Moorestown Township Awarded $243,700 Grant for Swede Run Fields Habitat Restoration

Save The Environment of Moorestown (STEM) is thrilled to report that Moorestown Township is the recipient of a US Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Delaware River Conversation Fund Grant of $243,700 for Ecological Restoration and Wildlife Habitat Improvements at Swede Run Fields. The Township has committed $100,000 in cash towards the project and STEM committed an additional $40,000. The Township, in partnership with Save The Environment of Moorestown (STEM), will provide additional matching in-kind services bringing the total project investment to nearly $487,400. The project focuses on a 39.84-acre section of Swede Run Fields that includes wetland and riparian zones and Swedes Run, a direct tributary of the Delaware River.

The project supports the conservation and restoration of native ecosystems and wildlife populations through targeted eradication of invasive species combined with intentional spatial ecological design with a special focus on avian Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). Invasive species present on-site—including common reed (Phragmites australis), oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), and autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellatus)—are known to degrade habitat and water quality by promoting soil loss, destabilizing soils, and altering hydrologic volume. Their removal, paired with the re-establishment of native vegetation, would restore habitat structure and function critical to sustaining avian and amphibian populations. As part of the monitoring component, avian community dynamics—including breeding, migration, and wintering patterns—along with calling anurans would be studied to elucidate the anticipated ecological benefits of these restoration efforts and inform long-tern outcomes.

The project improves land and watershed management through the strategic removal of invasive species and the establishment of native plant communities within Swedes Run Creek, its associated wetlands, the riparian forest, and upland meadow buffers. These restoration efforts would directly enhance vegetative cover and soil stability, leading to improvements in water quality, including reductions in total suspended solids (TSS) and total dissolved solids (TDS), increases in dissolved oxygen (O₂), and reductions in conductivity and temperature. By restoring native plant structure and ecological function across the site’s diverse and ecologically significant habitats, the project advances the long-term protection and maintenance of water quality throughout the 39.84-acre area. As part of the project’s monitoring component, macroinvertebrate populations would be studied and water quality parameters collected to help elucidate these anticipated benefits.

The project enhances recreational opportunities within Swede Run Fields, a publicly accessible preserved open space that remains open year-round in accordance with Moorestown Township’s designated hours. Restoration efforts would integrate with the existing trail network, providing opportunities for interpretive educational signage along the trails. The removal of dense invasive plant colonies would improve visibility, walkability, and overall access throughout the park, increasing public enjoyment of the natural landscape and enhancing the user experience for passive recreation, including birdwatching. The site is already a well-established birding destination within both Moorestown Township and Burlington County. Through intentional plant selection, the project will incorporate spatial ecological design to support critical nesting habitat and high-quality stopover habitat for migratory species. In addition, a formal bird study would be implemented using permanent monitoring plots, enabling long-term observation and data collection by citizen scientists (eBirders), and supporting the Township’s adaptive monitoring efforts into the future.

This project builds open the existing habitat restoration efforts that have occurred on site at Swede Run Fields. STEM installed and continues to maintain an award-winning native pollinator garden adjacent to the Swede Run Dog Park and worked with the Township and the US Fish and Wildlife Partners for Wildlife program to convert a 70 plus acre fallow farm field into a native grass and flower meadow.
In 2024 STEM was awarded a $40,000 grant by NJ Audubon Society to fund an Ecological and Geomorphic Assessment of Swede Run. This study provided a strong foundation for the pursuit and win of the larger grant that will fund actual restoration work.

STEM is thankful for the Townships commitment to this and the previous projects that have fundamentally restored a large percentage of the habitat at Swede Run Fields. We are excited to enter the next phase of the project. Work on the project is expected to begin in Spring of 2026 and extend into 2028.
We will keep you posted on the progress of this exciting project.

Pompeston Creek Bridge Installed

We are happy to report that the new bridge across the Pompeston Creek was installed in September by P&H Renovations. This bridge is heavily used by kids in NW Estates who use it to travel to and from school from their neighborhood. Thanks to all the neighbors from NW Estates who came out and helped prepare the site and to Dave Burris of P&H Renovations who was a key driver in getting this project completed.

Also, thanks to Tom Kulp of Structural Assessment Services LLC and Joseph Adamson of Adamson Riva & Lepley, Architects who helped develop the plan for the bridge.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Highlight STEM

STEM teamed with Moorestown Township and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, (through their Partners for Wildlife Program) to convert the 75-acre fallow farm field at Swede Run Fields into a native grass and pollinator field. Planting of the field occurred in the fall of 2021 and spring 2022. The project is ongoing, with planning currently underway for wetlands enhancement on the site.

