Embrace your inner Columbus and be one of the first to explore the trails at the newly preserved Giralda Farms in Chatham Township. Beautiful fall colors will be the backdrop for this wildlife hike. Your guide, GSWA’s director of education and outreach, Hazel England, will teach you how to look for signs of wildlife that are getting ready for winter or migrating through.
This workshop will show you how routine visual stream assessment surveys are conducted on our streams and rivers, and how that data can provide critical information about our water resources and the local environment. Then, step by step, you will learn how to conduct an on-the-ground visual stream assessment—one of the most basic water quality assessment tools available to environmental scientists.
Join us and speaker Jennifer McCulloch to learn about NJ’s first county-level, dedicated flood acquisition program. Created in 2012, the Morris County Flood Mitigation Program has worked directly with 9 municipalities, closing on 55 projects, with 36 projects in progress. The program goal is to create open space and lower municipal costs by moving people out of harm’s way.
Did you know that the Great Falls in Paterson, NJ is the second largest waterfall east of the Mississippi? Join us for a special evening presentation with Supervisory Park Ranger Ilyse Goldman as she shares with us the history of the newly appointed Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. Ilyse will discuss why Paterson was founded, its past industries, and what the park is doing to help reinvigorate the area.
Explore GSWA’s Conservation Management Area with your furry friend! We’ll see what we can sniff out in the woods with expert guide, Hazel England.
On Tuesday, December 8, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., join Great Swamp Watershed Association and Professor Rick Lathrop as he discusses the implications of climate change and sea level rise on New Jersey’s coasts. He will present a number of web-based tools that Rutgers is developing to aid residents and coastal decision-makers in planning for sea level rise and to promote enhanced coastal resiliency. A continental breakfast will be served. Register is required. Register online or by calling (973) 538-3500.
The Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) is hosting a wine and cheese tasting mixer and you’re invited! Whether you’re new to GSWA or you have some friends you want to introduce to us, this is a great, low-key way to learn more more about the organization’s 34-year legacy of environmental stewardship, education, and advocacy in the Great Swamp region. We’ll also tell you things about New Jersey’s Great Swamp that you’ve never heard before!\
On Saturday, January 30, Join GSWA’s Dan Ross to explore the Conservation Management Area (CMA). He’ll teach you how to spot signs of wildlife during winter months, including tracks and scat. He’ll also guide you in identifying different trees and shrubs without their summer foliage.
We’ve all heard “Take only photographs, leave only footprints”. A noble sentiment, but it limits our interaction with wild plants to a visual one only, if that. Using wild plants as food and medicine helps us experience plants with our other senses and makes more permeable the boundary between us and the rest of the natural world. Learn about the cultural uses of native plants with Jared Rosenbaum, proprietor of Wild Ridge Plants, LLC. Jared will cover native spices, greens, fruits, and herbal medicines, including wild leek, Solomon’s seal, wood nettle, elderberry and others.
Explore New Jersey’s forests at dusk and you just might find yourself in the middle of an interrogation! Who!? Who cooks for you? The barred owl sounds like an awfully inquisitive bird, but, in fact, it’s just trying to protect its turf. Want to learn more about New Jersey’s owls? Then you don’t want to miss this early-evening hike with conservation biologist Dr. Emile DeVito. The Great Swamp Wildlife Observation Center is prime owl-spotting habitat and a perfect spot for Dr. DeVito to demonstrate his owl-calling expertise. With a little luck, you might just hear (or even see!) some of these stealthy night flyers as they move in to investigate the mysterious sounds. Register online.
