Stewardship

Our Mission

Stewardship efforts focus on preserving and restoring the natural landscapes in the preserve. This includes maintaining environmental protection standards and safeguarding native habitats. Our goal is to restore degraded lands and waters to their natural states and ensure that the preserve continues to function as a vital ecosystem for wildlife and plant species. Active land management and invasive species control are key components of the stewardship strategy. Overall, we seek to:

– Maintain environmental protection standards
– Restore lands and waters to their natural states
– Preserve native habitats
– Protect the regional ecology and the watershed in and around the preserve.

Nurturing Native Species & Improving the Ecology

The Barnes Preserve, like so many other sites in central New Jersey, has been damaged by human encroachment and neglect over the past 150 years. Over the past thirty-five years, local residents and their elected leaders have taken on the responsibility to protect these lands from further harm. Early efforts include the initial conservation of 27 acres in Edison in the 1950s (where the Songbird Trail is located), 10 acres in Metuchen in the 1970s (known at the Boy Scout tract), and South Plainfield has preserved many acres over the past twenty years.

In 2009, state assemblyman Peter Barnes pioneered legislation to ensure that the Preserve that now bears his name would be properly stewarded through the creation of a commission. The commission partners with other organizations and with the people in our communities to actively maintain, restore, preserve and protect both land and water, to ensure the health of the native flora and fauna. In addition to restoring habitats, we work with partners to address legacy sites (including the Woodbrook Dump and the Gulton Site), reducing invasive species, and encouraging the return and growth of native species.

Woodbrook Superfund Site

The seventy acre Woodbrook Superfund site is located primarily on two industrial-zoned properties (Block 388, Lots 1 and 26) in South Plainfield. The site’s name comes from its proximity to the former Woodbrook Farm and due to the fact that it lies just north of the now abandoned Woodbrook Road which ran west from Tyler Road toward Coolidge Street. The northwest-flowing Bound Brook crosses through the site on its way to the Green Brook and the Raritan River.

Dumps accepting household and industrial wastes had operated at this location during the 1940s and 1950s, until the State of New Jersey shut them down in 1958. However, it is believed that additional dumping occurred later on.

What is a Superfund Site?
When the EPA determines that a site is contaminated with hazardous waste, which was dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed, it is termed a Superfund site. In 1980, Congress established CERCLA, known commonly as Superfund, which gives the EPA the power and the means to clean up contaminated sites. It also forces the parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work. However, many of these cleanups and/or reimbursements are adjudicated over years and decades, which prevents timely and effective cleanup.

When was the Woodbrook Road Dump identified as a Superfund site?
The Edison Wetlands Association found abandoned capacitors on this site in 1999. The property owner fenced off the site and removed the capacitors. In 2003, the EPA added the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) after tests of water, sediment, and soil on and near the site revealed contamination which merited remediation.

What is the current status of this site?
In June 2024, the EPA issued a “final explanation of Significant Differences” for the cleanup of this site. The final explanation restated the original plan calling for full remediation, which was issued in 2013. The selected remedy includes the following major components:
• Excavation and off-site disposal of an estimated 4,000 cubic yards of soil and debris that contains capacitors, capacitor parts and PCB-contaminated soil and debris with PCB concentrations greater than 100 ppm to an approved off-site disposal facility.
• Excavation and off-site disposal of an estimated 120,000 cubic yards of soil and debris that contains PCBs at concentrations greater than 1.0 ppm to an approved off-site disposal facility.

EPA warning sign on a chain-link fence indicating hazardous materials at the Woodbrook Road Superfund Site.

Woodbrook Superfund - Sign

Locked metal gate surrounded by overgrown vegetation at the Woodbrook Superfund site entrance.

Woodbrook Superfund Site - Locked Gate

Yellow warning sign on a fence reading “Posted – No Trespassing – Contaminated Area” surrounded by dense vegetation.

Woodbrook Superfund - Warning Sign - Fence

Gulton Site

What is the history of this site?
Located in Metuchen, just northwest of Durham Road, the Gulton Property was used for manufacturing and as a power facility from the early 1900s through 1986. During this time, the property became contaminated by discarded electronic components and illegal dumping.

Where is the Gulton Site?
The Gulton site includes a privately-owned property of approximately seven acres located at 212 Durham Avenue, Metuchen. This section is being redeveloped into 272 apartments. It also includes 18.7 acres of land, now deeded to the county, which has been conserved as part of the Barnes Preserve. The Dismal Brook runs through the back of this property.

What is the current status of the site?
Recently, the site has undergone a $10 million environmental cleanup, followed by the wetland mitigation project aimed at restoring, enhancing, and replacing soils and plants to return these wetlands to their original state. This mitigation process has included the planting of thousands of saplings, among them black willow, sweet gum, sycamore, and swamp oak.

Gulton Building and Planting Plan

Stone culverts under a railroad embankment at Dismal Brook in a forested area.

Gulton - Dismal Brook West RR Embankment

View of Dismal Brook flowing through a restored enclosure surrounded by vegetation.

Gulton - Dismal Brook Enclosure

Invasive Species

What is an Invasive Species?

As is the case with the rest of New Jersey, the land and waters in the Barnes Preserve have a variety of invasive species which have been introduced. An invasive species is non-native (or alien) to an ecosystem and its introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm, or harm to human health. They can be animals (such as house sparrows), microbes (including sac fungi which caused Dutch Elm disease killing most American elms throughout North America), insects (including the ubiquitous spotted lantern fly), and plants (see below…so many!).

What kinds of invasive species are in the preserve?
There are many invasive species in the preserve, such as the emerald ash borer (which have killed almost all of the ash trees and spotted lantern fly (notably drawn to the Ailanthus or “Tree of Heaven,” which itself is invasive). More notable are the invasive plants species, which include:

Standing shrubs, such as: Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, and burning bush
Climbing or clinging shrubs, including multi-flora rose, wineberry, and Morrows’ honeysuckle
Woody vines, such as porcelain berry, Chinese bittersweet
Climbing Vines, including English ivy and Japanese honeysuckle
Tall and small perennials, such as: Japanese knotweed and mugwort, both of which are rhizomes.

Others that are more challenging to treat or remove include Japanese stiltgrass and lesser celandine.

What can be done to stop or prevent invasive species?
There are different ways to remove or prevent their spread.
1) Cultural – educate about practices and increase awareness.
2) Mechanical – mowing, hoeing, tilling, chopping, and building barriers using tools.
3) Manual – destruction of invasive species using hands, feet, and tools.
4) Biological – using prey (e.g., beetles, flies, and moths) to target invasive species.
5) Chemical – use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides.

The Barnes Commission endorses cultural, mechanical, and manual methods within the confines of the preserve. In recent years, the Metuchen Environmental Commission, in partnership with other groups, has made inroads into preventing and removing these invasives using these means.

There is also an overabundance of deer in the preserve. While they are not invasive, they are “thuggish,” which means they are damaging the ecosystem due to the fact that there are so many of them…and they overcrowd areas and often overeat native plant species.

What is our long-term goal?
Our long-term goal is to create ecological wellness in which native plants overcome and outcompete invasive plants. This includes planting and propagating native tree species, such as swamp oak, river oak, silky dogwood, and black willow, while removing invasive species.

Partners

Middlesex County Parks and Recreation

DPW of Edison

DPW of Metuchen

DPW of South Plainfield

Edison Wetlands Association

Edison Greenways Group

Metuchen/Edison Troop 17 – BSA

St. Francis Cathedral Youth Group

SEWA USA – Edison Chapter