2021 STEM Wrap-Up

​While the Covid pandemic refused to go away and did its best to keep us from having a “normal” year, STEM did its best to stay focused on maintaining and improving Moorestown’s many beautiful, preserved open spaces in 2021.

While the pandemic limited our ability to do Natural Area Care (NAC) projects we still did manage to tackle a few undertakings. Working with students from the Moorestown High School’s Outdoor Service Club we removed many bags of Garlic Mustard from South Valley Woods. This was the second year that they helped us remove this nasty invasive. I am happy to report that we’ve made a real dent in this invasive. Hopefully we’ll be able to attack it again this spring.  

With the generous support of Moorestown’s Department of Parks and Recreation who provided the materials, we were able to install eight elevated walkways, four each at the Esther Yanai Preserve and South Valley Woods. The Youth Group from the First United Method Church of Moorestown provided the labor for installing six bridges while the Outdoor Service Club from MHS provided the labor for the other two. With these eight walkways, a total of twelve walkways have been at these two open spaces over the last two years. These walkways have greatly improved the walkability of these two open spaces, particularly during the wetter seasons.

STEM also led two projects designed to improve the habitat at Swede Runs Fields. The first project saw STEM and its volunteers install and maintain a 1,200 plant native plant pollinator garden that surrounds the old stone building adjacent to the dog park. STEM partnered with the Xerces Society, a non-profit whose primary mission is improving the habitat for pollinating insects. The project was a great success, primarily the result of the many volunteers who watered and weeded their sections of the garden during the long, hot summer. Through the generosity of a STEM member, we were able to install a beautiful interpretative sign at the garden explaining the importance of pollinators and how native gardens can help them thrive. The second project was a joint project with STEM, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Township of Moorestown to turn the 75 acre parcel across from the dog park into a meadow of native grasses and pollinator plants. The field was planted in the fall, and we should start to see the fruits of our labors in the spring. 

While I am proud of our 2021 accomplishments, there remains much to be done. I want to send out a big, heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped us accomplish so much in 2021. I hope that you will continue to support STEM in the future. We couldn’t do it without you. I think there is no better way to do that than to take a walk in the woods, and we are blessed in Moorestown’s to have so many beautiful open spaces where we can do just that.

Sincerely,
Mark Pensiero
STEM, president

Creating native grasslands and wildflower fields for Moorestown’s butterflies, birds, bees — and people

By Kevin Riordan, originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 10/21/2021
Photos by Thomas Hengge

A 130-acre expanse of former Moorestown farmland called Swede Run Fields is being transformed into an oasis for bees and other struggling pollinators, as well as for vulnerable ground-nesting birds.

In 2001, Moorestown Township bought 130 acres known as the Benner Farm to protect it from the development boom that was transforming the rural landscape along both sides of Westfield Road.

Twenty years later, the grassroots nonprofit Save the Environment of Moorestown (STEM) is leading an effort to transform the Burlington County site, now called Swede Run Fields, into a destination for butterflies, birds, bees, other pollinators — and people. All of which are species under significant stress and in need of safe and nurturing places.

“When I started this, I wasn’t sure if it had much of a chance to happen,” said STEM president Mark Pensiero, 65. The retired business operations director at Lockheed Martin, who grew up in Moorestown, has been working on the Swede Run project for almost two years.
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“When the pandemic hit, I had a lot of time on my hands,” said Pensiero, a father of three and grandfather of two. He’s also a devoted birdwatcher.

“This will be a habitat that is not common in this part of New Jersey anymore,” he said. “This plot of ground is big enough to attract threatened species of birds to nest here. The pieces for this project have all come together, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Last spring, about 30 volunteers planted wildflowers such as butterfly weed in a demonstration garden on the east side of the fields. Designed by STEM member Karen Walker, the 4,50-square-foot garden bloomed gloriously around a 19th-century barn made of ironstone that’s a much-photographed reminder of the township’s agricultural past. The Historical Society of Moorestown and volunteers helped save the beloved building from demolition a decade ago.

“There were tons of monarch butterflies here” in September, Pensiero said. “It was one of my favorite examples of how nature is amazing.”

Later this fall, with the support of the Xerces Society and other conservation groups, as well as the assistance of the federal and township governments, STEM has arranged for 70 acres on the west side to be seeded with little bluestem and other native grasses to create a habitat for ground-nesting birds such as eastern meadowlarks and perhaps even the grasshopper sparrow.

Plans also call for enhancing two small patches of west side wetlands into vernal pools — shallow and seasonal bodies of water — that will help attract migrating birds as they follow the Delaware River portion of the Atlantic Flyway. The west side of Westfield Road also will feature a quarter-mile-long, 30-foot-wide array of wildflowers that pollinators love.
“It will be stunning. It will be a ‘wow’ factor as you drive down the road,” Pensiero said, noting there also will be “real beauty to the native grasslands in all seasons.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners Program is providing about $18,000 for the project because of “the exceptional ecological value” of the site, program coordinator and wildlife biologist Elizabeth Freiday said.

“It wouldn’t be happening without the commitment from the township, and the people of STEM,” said Freiday, who works out of the service’s New Jersey office in Galloway Township, Atlantic County. There are about 120 partnership agreements statewide; about half are in South Jersey.

“Projects like this can’t get off the ground without the right people,” Freiday said.

One such volunteer is Colleen Mallow Lopresti, a STEM steering committee member who was visiting the pollinator garden on a recent weekday. “It’s great to have this place to get my hands in the dirt,” she said.

