Monthly Board Update September 2014 (For June, July, and August 2014 Activities)

From the Executive Director Questions: Contact Jim at 609-737-3735 x22 or [email protected]

Environmental Center Our spectacular new environmental center emerged from a flurry of summer activity. Most of the external work has been completed and the focus has largely shifted to the interiors, external pathways and landscaping. We are busy will scores of decisions on small construction details and planning and fundraising for the new programming that will take place in the new center. Over the summer, we secured a donation of our solar panels from RECOM Solar and are working with a donor who has agreed to support our furniture needs. We’ve entered a contract with Exhibit Concepts Inc. to fabricate and install our exhibits, which have been designed by Van Sickle & Rolleri, Ltd. Work continues on the wetlands-based wastewater treatment system and should be completed in October. We currently expect the building to be completed and ready for staff to move in by mid-December.

Science Education Initiative Jeff Hoagland supervised a Hopewell Middle School and Hillsborough High School teacher over the summer to prepare several units of science curriculum that advance the Next Generation Science Standards. Jeff immersed himself in two weeks of training on the new standards to prepare for a new chapter in Watershed education programs. We are hosting the Hopewell Valley’s new STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) magnet program this fall during its “water and weather” unit.

Three Environmental Questions on November Ballot A flurry of activity over the summer has put three important measures in front of voters on the November ballot. The state legislature voted overwhelmingly to authorize NJ Question #2, which would create a long-term dedicated funding source for open space, farmland and historic preservation by reallocating a portion of the corporate business tax that is already dedicate to environmental programs. Approximately $70 million a year would be dedicated to this purpose initially, increasing to $115 million in 2019. The Hopewell Township Committee voted 4-1 to authorize a local ballot proposal that would increase the local open space tax from 3 cents to 4 cents per $100 of assessed property value. The Mercer County Freeholders voted approved a non-binding measure that will ask county voters whether to enact a 5 cent tax on plastic bags used at retail outlets. The Watershed Association is supporting all three of these measures.

New staff We have hired experienced environmental attorney Michael Pisauro to become our new Policy Director. Mike has been the advocate for the New Jersey Environmental Lobby and has represented Pinelands Preservation Alliance, Save Hamilton Open Space, and other environmental organizations on various issues. Kate Miller is our new Watershed Institute Coordinator, replacing Melissa Ocana who moved to western Massachusetts with her husband. Kate recently received her masters degree in Water Science and Policy from the University of Delaware. She received the School of Public Policy and Administration’s 2013 “Excellence in Water Resources Scholarship” award.

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Development Questions: Contact Carol Christofferson at 609-737-3735 x 36 or [email protected]

FOUNDATIONS - GRANTS 2014 Amount Date of Name 2013 Giving Request of Received Gift Restricted/ Schedule Request Unrestricted Bunbury Company $15,000 August $20,000 December Unrestricted Canaday Family Charitable Trust $50,000 October $50,000 December Unrestricted Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation $220,000 August $242,000 December Restricted Mary Owen Borden Foundation September $15,000 November Restricted J. S. Johnson, Sr., 1963 Trust $25,000 March $50,000 $10,000 Received Restricted Baldwin Foundation $10,000 September $20,000 November Restricted David Mathey Foundation $5,000 September $7,000 November Unrestricted Curtis Mc Graw Foundation $7,500 September $10,000 November Unrestricted NJSWEP $2,500 May $2,500 October Restricted 3000 $ Wm. Penn Fdn January 10000 13,000 Approved Restricted $ Church&Dwight 10,000 April $9,000 November Restricted Lowes August $25,000 November Restricted $ American Honda Foundation - August $70,000 October Restricted $ PSEG 50,000 October $100,000 December Restricted Church&Dwight April $12,000 November Unrestricted $ RBC June $65,000 65,000 Received Restricted Hyde and Watson Sept. $10,000 November Restricted J&J Fam. Of Companies $10,000 Sept. $20,000 November Unrestricted J&J Consumer Co. $2,500 $5,000 November Unrestricted

