Tour Stop 1: Trail Head
A beautiful sight in the spring, summer and fall welcomes visitors to the entrance of the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s Conservation Area in Harding Township.
Berry-producing native shrubs, complemented with insect-attracting wildflowers, call to mind quieter times, before the arrival of Interstate Route 287 and before a variety of invasive plant species covered the area.
If you were standing here in 1996, however, you would have been blocked from entering the property by a barrier of natural barbed wire called multiflora rose. Since then, thanks to hundreds of volunteer person-hours, we have removed this “pasture snatcher” and replanted the area with native species one would likely have found in an open meadow 150 years ago.
How did multiflora rose get here? Highway authorities planted it in the 1930s along highways as an attractive and pleasant-smelling way to control erosion, muffle traffic sound and odors, and offer passersby an aesthetic experience. With very little competition and the ability to grow rapidly, it soon found its way into fields, forest and backyards, out-competing all other shrubs and herbs in its path. Songbirds that relish the multiflora rosehips played a major role in raining down seeds, and helped distribute this shrub throughout North America.
In addition to multiflora rose, many other species, plant and animal alike, have found their way to this country via commerce and travel, with dire consequences to the native species they have displaced. This changing of the ecological guard has weakened a natural fabric that has evolved over millions of years. The penalty for this action manifests itself in terms of the natural systems’ capacity to cleanse the air and water, thus making watersheds like the Great swamp watershed more vulnerable to collapse.
It is the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s hope that this Conservation Area can serve as an example of proper land management and through outreach and education create an army of informed local residents who view their property as a borrowed entity for which the individual is only a temporary steward rather than an owner.
Here is a view of the entrance taken in June with the wildflowers in full bloom.
Front Fence: This fence was constructed to house native plants on a dry area at the front of the property. It is both educational and experimental in nature. This enclosure will instruct the public on how they can protect native plants from being ravaged by deer, what native plants do well on disturbed sites, what types of insect pollinators they can expect to find resting on the plants and the benefits of planting berry producing shrubs with respect to wildlife. Native flora has been planted outside the enclosure to see how they respond to the presence of a deer population, which averages fifty deer per square mile. The ones that do well will be planted in larger quantities in the future throughout the conservation area.
Shed: The shed has been placed against a hedgerow of multiflora rose and silky dogwood and painted to blend into the foliage. We use this structure to house our tools, books and maps to the benefit of the many volunteer groups that help us out at the Conservation Area.
Blue bird (with a snack). (Blue bird boxes have been installed in the hopes of attracting this species.)
Wetlands
As young boy living in Florham Park I was fortunate enough to live in an area whose backyard was all woods, fully equipped with ponds, wet meadows, streams and soggy bottoms. It wasn’t until later in life and with formal training in the ecological sciences that I realized that those woodlands where I galumphed were what scientists call “wetlands”. Technically speaking a wetland is an area where the presence of water for extended periods exerts a controlling influence on the plant community, soil properties, and animals living in or using them. As a naturalist, I consider them a wonderland of diversity whose surprises never cease to amaze.
Most people view wetlands as waste places where muck and mire is a monster waiting to devour all who dare enter. We think of them as quaking quagmires where malaria is the rule and rats are king. It may surprise you to learn that wetlands are among the most biologically productive places on earth, in some cases surpassing tropical rainforests in species richness. The benefits to man are oftentimes overlooked in the master plans of our communities. Janet Abramovitz, a contributor to the papers of the World Watch Institute writes,
“When we jeopardize a freshwater ecosystem’s integrity — its physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes — we compromise its ability to support species and provide the products and services we depend on, services such as restoring soil fertility, supporting recreation, nurturing fisheries, and supporting evolution. Once nature can no longer provide, we must either do without or try to substitute, usually much less effectively and at a much higher cost.”
In our own watershed who can place a value on the Great Swamp’s ability to purify the water that flows from the municipalities that surround it, or quantify its worth as a flood control agent.
In the United States we have lost more than half of our wetlands, with much of what remains degraded. California alone has lost 90% of its wetland systems! In response to this our government has passed Wetland protection laws to try and curtail this downward spiral. We hope that people who visit the GSWA Conservation Area find that our efforts to steward the property to be a good model for others who own property with wetlands on them.