Raritan Township plants 300 Trees and Shrubs along the Walnut Brook

On October 8 and 9 over 20 volunteers from Raritan Township and other municipalities, Raritan Township Department of Public Works Staff and Raritan Headwaters Association staff planted 300 native trees and shrubs along the Walnut Brook in Mine Brook Park and Bernadette Morales Nature Preserve Raritan Township.  The plants were the first of 10,000 trees and shrubs slated to be planted along streams and rivers throughout the region in the watersheds of the North and South Branches of the Raritan River under the Raritan Headwaters Association (RHA) Woods and Waterways Tree Planting Grant Program. The Walnut Brook is classified as a Trout Maintenance stream by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.  The Walnut Brook is a tributary of the First Branch of the Neshanic River, which ultimately flows to the South Branch of the Raritan River, which serves as drinking water for communities downstream. 

Amy Greene, a member of the Raritan Township Environmental Commission and Open Space Advisory Committee said, “The purpose of the planting is to improve water quality, control downstream flooding, control stream bank erosion, provide aquatic and terrestrial wildlife habitat, provide cooling of the air and water and sequester carbon. The plantings will also help beautify the two parks.”

The Raritan Township Environmental Commission applied for and won the RHA grant earlier this year. RHA provided the trees and shrubs and tree protection supplies and technical assistance, for the project. 

The task was expedited by the predrilling of most holes by Township DPW staff using a skid steer with a power auger.  Twenty volunteers and 10 RHA staff, directed by Robert Lucas with RHA, installed each tree and shrub along with deer protection fencing and tree tubes.  The plantings were all installed close to both sides of Walnut Brook in areas lacking in woody vegetation.   While October is an optimum time to plant trees the DPW is providing supplemental watering this fall due to the lack of adequate rainfall in recent months. The grass surrounding the plants will be periodically mowed or trimmed by Raritan Township DPW and monitored by volunteers for 2 years to control invasive species and reduce damage from voles.  The areas will then be allowed to naturalize as the plants mature.

All plants are native and are adapted to stream side and floodplain habitat in our region and included black willow, river birch, American sycamore, swamp white oak, pin oak, red oak, red maple, shagbark hickory, pussy willow, blackhaw viburnum, arrowwood viburnum, Northern spicebush, silky dogwood and winterberry holly.

Both parks are frequented by walkers and, along with the Hunterdon County owned adjacent Uplands Reserve, host over 5 miles of walking trails. Trail maps for these and other Raritan Township Parks are found on the Raritan Township Recreation website - https://www.raritan-township.com/recreation-page-list/254-raritan-township-parks. Mine Brook Park also hosts a pavilion, playground and athletic field.  Mine Brook Park trails also connect to trails at the Hunterdon Land Trust Dvoor Farm. The heavy public use of the parks will also help inform the public about riparian restoration efforts and their importance.  An educational sign previously installed in Mine Brook Park explains the benefits of riparian restoration.

Raritan Headwaters (RHA), a regional non-profit environmental organization, has worked to protect and restore water quality in the North and South Branch Raritan Watershed Region (Upper Raritan; WMA 8) in New Jersey since 1959. However, many stream segments in the Upper Raritan are not meeting New Jersey’s Surface Water Quality Standards and are considered impaired. A recent trend analysis of benthic macroinvertebrate stream monitoring data collected by RHA between 1992 and present indicates the North Branch and South Branch Raritan River and several of their tributaries have experienced declines in water quality over time despite regulations protecting these headwater streams.

Forested riparian areas serve critical ecosystem functions in protecting water quality, habitat, and biodiversity in streams. Many of the Upper Raritan waterways have long segments where forested buffers have been removed or are unsustainable due to dead or dying trees, lack of tree regeneration, and a predominance of invasive vines and shrubs. Raritan Headwaters is conducting this major riparian buffer restoration effort with a goal of establishing and maintaining 10,000 native trees and shrubs and restoring at least 8 miles of stream buffer over the next 2 years by partnering with municipalities, school districts, non-profit organizations as well as private landowners.  Funds for the project were provided to RHA from Natural Resource Damages from the Cornell-Dubilier Superfund settlement.

The Walnut Brook stream corridor has benefited from past stream restoration efforts.  These proposed riparian planting locations will complement and expand on those efforts. Raritan Township has been performing multiyear tree plantings in the upstream Walnut Brook Preserve with assistance from Raritan Headwaters Association using a Nature Conservancy Grant and also resident donated plantings.  Raritan Township engaged the RVCC Center for Environmental Studies to install, monitor and maintain deer exclosures at Walnut Brook Preserve and Morales Park to promote the growth of native vegetation. For the past three years Flemington Cub Scout Pack 61 has planted tree seedling in Morales Preserve and Walnut Brook Preserve to help restore forested areas affected by removal of dead ash trees.  The Hunterdon Land Trust previously partnered with Raritan Township to perform Walnut Brook stream and riparian zone restoration within a portion of Mine Brook Park and downstream within the Dvoor Farm. Additional removal of dead ash trees and replanting with native trees is planned in Morales Park by Raritan Township and is funded in part through Hunterdon County Commissioners using American Rescue Act funds.

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