$ $407,500 $732,500 88,000

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Unrestricted Revenue Jan - Jul 14 Jan - Jul 13 Budget

Corporations $1,736 $133 Foundations $1,450 $10,940 $10,000 Major Gifts $54,083 $24,565 $24,650 Matching Gifts $9,149 $5,718 $5,650 Membership Renewals $16,005 $16,415 $16,550 New Members $6,740 $3,390 $3,800 Other $1,629 $869 $770

Total Unrest. Contribs $90,792 $62,030 $61,420

Conservation Questions: Contact Kevin Walsh at 609-737-3735 x30 or [email protected]

Grounds & Construction Coordination: The Watershed reserve is looking much better than it did three months ago as a result of the landscaping work coordinated by WS Cumby, NSU and the Watershed. All of the large piles of fill that had taken over where the driveways once stood have been graded and are now growing grass. The entrance driveway and the view towards the house are peaceful once again.

The daily coordination of watershed operations with the construction project has had its share challenges, especially for our camp staff who dealt with closed exit driveways during camper drop off and construction vehicles blocking access points on more than one occasion. We did the best we could in communicating with our families, and thankfully they understood and showed tremendous patience when coming and going in our parking areas.

Trail Maintenance: The addition of a new brush hog for trail cutting and clearing enabled Matt to keep on top of the trails all summer long. In addition, a part-time staff person dedicated to grass cutting, branch collection and meadow trail maintenance allowed Matt to stay focused on keeping the trails open. There were a number of volunteer groups that came out during the spring (BMS, CA Technologies, and Janssen) to trim branches back on many of our trails. These combined efforts saved our staff significant time and energy and allowed us to focus on other priority areas such as coordinating with the construction project and assisting education staff prepare for the camp season.

Farm House: Scott Sillars and Kevin Walsh have spoken with one realtor regarding options for renting out and re-configuring the existing farm house for dormitory style housing once the new environmental is open. Some upgrades to the kitchen will be required and Watershed staff are working with a contractor to obtain estimates for any additional renovation that may be required by Hopewell Township.

3 Advocacy Questions: contact Jim Waltman at 609-737-3735 x22 or [email protected]

Statewide Issues:

Sustainable Jersey: Joan reviewed and extensively revised the “Build Out Analysis” which is being prepared for Sustainable Jersey certification points. A phone conference is planned to discuss these changes. The issue should be ready for SJ municipal points in October 2014.

Joan attended a conference about water resources with keynote speaker Dr. Dan Van Abs. The focus was to present the dire consequences of not improving water infrastructure and danger to human health and the environment.

Local Issues: Cranbury: Riparian Zone Ordinance: Joan was very successful before the Environmental Commission in preparing and promoting the adoption of amendments to the Riparian Zone ordinance which would make it more protective of stream corridors. The EC will now have to defend the changes to the Planning Board and Township Committee. Although variances can be granted in certain limited proofs, the RZO expands the riparian corridor to 150 from the top of the bank of any waterway, or 200 feet from the centerline of the stream, whichever is greater. We plan to appear at meetings and explain the necessity for this ordinance amendment for water quality and healthy habitats.

Transco Pipeline. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released an Environmental Assessment for the proposed pipeline expansion, concluding that the proposed action will “not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. Based on this finding, FERC will not prepare a more thorough Environmental Impact Statement. We are coordinating comments on the document with towns and environmentalists in Montgomery and Princeton.

Princeton: Shade Tree Commission. The Princeton Council unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Shade Tree Commission and adopted a new/joint ordinance which limits tree cutting and destruction of trees on individual lots with certain limited exceptions, such as dead trees. Permits are required before tree cutting of any tree over 8 inch diameter and the town Arborist will inspect all requests. Joan McGee worked diligently on this ordinance for more than a year.