In 2001, Moorestown contributed 25%, or $1.8 million, of the $7.3 million purchase price of Benner Farm, with Burlington County picking up another 25%, and the remaining half paid for by the N.J. Green Acres program. In addition to the active farming, which ended in 2017, the site has long offered two miles of walking trails and, since 2016, a dog park.

Moorestown Mayor Nicole Gillespie said Swede Run Fields — named for the creek that runs through the eastern side of the property — “is the largest un-forested open space parcel” in the suburban township, which has a population of just over 20,000.

“The council made the decision not to continue leasing it to farmers, because some residents were concerned about the use of pesticides,” she said. “STEM came to us and said, ‘Here’s an idea,’ and we loved it: Passive recreation, habitat, and birdwatching are really a better way to make use of it. STEM brought the expertise and the passion and really drove this forward.”

The public-private collaboration enables the township to spend “a relatively small amount of money” — about $20,000 — to pay for mowing and other services, the mayor said. “This is a great investment.”

So far, STEM has spent about $8,000 and is looking for ways to make maintenance of the native grass fields — where the buildup of thatch requires regular removal — economically sustainable. Pensiero said the group is talking to at least one South Jersey farmer who may be interested in harvesting and selling the thatch to mushroom farms, which would lower the cost of the work.

“We want to keep this thing going for many, many years,” he said.

The Swede Run Fields project also is helping reenergize STEM, which will mark its 50th anniversary in 2022.

At 88, Barbara Rich is the only survivor of the trio of women who helped get the organization off the ground in 1972: Katherine Kay Smith died in 2019 and Esther Yanai in 2003.

“You have no idea the influence those two ladies had on me, and on the future of Moorestown,” said Rich, who like Smith and Yanai, has a significant section of Moorestown open space named in her honor.

“Swede Run Fields is a perfect example of what STEM’s mission was, and is,” she said.

Said Pensiero: “They blazed the path, and they had a lot of foresight.”

The efforts of the founders, their contemporaries, and current STEM members alike “have made the town a better place,” he said.
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“And Swede Run Field is probably the thing I’m most proud of.”

Update on the Swede Run Fields Pollinator Garden

September 2021- The recently installed pollinator garden at Swede Run Fields continues to grow and flourish. STEM would like to thank all the individuals who worked so hard to plan, plant, water, weed and mulch their sections of the garden. Without your dedication, the young plants would never have made it through our very hot summer.

A special thanks to everyone who managed one of the garden zones - Ruth Larkin, Avery Thomas, Ellen Bleidorn, Linda Porter, Dina Thomas, Mark Hickman, Nancy Fife and Linda Burns and Mark Pensiero. A big thank you to Katie Leakley for managing the volunteers, tracking the hours, and finding backups when the plot leaders were away.

This past week (9/6) large numbers of monarch butterflies have shown up at the garden. They have been enjoying the butterfly milkweed. While I have not seen any caterpillars yet, I expect them to start showing up shortly. If you haven’t been to the garden recently, I highly suggest a visit. Right now, the blue mist flowers, black-eyed Susan, blue aster, and butterfly weed are all in bloom. The false sunflower should be blooming in the next couple of weeks.

Mark Pensiero
President, STEM

Trail Improvements
​Completed at
​Esther Yanai Preserve

September 2021- The youth group of the First United Methodist Church in Moorestown recently completed trail improvements at the Esther Yanai Preserve (EYP). Four elevated walkways were added to help walkers navigate through some of the wetter areas of the preserve. 

Additionally, some sections of the trails were re-routed to move the trails out of wet areas and onto higher ground.

In 2020, four walkways were added to EYP, making a total of eight walkways that now traverse the preserve. 

​STEM would like to thank FUMC for all their hard work and the Moorestown Department of Parks and Recreation who funded the purchase of the materials.

Pollinator Garden Planted at Swede Run Field

June 2021- STEM recently completed the installation of 4,500 square foot native pollinator garden at Swede Run Field. The garden surrounds the historic stone building and is adjacent to the dog park. This beautiful site now is the new home to over 1,200 plants. STEM won a grant for the plants from the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife thorough the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. The plants were provided by Pinelands Nursery. STEM was one of 46 organizations that were awarded a grant of plants.

STEM and its friends and volunteers worked over 100 hours designing, preparing, and installing the garden. A crew of volunteers are also lined up to make sure the garden is tended during the hot summer months. 

STEM would like to thank Diane Walker of Colorstone Gardens for the design and preparation work, Matt Severs for the site preparation, Leonberg Nursery for the mulch, and Katie Leakley for coordinating the volunteers. A big shoutout to the 30 plus volunteers who came out to help us turn this project into a reality.

I hope you will all have a chance to get out to the garden and enjoy it’s beauty. The plants are small now, but with lots of TLC and a little luck they will continue to grow and thrive.  

Regards,
Mark Pensiero, President, STEM

New Kiosk at Esther Yanai Preserve

January 2021- STEM is happy to report the installation of a kiosk at the Esther Yanai Preserve. The kiosk was a gift of Moorestown Parks and Recreation Department and is a wonderful addition to the preserve. Thank you Theresa Miller, Director of Parks and Recreation for making it happen. The kiosk is filled with information about the preserve and it’s history, a trail map, and information about Moorestown’s other preserved open spaces.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit the new and improved Esther Yanai Preserve, I highly recommend a visit. A pair of waterproof shoes are highly recommended as the trail is very wet in the winter and spring. Thanks to everyone who has been involved in improving the preserve over the past six months.

​Mark Pensiero, President, STEM

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See 2020