Environment

On Saturday, June 9, 2018 from 11:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M Somerset County Park Commission Colonial Park Gardens will be celebrating “Rose Day Festival.” The event will be held at the Rudolf W. van der Goot Rose Garden at 156 Mettlers Road, Colonial Par, Lot A, Somerset. The Rose Garden will be in peak bloom and visitors can enjoy the …

New Jersey’s forests are in a “crisis” because of the ever-expanding deer population, a Raritan Valley Community College professor told an audience in the Township Council chamber on May 21. Jay Kelly, an associate professor of biology at RVCC, told the several dozen people assembled for the Environmental Commission’s deer and invasive species seminar that if nothing is done to …

Deer hunting on Somerset County owned golf courses in the township is “not practical” and the idea won’t be pursued, the Open Space Advisory Committee was told at its May 15 meeting. But, the committee was told, the county is open to discussing other options for deer hunting on county owned land in the township. The committee at its April …

A graduate student’s proposal to install up to two dozen bird identification stations in the Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve won approval May 15 from the Open Space Advisory Committee. Ahmed Awadallah, who said he is an online graduate student in environmental studies at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt., will build the wooden stations, and the township’s public works department …

A vocal group of opponents to the proposed Williams-Transco gas compressor station targeted for the township rallied May 2 to let a federal agency know of their feelings. The group, which rallied in front of the township Senior/Community Center in the municipal complex, was comprised of Franklin residents, as well as residents from neighboring towns. Also on hand, across the …

Arbor Day was celebrated on April 28 by the township’s Shade Tree Commission with the planting of the final tree in the Middlebush Park “re-greening” program. The commission, in conjunction with the township Department of Public Works and Parks Department has planted 325 trees over the last two years, said commission chairperson Sara Malone. The types of trees planted included …

Residents opposed to a plan to build a natural gas compressor station near the Trap Rock quarry gathered at a township school April 18 to continue their fight. The session at Franklin Middle School was meant to help opponents of the Williams-Transco plan to build the compressor station gain what’s called intervenor status and to submit comments on a draft …

Township officials will ask the Somerset County Parks Commission for permission to allow hunting on at least one of the county owned golf courses located in Franklin. Township Manager Robert Vornlocker and Tara Kenyon, the township’s open space consultant, will make the request after the idea received the endorsement of the Open Space Advisory Committee at its April 17 meeting. …

Two township residents were among 17 students who graduated in March from Somerset County’s Rutgers Master Gardener Program. Tom Fucaloro and  W “RP”  Raghupathi, both of Somerset, were among those completing the 24-week course. The program consists of in-depth horticultural training covering the study of plant biology, turf, insects, pest and disease control, landscape design, vegetable gardening and the role …

Submitted by the Somerset County Park Commission. The Colonial Park Gardens staff will present a unique program, “Forest Bathing,” from noon to 2 p.m. April 8 and Sept. 9 at the Colonial Park Gardens, Parking Lot A. The Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, which translates as “forest bathing”, is intended to help foster a connection with nature that feeds the mind, …