Mantua Township is teaming with Americorps New Jersey Source Water Protection (NJSWP) for a tree identification walk in Chestnut Branch Park at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The event is free and will be led by Mantua resident Gina Frescoln. She is an ambassador for the NJSWP, a program associated with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The walk will go through the park’s disc golf course, according to parks director Scott Hellerman.
The NJSWP is part of the Watershed Ambassador Program, whose goal is to educate people on the drastic impact of humans on the environment, specifically water quality.
“New Jersey’s waters are a valuable and vulnerable resource,” notes the watershed website. “For the past 24 years, the AmeriCorps New Jersey Watershed Ambassadors Program has played an important role in raising awareness of how human activities can affect water quality, especially in the most densely populated state in the nation.
“The goals of the program are to promote watershed stewardship through education and direct community involvement and to monitor stream health through performing visual and biological assessments.
Individual AmeriCorps members are assigned to each of the state’s 20 watershed management areas (WMAs) to serve as ambassadors to their watershed communities, according to the website. In addition to those 20 full-time ambassadors, three part-time Source Water Protection Ambassadors are assigned to regions in northern, central and southern New Jersey and serve 900 hours from September through May, conducting education and stewardship projects that relate to drinking water sources.
Chestnut Branch Park was chosen for the walk because it covers 109 acres of land, according to the township website, and is home to a variety of tree species. The walk will begin at the park pavilion and is expected to last one-and-a-half hours. Participants are encouraged to wear walking shoes or hiking boots.
To register, contact Hellerman either by email at shellerman@mantuatownship.com or by phone at (856) 468-1500, ext. 125. The township hopes to have a similar tour at Ceres Park in the future.
