Land Stewardship Workshops NJ Land Conservation Rally this Saturday!

The 14th annual New Jersey Land Conservation Rally is this Saturday March 20, 2010 at Montclair State University. There are several great land stewardship workshops scheduled including:

• Early detection and rapid response This workshop will cover the Central New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team’s innovative regional approach to non-native invasive species management.  This workshop is a  must for land managers  trying to deal with the conservation threat posed by emerging non-native invasive species.
• Three models of plant stewardship: floristic quality does count A good companion to the early detection rapid response workshop, this workshop will provide an overview of native plant stewardship.  I am sure there will be a good dosing of the Bowman’s Hill’s Plant Stewardship Index, a great tool for land stewards.
• Nonprofit stewardship of local government-owned lands More and more, nonprofit organizations are beginning manage public parks and natural areas.  This workshop includes a diverse group of presenters from nonprofits throughout NJ that manage local government-owned lands.  There will be a representative from Saddlers Woods Conservation Association, South Mountain Conservancy, and Camden Greenways. For those of you who don’t know, Saddlers Woods, located in Haddon Township, is one of the few remaining old growth forests in New Jersey.
• Four step process for habitat regeneration For those of you not able to make the Duke Farms field trip on Friday March 19, this workshop will outline the impressive ecological restoration efforts being undertaken at Duke Farms and the four step process they have developed.
• Trail design and construction This workshop will focus on developing multi-use interconnected trails.  The presenters all have a lot of experience building and managing trails.  This should be a good one for us trailbuilders!
• Creating trails on a shoestring Technically a Roundtable rather than a workshop,  this presentation will lead by representatives from D&R Greenway Land Trust and the NJ Trails Association.  Should be interesting as most of us are always looking for better ways to create trails in a cost-effective manner.
• Farming in developed areas:  community gardens Increasingly, land stewardship in urban areas involves  community gardens. Learning more about the work that Grow it Green Morristown is doing alone makes this workshop worth a serious look.
• Land Protection and Management to Protect Water Resources I am sure this will be a great one to learn about ongoing land stewardship and restoration initiatives that help water quality.
• The nuts and bolts of deer management Mike Van Clef, Jim Amon, and I will be presenting three different approaches to deer management.  Despite the terrible title (my fault!), the workshop has nothing to do with netting and bolting deer and instead will focus on how three different land trusts are beginning to effectively deal with deer overabundance on their properties and beyond.

Don’t hesitate to let me know if I missed anything.  Hope to see you on Saturday!