PennEast pipeline: Another proposed gas pipeline was announced over the summer. A preliminary map shows a route that would cut through large areas of western Hunterdon County and Mercer County, including a conservation easement over which the Watershed Association holds an ownership interest.

Hopewell Township: Pennytown 70- affordable dwelling units. Affordable housing developer Conifer advised the Township Committee that it would need the entire 25 acre lot for sewage disposal if it were to construct 70 units. This was not favorably viewed by the Township Committee. But, no plan was adopted about how to proceed.

Scotch Road: The Hopewell Township Planning Board met several times over the summer to discuss a conceptual plan to replace existing approvals for more than a million square feet of commercial office space with up to 2,500 housing units on Scotch Road near the large Meryl Lynch office complex. Unlike Pennytown, this area is close to water, sewer and highway infrastructure. We are advocating that, if the zoning is changed, residential units should be closely clustered, lands surrounding such clusters should be preserved as open space and 50% of the units should be made available as affordable housing to help address the Township’s extremely large affordable housing obligation. 4

Telecommunications Tower: This application was postponed until October, and we are working on a suitable alternative location to the residential property adjacent to the Watershed Reserve.

Watershed Institute:

Meetings & Partnerships: Kate introduced herself via the Institute’s listserv and social media to all constituent groups, and then through individual phone calls to current WI grantees. She has had in- person/phone meetings or email correspondence with 20+ groups throughout New Jersey to discuss the 2013 grant program, inquiries about the 2014 grants, assistance requests, and interest in workshops. Kate assisted in the hosting of a Planned Giving Roundtable with the NJ Conservation Foundation on 7/16, which had more than a dozen participants, and is currently working with Laura Szwak from NJCF to finalize a workshop schedule for the remainder of the year.

Kate has also attended several planning committee meetings for the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership, a new watershed group based out of New Brunswick, as part of an assistance request. She has provided resources on incorporation, organizational governance, and volunteer stream monitoring safety protocols to assist the LRWP as it establishes itself on the environmental scene in Central New Jersey.

Grant Program: Interim reports for the 2013 grantees were due on July 21st (all were submitted on time) and individual feedback was provided. Letters of Inquiry for the upcoming 2014 grant cycle were due August 1st, 16 LOIs from 15 organizations were submitted. We anticipate that 14 of those 16 LOIs will be expanded and submitted as full proposals, due Sept 12th. The Grant Review Committee meeting for the 2014 cycle has been scheduled for 10/2/2014 in the Kingsford Room on the Reserve.

Assistance requests: Since the beginning of June, the Watershed Institute has received 6 assistance requests on topics ranging from starting a nonprofit from the ground up to ensuring that staff and volunteers are covered under the organization’s insurance policy while out in the field.

Science Questions: contact Amy Soli at 737-3735 x36 [email protected]

StreamWatch: We have worked with the NJDEP throughout the summer to perform bacterial monitoring on several sites in our watershed. The first monitoring session was from June 4-July 2. In exchange for our help with monitoring seven sites during this period, the NJDEP agreed to pay for the monitoring of four additional sites of our choosing during a second session, from August 7 to September 4. We chose to monitor several tributaries to Peddie Lake in Hightstown.

The StreamWatch Biological Action Team (BATS) sampled 12 sites in the month of July and identified their macroinvertebrates to family level. We are currently analyzing the data to determine if the stream sites are healthy or impaired. We are comparing two analytical methods (New Jersey Impairment Score-NJIS and High Gradient Metric Index-HGMI) in an effort to switch over to the more modern one (HGMI). In accordance with our NJDEP-approved Quality Assurance Project Plan, 15% of the BAT samples from 2013 will be sent to Normandeau Laboratories in Stowe, PA to be checked for accuracy.

Erin conducted a training session for new Chemical Action Team volunteers on August 23. In preparation for the training, Erin reformulated and modernized training materials that had been used in the past. In addition to the seven new CATS trained during this session, Erin also trained three volunteers from the 5 Raritan Headwaters Association (RHA). RHA requested assistance from StreamWatch as they had never before performed a chemical training.