​The US Fish and Wildlife Service chose this project to highlight their Partners for Wildlife Program's success in New Jersey in 2022. STEM is very proud of their involvement in this project and looks forward to continuing our partnership with the Township and US F&W Service to continue to restore this beautiful property.

Enhancing a valuable asset

Changes at Swede Run’s big field and pollinator garden.

By CHRISTINE HARKINSON August 15, 2023 in the Moorestown Sun

People who stop by Moorestown’s Swede Run Fields Dog Park with their pets will see the pollinator garden’s Black-eyed Susans; Coneflowers; and Goldenrods, among other plants in bloom.

Now in its third year, the native pollinator garden adjacent to the dog park is well established and the plants don’t need watering. This summer, Save the Environment of Moorestown (STEM) sold some of the garden’s native plants on Moorestown Day. 

According to STEM’s Facebook page, once established, native pollinators require little work and come back year after year.

“There definitely seems to be more of an interest … People are gaining more of an interest in natives, and when you walk through here (the garden), you can see how many bees are in here,” said Mark Pensiero, STEM president. “ … It’s totally filled in. It’s hard to believe that these were all two-inch plugs when we planted them three years ago.”

The Facebook page also noted how the number of Monarch butterflies visiting the garden will soon increase, and they’ll use the land’s two species of Milkweed – common and butterfly – to lay their eggs. They in turn will grow into caterpillars, and into the next generation of Monarch butterflies, and will migrate to Mexico for the winter.

“The number of bees and butterflies and birds (Goldfinches, Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds) that utilize this space, it’s really amazing,” Pensiero noted. “This is a good spot for migrating birds. It’s a big, open space so a lot of Sparrows will utilize it.”

Special to The Sun: Swede Run’s big field in Moorestown has lots of Black-eyed Susans, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Gaillardia and Plains Coreopsis in bloom. It is in its second growing season and was mowed in June to cut back invasive plants before they go to seed.

The big field across the street from the garden is now in its second growing season and has lots of Black-eyed Susans, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Gaillardia and Plains Coreopsis in bloom. It’s also seen birds that included Barn Swallows and Mourning Doves, among others.
 
The field was mowed in June to cut back invasive plants before they got to seed. Mowing helps native plants by giving them access to more sunlight and reducing the invasive seed bank. Pensiero shared an update on enhancements to the field.

“Part of the original plan called for some enhancement of wetlands,” he explained. “That’s what they call vernal pools in this property; vernal pools only have water in them typically in the winter and the spring, then they dry up in the summer.”

Pensiero pointed out that vernal pools are good breeding grounds for toads and salamanders, among other amphibians, and are also important for migrating shorebirds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which partnered with Moorestown Township and STEM to turn the 75-acre parcel into a meadow of native grasses and pollinator plants, has completed the mapping of the project and is in the process of putting the wetlands together.

“ … Once we have all the paperwork done, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will come up with some equipment and just basically enhance and maybe make them a little bigger, so they have more value,” Pensiero noted. “That will be something that will just add more value to this big field, which I think just looking at it, how pretty it is, and it’s going to become even more and more beautiful, I think, over the coming years.”

STEM recently installed a memorial sign at Pompeston Park that honors the late Deborah Lord, a scientist, educator, naturalist, Moorestown resident and president of the Pompeston Creek Watershed Association (PCWA). She was also involved with STEM for many years.

“We wanted to honor her, and we put the word out that we wanted to raise money to put a bench in, and we put a beautiful bench in Pompeston Park,” Pensiero recalled. “We were so successful, and people were so generous, that …  we said, ‘Let’s do a sign that honors Debbie but also is informative and can provide people with some information about the Pompeston Creek Watershed, as well as the type of wildlife that you would find out there.’”

Pensiero hopes to see more grasses next year, but he’s happy with the garden’s flowers.

“It’s really exciting,” he enthused. “Next year, hopefully we’ll have this enhanced wetland area, which will add a whole other thing to this area to promote wildlife, and particularly wildlife that migrates.”

Special to The Sun: A memorial sign in honor of the late Deborah Lord at Pompeston Park. The Moorestown resident was involved in Save the Environment of Moorestown and also president of the Pompeston Creek Watershed Association.