About

With over 1500 posts, this blog serves as a searchable "nature's diary" for Princeton. Given that most of the plant and animal life written about here has ranges that extend far to the north, south, and west, it's relevant to anyone living in the eastern U.S..

I began writing this blog back in 2006. Transplanted to Princeton in 2003, I convinced the Friends of Princeton Open Space to create a Resource Manager position to manage Mountain Lakes Preserve, and served in that position for five years. I have at various times been on the Princeton Environmental Commission, the Shade Tree Commission, and an Open Space Task Force. I provided the initiative, many photos, and some co-editing for the 2010 Princeton Environmental Resource Inventory, and wrote ecological assessments and stewardship plans for Harrison Street Park and the Rogers Wildlife Refuge.

Before moving to Princeton, I founded a nonprofit, the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association (ECWA) that thrived for 25 years in Durham, NC, and learned a great deal about broader environmental issues while on the Durham Environmental Affairs Board. Before that I lived in Ann Arbor, MI, collecting degrees in botany and water quality, participating in prescribed prairie burns, and planting a small native prairie that still exists there in County Farm Park. I've conducted plant inventories in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and in most of the preserves in Princeton.

My interest in plants and nature gained momentum during an Environmental Field Trip in Georgia and Florida while a student at Antioch College.

Most recently, I led the founding of the Friends of Herrontown Woods (HerrontownWoods.org), which beginning in 2013 cleared and re-opened the long-overgrown trails in that preserve and in adjoining Autumn Hill Reservation. We continue to maintain and improve the trails on 230 acres of town-owned open space along the Princeton ridge, successfully fought off attempts by Mercer County to demolish the Veblen House and Cottage, and are taking steps to rehabilitate these historic buildings that provide the only infrastructure for a long corridor of preserved open space in eastern Princeton. The fascinating history of Herrontown Woods caused me to catch the history bug. Research to date can be found at VeblenHouse.org.

Other endeavors include music and theater.