Environment

The Hageman Farm on South Middlebush Road was the scene April 29 for an Arbor Day commemoration which included tree planting and sapling giveaways. The event was hosted by the Franklin Township Shade Tree Commission, in conjunction with the Meadows Foundation and local Boy and Girl Scout troops. During the event, local Scouts helped plant four species of trees at …

Submitted by Sara Malone, Chair of the Shade Tree Commission. Arbor Day will be commemorated this year in the township with a ceremonial tree planting and the giving away of 500 tree seedlings, courtesy of the Franklin Township Shade Tree Commission. The commission, in conjunction with the Meadows Foundation and local Boy and Girl Scout troops, will host an Arbor …

Update: “Blowdowns” at the proposed Transco natural gas compressor station 206 could occur four to five times a week, for four to six weeks, while the compressor station is being tested, a company spokesman said. A blowdown is a forced release of gas into the air. Transco spokesman Christopher Stockton said that the number of blowdown events vary, based on …

It was far from the blizzard it was forecast to be, but the winter storm that that hit the area March 14 still managed to cause some chaos. The storm dropped between 5 and 5.5 inches on the township, and, according to the National Weather Service, that was on the low end for Somerset County. The NWS recorded snowfall amounts …

Area residents who want to defeat a proposed natural gas compressor station must remain engaged and fight it at every level. That was the word from a panel of activists gathered Feb. 27 at Sampson G. Smith Elementary School in a forum hosted by the township’s newly formed Task Force on Compressor Station 206. About 300 people showed up for …

Four township women are part of a dance team that earlier this month won its third national title in the National Dance Team Championships. The girls – Clarissa Miller, Ashlee Sorenson, Mindy Wanagosit and Rachel Wanagosit – are part of the Jersey Girls All Star Dance Team, headquartered at the Central Jersey Dance and Gymnastics Center in Middlesex. The 26-member …

Submitted by Rutgers Cooperative Extension. Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Somerset County is offering a “High Tunnel Winter Lettuce” workshop from 5:30 to 8 o’clock in the evening on January 31, 2017 at 310 Milltown Rd. in Bridgewater. The class is being offered as part of the RCE’s Ultra-Niche Crops Series of workshops. The cost for this workshop is $20 and …

At an Oct. 7 ceremony at the Rudolf van der Goot Rose Garden at Colonial Park in Somerset, Somerset County Park Commissioners and Staff formally accepted the 2015 World Federation of Rose Societies’ (WFRS) Garden of Excellence Award. The nomination was submitted by Dr. Suni Bolar, Vice President of the Jersey Shore Rose Society and a national level rose exhibitor …

The Bunker Hill Environmental Center was re-opened to township students Sept. 20, with a group of MacAfee Road School 3rd Graders leading the way. The center, nestled on about 96 acres off of Bunker Hill Road in Griggstown, provides a hands-on environmental science lab to the school district’s students in grades K-12. The center is provided to the township by the …

Winners of the 2016 Trails Advisory Committee Photo Contest were announced at the Sept. 14 meeting. The winners were Navajo Singh, Jennifer Tuck, Santiago Caasi and Kathy Bland. The winning pictures are included in the 2017 Trails calendar, which can be seen here. Judges had to pick from 39 entries, a job that committee chairwoman Nancy Cole said was not easy. …