By: Francesca Mundrick, Founder & CEO
After a long journey from South Jersey, I finally made it to the Princeton-Blairstown Center for the Women & Their Woods Retreat.
The Princeton-Blairstown Center is nestled at the heart of the Ridge & Valley Physiographic Province of New Jersey. This region is lesser known to most, characterized by the rolling Paleozoic geology of the ancient Appalachian Mountain range.
Surrounded by protected forest and wild sights, the Center was a physical place of refuge- to gather, to be, to unplug, to explore our minds, and to learn. Beyond its physical purpose, the Center also served as representation for what we all seek to protect in New Jersey, natural lands, traditional life ways, and our local connection to nature, making it the perfect location for our retreat.
The Women & Their Woods Retreat mission is to provide female landowners with the tools to best approach involvement in land ownership, stewardship, and conservation. The retreat seeks to educate on woodlands preservation and stewardship practices with focus in ecological data surveying, invasive plant removal, habitat connectivity, and restoration forestry.
At base, the Women & Their Woods Retreat works to build community. Community empowers us, transforms us, makes us resilient. The goal of our retreat community was to build confidence. Confidence to trust our innate feminine connection to nature, confidence to trust our stewardship practices for forests and other natural spaces, confidence to pursue and inspire more conservation. Women have an innate connection to nature- our stewardship is valuable and profound.
The retreat featured many inspiring and informational presentations. Highlights of this education is provided below.
Climate Resilience & Habitat Connectivity by Elise Cavicchi of NJ Conservation Foundation
This presentation highlighted the importance of habitat connectivity for megafaunas such as Bobcats, Black Bears, and Coyotes in New Jersey and beyond. Wildlife corridors are the structures of habitat connectivity by making it possible wildlife so travel throughout a landscape. This connectivity decreases the impact of habitat fragmentation which traps wildlife into small spaces diminishing resources and genetic diversity.
Managing Your Forest to Restore Carbon by Leslie Sauer Restoration Ecologist and Author of The Once and Future Forest
This presentation highlighted propagating native plants, monitoring natural communities, and repairing degraded habitats. Restoration forestry over traditional forestry was discussed highlighting the realities of over management in forestry, controversial forestry projects in New Jersey such as Sparta Mountain, and the link between the Federal Government, State Government, and Forestry industry.
Choice in Forest Management by Joan Maloof of the Old Growth Forest Network
This presentation highlighted the essential function of old growth trees in ecological communities and for carbon storage. Criticisms of “Young Forest” Initiatives and “Timberspeak” were discussed to bring to light buzzwords used to destroy old growth forests and the realities of successional youth forest initiatives that focus on habitat development for specific hunt-able species.
This retreat was great to support my knowledge of available resources, incentives, and programs, significant causes of the environmental advocacy community in North Jersey, and, most of all, the ins and outs of land preservation- an extremely important action for New Jersey. The knowledge and connections I made on the retreat will inform my education practice and platforming for Rewild NJ and beyond!
Ridge & Valley Conservancy & Land Preservation
The Ridge & Valley Conservancy is an accredited land trust that works to preserve open space and farmland in cooperation with communities, counties, State, organizations, and landowners in Northern New Jersey. While the mission of Ridge & Valley Conservancy is land preservation, the Conservancy offers environmental education, volunteerism opportunities, and events that help people understand the value of protecting open space in their community.
Land preservation, under represented compared to other environmental causes, is extremely important- especially in a place like New Jersey. Globalized, urbanized, and densely populated, New Jersey’s land use is constantly changing. It is projected that New Jersey will be “built out” by 2040, meaning all parcels of New Jersey’s land space will be in use including residential, commercial, industrial, and conservation, purposes.
Due to New Jersey’s high importance for human activities, we tend to forget its environmental importance. New Jersey is an environmentally diverse State featuring ecological communities from the forests of the mountains to the beaches of the Shore.
New Jersey is at the very center of the Appalachian Mountains which serves as a globally recognized wildlife corridor for megafauna and migratory wildlife. New Jersey’s environmental importance connects to people too. New Jersey’s fertile lands and natural resources have served local communities for centuries. Our land is our home, our history, and part of New Jersey’s story.
Land Preservation ensures that we protect open spaces and farmlands from being lost forever to development. Without continued land preservation efforts, more of New Jersey’s lands will be transformed by development, diminishing habitats, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and access to natural resources for local communities.
Land Preservation is our sovereignty because it ensures the long term safeguarding, health, and stability of environments for local people and nature- a cornerstone of Community Rewilding.
Land Preservation is complex meaning it is not an action that can be done quickly. This form of conservation works extremely well and is essential, however, it requires time and money.
If you own land space in New Jersey, please consider conserving your land through a land preservation trust.
Consider donating to land preservation! Your donation goes directly into funding local land preservation and conservation.
Learn more about the Ridge & Valley Conservancy and land preservation here: https://www.ridgeandvalleyconservancy.org/
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