NJ.
Copyright ©2013 Great Swamp Watershed Association.

Among the 13-and-under crowd, Ashleigh Scully of Morristown, NJ, took first place with her photo, "Dawn at Primrose Farm."

"Dawn at Primrose Farm," by Ashleigh Scully, Morristown, NJ.
Copyright ©2013 Great Swamp Watershed Association.

All three photo contest winners received a gift certificate for $25 from Mpix.com. Each winner will also receive a full-size, framed print of their winning submission courtesy of our contest sponsors at Madison PhotoPlus (Madison, NJ) and The Image Maker Studio (Mendham, NJ).

Before the framed prints are turned over to our winners, they will hang for one month in a place of distinction at the Somerset County Environmental Education Center (EEC) located at 190 Lord Stirling Road in Basking Ridge, NJ. Stop by and have a look!

Although she was ever-so-slightly edged out of a victory in the 14-to-22-year-old age group, contestant Laurel Monks of Chatham Borough, NJ, received a very special honorable mention. She will not receive a gift certificate or a framed print, but her magnificently composed photo, "Twisting Through Time," will become the mascot for the Great Swamp Watershed Association's 2013 Gala Celebration. This year's gala will take place on Thursday, October 3, at the Westin Governor Morris in Morristown.

"Twisting Through Time," by Laurel Monks, Chatham, NJ.
Copyright ©2013 Great Swamp Watershed Association.

All of the submissions made to the Essence of Primrose Photo Contest are available for review on the Great Swamp Watershed Association's official Flickr page located at flickr.com/GSWA. This site also includes photos of Primrose Farm landscapes and widlife taken by GSWA volunteers and staff members. Enjoy!

A Ribbit-ing Good Time!

An extra week of warmer weather made all the difference at Great Swamp Watershed Association's annual Spring Peeper Party this past weekend. Originally scheduled for March 22, cooler temperatures and a late snow fall prompted us to push back the festivities until March 29, and we are so glad we waited!

Spring was definitely swinging by late afternoon on Friday when GSWA Board Member John Neale (Madison), and volunteers Steve Gruber (Long Hill Twp.) and Wes Boyce (Bernardsville) arrived to set up. The local peeper population sang with such exuberance that they could be heard above the noise of rush hour traffic on nearby I-287.

As dusk fell, naturalist-extraordinaire Blaine Rothauser (Florham Park), trekked our group of 21 intrepid kids and adults down the blue trail to the site of GSWA's bench memorial to local environmental legend Helen C. Fenske, the remarkable woman who led the charge to preserve Great Swamp from the kitchen of her home in Green Village. This also happens to be the site of one of the CMA's most active ephemeral wetlands, or vernal pools as they are more commonly known.

If you're scratching your head over all this terminology, you're not alone. Suffice it to say that an ephemeral wetland is little more than a body of water that exists for a short time after a rain fall or snow melt event. They are easy to overlook, but the crucial role they play as incubators for amphibians, insects, and even certain plants cannot be overstated. Without these shallow, unassuming depressions in the earth, our small corner of the planet might just become unrecognizable to us. Certainly our spring and summer nights would become all too silent.

Why? Because without our vernal pools all the chorus frogs, wood frogs, and other amphibians that fill the darkness with their comforting, familiar calls would simply disappear.

Our volunteers wasted no time showing our Peeper Partiers what is at stake. Moments after Blaine finished explaining vernal pool biology and its importance to local ecosystems, the team came back with a wood frog (Rana sylvatica) for everyone to inspect and admire. This was quickly followed up by a string of up-close-and-personal visits with a host of other amphibians, including a tiny chorus frog (Pseudacris crucifer) that graciously paused to pose for a photo before returning to important business under the water. That shot appears above, but for a larger version, as well as more photos from the evening, see the embedded slideshow below or visit GSWA's Flickr page.

If you were at the Spring Peeper Party, thank you for coming. We hope you enjoyed learning more about vernal pools and Great Swamp amphibians. If you couldn't make it this year, we hope you'll join us next year when we do it all again!

Primrose Farm Saved!

After five years of intense negotiation and advocacy, the 113-acre Primrose Farm in Harding Township has been preserved as open space.  Ownership of the land was officially transferred to the Harding Land Trust on December 27, 2012.  The Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) and other Primrose project partners were on hand for the final closing.