StreamWatch was well represented at the Volunteer and Member Appreciation Picnic. Of the StreamWatchers presented with awards, 12 youth volunteers received a certificate of appreciation, 5 volunteers received a framed photo of their monitoring site for 10 years, and one volunteer received a plaque for reaching her 20-year mark.

The StreamWatcher Summer 2014 issue was released in June (read it here). Articles include a trends analysis of the past 10 years of BAT data, bacteria test results from StreamWatch and Hightstown Triathlon volunteers, a review of the National Water Quality Monitoring Conference, and information about StreamWatch thermometer calibration. Erin also showed data from a trial of the new NJDEP Access database for a new macroinvertebrate population metric called High-Gradient Macroinvertebrate Index (HGMI). Erin updated the email list of statewide municipal and environmental groups before sending out the newsletter. The Winter 2014/2015 issue is scheduled to be released in December-January.

The StreamWatch Bacteria Action Team (BACT) sampled eight sites on August 4. All of the samples exceeded the state standard (235 colonies/100 ml for a single sample). This may be due to the fact that there was rainfall within 48 hours of the samples (0.16 inches in Somerville, 0.4 inches in Trenton.) The results are as follows for August 4: SITE NAME LOCATION E. COLI RESULTS (COLS/100 ML) BD3 Beden Brook at Great Road 590 CL1 Carnegie Lake below dam on the Millstone River 760 HL1 Honey Lake, from dock on west bank 510 HO2 Honey Brook Pond, on SBMWA property 320 PR1 Pike Run, at Montgomery Park 1,180 SB4 Stony Brook, at Pennington-Rocky Hill Road 1,220

River Friendly/Harry’s Brook: On June 16, an article ran in The Times of Trenton about the RBC Blue Water grant of $65,000 we received. Read the article here.

Carol Christofferson was contacted by a groundskeeper from TP Jasna Polana. He is interested in recertifying the course for River-Friendly. Erin is reviewing our past work with Jasna Polana and will start working with them on recertification.

Millstone River Dam Removals: The Science Department is continuing to conduct chemical monitoring on the Millstone River throughout the summer. We will collect macroinvertebrate samples in September.

Erin is currently mentoring an 11-year-old budding scientist, Sonja Michaluk. They are working together to sort and identify the macroinvertebrates collected as part of the Millstone River dam removal monitoring project.

Peddie Lake/Hightstown Erin visited the Rug Mill site in Hightstown with Joan McGee and Barbara Jones, the Hightstown EC Chair. The property is in bad shape and the Rocky Brook and a small tributary run straight through the middle of the site. Erin wrote up a sampling plan and sampled the surface water and sediment of Rocky Brook for TCE/PCE upstream and downstream of the affected property. We will receive the results soon.

6 We conducted weekly E. coli monitoring of Peddie Lake throughout the summer for the Highstown Triathlon practice swims. On several occasions early this summer, we got results back that were far over the State standard causing several practice swims to be cancelled. We found that the bacteria results steadily decreased to normal levels and practice swims resumed. The Triathlon was held on August 17th.

Edgerstoune Ponds The Watershed Association’s sediment sampling plan was finally approved by the NJDEP. We can now move forward with sediment sampling and analysis in advance of the planned dredging of the ponds. The Science Department plans to visit the ponds on Friday, September 5 to plan out the sediment sampling event we will put together later this month.

Watershed Environmental Center The Science Department took a field trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in July to get a behind-the-scenes look into how they manage their exhibits. In their Discovery Room, they have several microscopes set up for children to look at algae, insects, and other organisms up close. We took some ideas from their displays to apply to our own macroinvertebrate exhibit. We also received a tour of their educational classrooms/laboratories, which was a great opportunity to see how other labs are arranged and managed.

