Creating Princeton’s Emerald Necklace
Frederick Law Olmsted pioneered the “Emerald Necklace” in Boston in the late-1800s. The original Emerald Necklace is a ring of linked parks surrounding the city that provide green and open spaces for thousands of residents. To ensure climate resilience and to enhance the health and well-being of our community, Princeton needs its own Emerald Necklace.
Saving Irreplaceable Habitat
Living remnants of the past, these older-growth forests of beech, oak, hickory and tulip poplar provide essential habitat for tropical migrating songbirds and for several species that are endangered, threatened, or of special concern in New Jersey. These include the red-shouldered hawk, barred owl, Cooper’s hawk, New Jersey bobcat, and wood turtle. These woodlands provide critical wildlife corridors to the Sourland Mountains and to Autumn Hill Preserve and Herrontown Woods. Development of these forests could result in local extinction of rare and threatened species.
Protecting Ecosystem Services
Old forests contain high genetic and species diversity, sequester huge amounts of carbon, and provide crucial ecosystem services by filtering vast quantities of air and water and by reducing flooding. And older forests far surpass younger or disturbed forests in providing such benefits. If they are cleared or significantly degraded, these ecosystem services are often lost forever.
Partners
School and Youth Consortium for the Emerald Necklace
A consortium of schools and youth are working to support Princeton’s Emerald Necklace Initiative by removing invasive species from their school environs; helping to maintain trails along portions of the Emerald Necklace; and engaging in outreach to raise consciousness about the vital need to protect local forests. Founding schools include: Princeton High School (Ridgeview Woods Community Service); Princeton Friends School; Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart; Princeton Montessori; and Princeton Junior School.
Conservation Organizations and Princeton working to preserve forests
Town officials and local and state conservation organizations are working together to protect segments of Princeton’s Emerald Necklace. In addition to ourselves these include: