A group of Master Gardeners under the leadership of Claudia Kunath recently continued their education program at the Little Sprouts Early Learning Center with a presentation about the importance of caring for nature during the winter… Spearheaded by …
Bridgewater, Raritan, Somerville Residents Plant Gardens for Clean Water
The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program has partnered with the New Jersey Water Supply Authority Watershed Protection Program to offer rebates to homeowners that build rain gardens. Since 2013, more than 60 area residents have attende…
Oyster Farmer Reviving Barnegat Bay’s Rich Shellfish Bounty
Today, Gregg is the owner of Forty North Oyster Farms. And even though it took him five years to get all the necessary permits (his work is regulated by 11 governmental agencies), and even though his entire business was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy (just four days after his first sale), he’ll tell you that now, finally, he has the best job in the world… Gregg also has a symbiotic relationship with Rutgers, which is responsible for the modern oyster industry in the first place. In the 1980s, Rutgers developed a disease-resistant strain of oysters, to fight against parasites, a breed line that is used throughout the industry. “Rutgers is world class when it comes to oysters,” says Gregg… Gef Flimlin is considered one of the guardians of Barnegat Bay and enthusiastically promotes Jersey shellfish. Flimlin, a marine extension agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, was a guest speaker at an oyster symposium last year at the Montclair Food & Wine festival, talking oysters, sharing clams.
Passaic River Polluters Funding Bacteria Study to Clean up Toxic Mess
The riverbed of the lower Passaic River has hardly been disturbed since the early 1980s when officials determined the sediment was too toxic to dredge… Now scientists from Rutgers and two other public universities, in a pilot study being funded by polluters on the hook for the federal clean up of the Passaic, want to grow an army to fight the contamination… Donna Fennell, an environmental science professor at Rutgers and one of the researchers on the project, said that given the legacy of contamination in the Passaic, it’s “very, very likely” that there are organisms in the sediment that have evolved to break down those pollutants… “New Jersey is a place with a legacy of industry and chemical production, and a lot of contaminated sites,” Fennell said. “It’s terrible what’s happened, but for scientists, it’s exciting microbiology.”
Doing it Together: Community Garden Conference Targets Growing Trend
The rapid growth of the community garden movement hinges on the obvious: Gardening is rewarding, and gardening with others divides the work and multiplies the fun… In New Jersey as elsewhere, the number of plots devoted to community gardens has risen sharply in the past few years. Driven in part by economic belt-tightening and partly by concerns about food safety, growing your own is a new-again trend. It was almost inevitable that community gardeners, a gregarious bunch by nature, would gravitate toward a chance to meet and mingle… The idea of “community” has branched out into several projects. There are volunteers growing crops for the local food pantry, mental health professionals running horticultural therapy programs and demonstration plots tended by Master Gardeners, who are trained in every county by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service.
Winter Wallop: Why the Next Week is Going to be the Worst
If you’re still making plans for the upcoming holiday weekend, you may want to keep them indoors. New Jersey will be stuck in a revolving door of dangerous cold and snow over the next week, with record cold, wind chills below negative 20 and disruptive wintry weather all possible… In fact, the likely snow on Saturday may help exacerbate the cold. Fresh snowpack can absorb lingering moisture in the air quickly following a storm, allowing heat to more readily radiate out into the atmosphere, according to David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University. “If the winds are calm and you have that fresh snowpack, that’s when you can see the temperature drop 5 or 10 degrees as the sun sets,” he said.
Rutgers Master Gardeners of Somerset County Helpline Office Opens March 2
The Rutgers Master Gardeners of Somerset County, a volunteer organization of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, are busy getting ready to open the Helpline office in Bridgewater on March 2… The Rutgers Master Gardener Helpline volunteers…
Intense Cold to Grip N.J. as Dreaded Polar Vortex Makes Valentine’s Weekend Return
It appears nearly certain that New Jersey is in store for its coldest weather of the winter this weekend, as a train of Arctic air is expected to repeatedly pound the northeast with brutal cold, likely pushing temperatures below zero for a significant swath of the state at times… The polar vortex typically holds the coldest air in the northern hemisphere, which during the winter can be dislodged and pour into the lower latitudes… “When you can say some of the anomalously coldest air in the Northern Hemisphere is being shifted down in this direction, you have to start talking about the vortex, from my perspective,” said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University.
Former Rutgers University Patrol Horse Stabled in Wrightstown Wins Personality Award
For 22 years, Lord Nelson carried the Scarlet Knight mascot across Rutgers University’s football field and helped officers perform their duties as the school’s mounted patrol horse… “Even in his old age, his mind is as sharp as a tack. He does not miss a thing,” said Karyn Malinowski, director of the Equine Science Center, which purchased Lord Nelson in 1978 to assist the university’s Department of Public Safety… The New Jersey Equine Advisory Board- a division of the state’s Department of Agriculture- awarded Lord Nelson the first-ever “Horse Personality of the Year” award to honor the contribution he’s made to education throughout his life, Malinowski said.
New Winter Storm Could Pelt NJ With Snow and Ice For Up to 3 Days
Yet another winter storm appears set to target New Jersey early next week, which would mark the third straight time commuters were greeted by snow, ice and rain to begin the work week… A stubborn pattern has been locked in place across the United States for several weeks, allowing for consistent train of winter storms to ride up over a ridge in the western half of the country and dive into a trough in the east, according to forecasters… “When you get into a pattern like this, there’s a certain beat to it,” said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University.
