The Swede Run Barn at Swede Run Fields in Moorestown is believed to have been built in the early 1800s. An 1849 map of Burlington County shows a single building on the site.
Earlier this year Save the Environment of Moorestown (STEM) was awarded a $40,000 grant through New Jersey Audubon as part of its Watershed Restoration and Community Engagement Program.
Now, STEM is performing a complete environmental analysis of the Swede Run waterway as it travels through Swede Run Fields. Princeton Hydro is performing a three-phase study of the property, including water quality and a geomorphic and ecological study. The results are designed to help identify and prioritize potential restoration projects.
“It’s going to show us what native plants and wildlife are in the site, but also show us what the invasives are,” said STEM President Mark Pensiero. “The output (of the analysis) will include a writeup on what they (Princeton Hydro) did and what they found, but also a list with prioritization projects that can be done to do habitat enhancement.”
STEM is only one of six state organizations that received New Jersey Audubon funding – totaling $228,000 – through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, according to the Gloucester City News and CNBNews. STEM’s environmental analysis will focus on water quality and invasive plants, as well as native wildlife and plants to determine the most valuable habitat restoration goals.
New Jersey Audubon is dedicated to fostering environmental awareness and a conservation ethic among New Jersey’s citizens; protecting New Jersey’s birds, mammals, other animals and plants, especially endangered and threatened species; and promoting the preservation of the state’s valuable natural habitats.
“The hardest part of going after grants is having the money to do the upfront work,” Pensiero explained. “Then when you’ve done the up-front work, there’s various pools of money that are available to actually do the work. But how are you going to come up with the money to do the studies? That’s the hard part.
“We’re going to be, I believe, in a really good position to go after the actual restoration work,” he added, “because we’re going to have a top-notch product backing us up when we do pursue those grants. So it’s really a neat thing for us.”
In other news, STEM continues to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the big field at Swede Run. According to STEM’s Facebook page, a community member who resides on Westfield Road mowed a portion of the field that has a lot of invasive Mugwort, a perennial plant native to Europe and parts of Asia and Africa.
Following that, the service will treat those mowed sections of the field. And the last flower species to bloom, the False Sunflower, is now in full bloom at Swede Run’s native pollinator garden. There are a lot of things for residents to find at Swede Run and the big field, according to Pensiero.
“There’s this tool called eBird …” he pointed out. “People can report unusual birds – you can put any birds on it – and then you can submit it and they use all this data to figure out what the birds are … ”
Every few days, Pensiero added, the app puts out what is calles a rare bird alert that identifies sightings and where they were, as well as photos.
“ … There were two sightings of rare birds that were seen at Swede Run, which was really neat, he said. “The first bird was a Virginia Rail … and there was also a Purple Finch that was over at the big field, so again, unusual enough that it made the rare bird list.
“So that’s a good thing.”