In 2008, GSWA was the first community stakeholder to recognize the intrinsic natural value of Primrose Farm.  Upon learning that the entire property was slated to become a large residential subdivision, GSWA Executive Director Sally Rubin quickly approached The Trust for Public Land and recommended Harding Land Trust as the ultimate land owner.

The new conservation acquisition will spare Primrose Farm from the bulldozer and work to maintain the ecological balance of the wetlands, forest, meadows, and steep slopes it encompasses.  This is good news for native plants and wildlife like the endangered Indiana bat, which relies on Primrose’s mix of woods and fields to provide summertime roosting and feeding grounds.  It’s also good news for all those who believe that clean water is an essential community resource.  Open spaces like Primrose Farm play a critical role in filtering and retaining the water that falls to Earth during storms.  Our communities rely on them for everything from maintaining clean drinking water supplies, to mitigating floods and droughts.

GSWA contributed $200,000 toward the purchase of Primrose Farm through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres Program.  The organization will fulfill its responsibilities as a co-owner by identifying and organizing environmental stewardship activities on the property, and by using the entire site as teaching tool for its many environmental education programs.

Primrose Farm is now free and open for public use.  The Township of Harding has retained 16 acres of preserved land adjacent to Barrett Field for future expansion of that park.  Over time, the remaining 97 acres will be made available for hiking, cross-country skiing, bird watching, horseback riding, and other passive recreational activities.

Read the press release issued by The Trust for Public Land. [release no longer available]

Congratulation to GSWA’s members and the people of Harding for wholeheartedly supporting the conservation of Primrose Farm!

Spring's Almost Here! Time To Get Out And Volunteer!

Need an excuse to more spend time outdoors? Want to protect the local environment? Think you have what it takes to help out in your community? If so, then Great Swamp Watershed Association invites you to volunteer with us in March. Help us clean and enhance our open spaces, and learn how you can help protect our local streams and waterways from contamination and destruction. It's easy, and we'll supply the equipment you need. Here are some upcoming events where you can help—

March 18 — Annual Stream Cleanup & Enhancement at Loantaka Reservation

GSWA will hold its annual stream cleanup and enhancement at Loantaka Brook Reservation on March 18, 2012 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Activities along the banks of Loantaka Brook will include invasive plant removal, planting native plants, and trash cleanup. Volunteers ages 15 and above should wear long pants, long sleeves, and shoes or boots that can get wet and muddy. Participants should gather at the South Street Recreation Area located at 434 South Street, Morristown, NJ.

Click here to volunteer for this event!

March 24 — Spring Cleaning Day at the CMA

Please join GSWA's Dir. of Outreach and Education and Land Steward Hazel England from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for a spring cleanup at our 53-acre Conservation Management Area (CMA) in Harding, NJ. GSWA relies on the support and work of volunteers as we maintain and restore this important open space to become a functional floodplain forest again. Work on March 24 will focus preparing the property for springtime visitors. Tasks will include chipping, mulching and edging trails, cleaning nest boxes so they are ready for spring residents, and carrying lumber to help build boardwalks over the wettest portions. All tools and supplies will be provided. Show up with energy and enthusiasm, and we will handle the rest. Location: GSWA CMA, 1 Tiger Lily Road, Morristown, NJ.

Click here to volunteer for this event!

March 31 — Stream Assessment Training for Volunteers

Want to get outside and help GSWA? We are looking for a few good volunteers to conduct visual assessments of streams in our watershed. Visual assessments are conducted at stream reaches throughout the region twice per year, and they help us to know what’s happening along our streams. During an assessment, volunteers record information about the amount of canopy cover over the stream, nearby land uses, the clarity of the water, and more. Before you are ready to conduct an assessment, you will need to attend our training session. Our next training session takes place on March 31, 2012, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and will also cover macroinvertebrate assessments. Location: GSWA Office, 568 Tempe Wick Road, Morristown, NJ.

Click here to volunteer for this event!

*Please remember to dress and prepare appropriately for all our volunteer events. Outdoor work will often be wet and muddy, so boots or sturdy shoes are recommended. Long pants and long-sleeve shirts are also recommended. Please feel free to bring your own snacks, and we encourage the use of a reusable water bottle for any beverages you bring along. Please remember to recycle or properly dispose of any refuse.

For more information, visit www.GreatSwamp.org. Write to GSWA at events@greatswamp.org, or call us at 973-538-3500.