The Science Department built a list of “needs and wants” for the new laboratory and building. We applied for a $25,000 grant from the Lowe’s Foundation to obtain funding for several of our more important items, including a weather station, IDEXX machine and corresponding bacterial reagents, autoclave,

Education Questions: contact Jeff Hoagland at 737-3735 x25 [email protected]

Watershed Nature Camp Watershed Nature Camp 2014 came to a close on Wednesday, August 20 amidst the chaos of construction on our campus. Total camp registration was down slightly this year. Registration declined slightly, from 353 to 336 campers, after several years of steady growth; we filled 85% of capacity this year down from 89.3% in 2013. 63 children were awarded summer camp scholarships, including 2 campers in Outdoor Adventure – a first for our camp. These children were long-time campers, familiar with our programs, and were selected to participate by the Camp Director.

School Programming Several schools and camps visited over the summer for butterfly programs, including the Montessori Homeschool group in Princeton Junction, Princeton Montessori, Trenton YMCA, the Christina Seix Academy Lawrence Day School, the Dow Jones Family Center and the PACE Center of Princeton University. Visiting groups for the Trenton LINK program included the Trenton YMCA and Womanspace.

Public Programming Summer highlights included Jeff’s annual Firefly Watch on the Reserve and a Solstice at the Stream exploration at Bessie Grover Memorial Park. Families waded in Rock Brook, searching for aquatic insects, frogs and crayfish. Alison Novobilsky returned this summer to work in our department as a part-time Teacher-Naturalist. During the school year, Alison is a nursery school teacher at Cherry Hill Nursery School. In addition to teaching duties, Alison helped with our butterfly garden.

We hosted three highly successful butterfly tea parties, each one for more than 25 participants, two birthday parties and a very popular summer preschool series that we had to expand to two sessions to accommodate the high demand. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had their own summer program offerings on the Reserve; a Stream Stomp for the girls and the Insect Study merit badge for boys. Alison also led a stream exploration for families 7 at Opossum Road Woods in Montgomery. Allison Jackson invited children to build fairy houses in the forest with her – always a popular summer program. Jeff partnered with D&R Greenway again to lead a stream exploration of the Stony Brook at the land trust. He also led a bat watch mid-month for the public as well as for summer campers on their overnight. A new program he developed to celebrate National Moth Week, Moth Mania, attracted several enthusiasts to come out and meet the nocturnal insects.

Community Outreach/Other News Angelo Conti was hired as a part-time naturalist/butterfly house assistant. Angelo recently received an A.S. in Environmental Science from Raritan Valley CC and will be attending Unity College in Maine in September. CHS senior Alina Osborn volunteered part-time in our department again this summer, assisting with insect care and feeding. Our Insect Zoo at the Butterfly Festival was a highly successful feature of the event, thanks in large part to Allison Jackson’s diligent nurturing of butterflies in our temporary enclosure. Allison was the recipient of a scholarship from Washington Crossing Audubon to attend Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week, where she shared and learned new teaching approaches from Audubon instructors from around the country. Jeff continued to solicit community assistance to remove water chestnut from Hiohela Pond in Hopewell.

Comparison of Monthly Program Statistics – June/July/August 2013 vs. 2014 Public Program # Programs # Participants Fees Collected # Grant-funded 2013 37 787 $4396.00 2 2014 44 749 $3679.00 0 Variance +7 -38 -$717.00 -2 School Program # Programs # Participants Fees Collected # Grant-funded 2013 12 346 $1720.00 1 2014 20 550 $2805.00 5 Variance +8 +204 +$1085.00 +4 TOTAL # Programs # Participants Fees Collected # Grant-funded 2013 49 1133 $6116.00 3 2014 64 1299 $6484.00 5 Variance +15 +166 +$368.00 +2

Summer Camp # Programs Total # Fees Collected # Sch Campers Campers 2013 24 353 $109,551.96 62 2014 24 336 $104,234.00 63 Variance No variance -17 -$5317.96 +1

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