Lawrenceville School – Inspiring the Next Generation

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In 2021, the Strike Team completed a comprehensive stewardship plan for the Lawrenceville School’s 625-acre campus. The goal of any plan is to provide effective and efficient guidance toward improving ecological health. We start by mapping natural plant communities (e.g., forest types, shrublands, meadows) and invasive species across as “stands” of like plant composition. Once completed and analyzed, making heavy use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we provide prioritized recommendations. Recommendations focus on strategic implementation steps that begin with the most achievable to those that can require many years to accomplish – all with the intention of improving ecological health.

Starting in 2021, the Strike Team annually provides a week of summer field instruction with hand-on stewardship for small groups of students. We emphasize key concepts from their stewardship plan. Activities include installing mini-exclosures to protect small concentrations of forest wildflowers or woody seedlings. The week concludes with a field trip to a local natural area such as Mercer Meadows.

The campus harbors over 30 acres of old forest featuring hundreds of year old trees explored by Aldo Leopold when he was a student!

The plan can be downloaded here.

The Strike Team always stresses the ”Stewardship Hierarchy” in our plans.

1. Whenever feasible, this includes the importance of deer management – a reduced herd allows native plants to effectively compete against invasive plants.
2. The next priority is elimination of small populations of emerging invasive plant populations before they can spread to become larger intractable problems. Priority should be given to controlling species with the least number of statewide populations so that they cannot spread to neighboring properties.
3. This is followed by improving / protecting the highest value conservation areas that typically have relatively few infestations. Ecological restoration, including tree planting and meadow installation to replace open lands or lawns are often high-value strategies.
4. Finally, long-term efforts to reduce large infestations are recommended, starting from infested areas adjacent to healthier areas to stop their spread into new areas.