Restoration Ecology Interns Work to Save Campus Old Growth Forest

by Jasmine Zhang ‘23

Lawrentians are well familiar with the 30 acres of the School’s National Historic Landmark core campus, and most know some of the 250 acres dedicated to farming (including the Big Red Farm). But not many have explored the meadows, wetlands, and a beautiful old growth forest found on the remaining 360 acres of School property. In July, Lawrenceville’s 2022 Restoration Ecology Interns spent a week removing some of the invasive species from the forest to create a healthy habitat for the native trees and shrubs to come in. Besides in-person experiences, students also learned about restoration ecology and the relationship between the native and invasive species from ecologists who work for the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space. Jasmine Zhang tells us what her experience was like.

Most Lawrentians never get the chance to explore the entirety of Lawrenceville’s large campus, which consists of so much more than just academic buildings and athletic fields. Over the course of six days, my fellow interns and I were able to explore the Old Ropes Course, which lies just beyond the junior varsity baseball field–its entrance hidden within the cornfield by tall grass and jumbled vines. Simply stepping through the prickly vines, we were transported into a different landscape entirely - the sounds of bustling traffic and the clatter of construction were barely audible, and the chirping sounds from the numerous different bird species were suddenly much clearer. Not to mention, the large canopy trees of the forest provided a much needed break from the scalding sun outside.

Over the span of the program, our main job was to identify invasive species throughout the forest and cut them down, flagging them with a distinctive tape that indicated it needed to be spot treated with herbicide. With the guidance from Beth Craighead and Dana Christensen from Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, as well as Lawrenceville Director of Sustainability and Science Teacher Stephen Laubach, we were able to make slow, but thorough work of ridding the area of invasive plants to provide room for native plants like spicebush, maple-leaf viburnum, oak, and beech.

I distinctly recall working on a particularly difficult patch of multiflora rose, an invasive (and extremely prickly) species, painstakingly cutting the branches of each plant while carefully avoiding the sharp thorns that somehow always managed to nick my hand, even through the thick gloves I wore. When the area was cleared, I stood back and admired my work, the area now thoroughly adorned with bright orange flagging tape rather than a thick layer of tangled brush.

Along with our restoration work with invasive species removal, we were able to put up several fences throughout the area, designed to protect the native species from deer browsing and give them a chance to grow. Admittedly, carrying the heavy rebar and hefty rolls of fencing had me sweating more than usual, but the finished product was rewarding each time. After painstakingly unrolling a tightly bound roll of fencing, pounding in each piece of rebar–usually requiring multiple attempts in order to find a spot without a hidden rock underneath–and securing every zip tie, the resulting fence was a testament to the work we had completed. I hope to come back in the future to visit these patches of fencing and see progress of the recovering native species.

I’ll admit that going into this internship I had little to no experience identifying plants, so when I was tasked with picking out the invasive species, I had trouble distinguishing between the seemingly identical green bushes. Thus, it was surprising to see how quickly I was able to pick up the distinct differences between each plant species and develop some basic identification skills in just a couple of hours. In fact, I had become so familiar with picking out the invasive plants that simply walking around my neighborhood in the evenings, I was able to pick out a large amount of these invasive plants such as privet “decorating” the front yards of many houses. I may not have been able to walk up to these houses and cut down their favorite (invasive) shrubs, but it was rewarding to see the progress that we made within the area of the Old Ropes Course by the end of the program.

For additional information, contact Lisa M. Gillard H'17, director of public relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.