Conservation Management Area
The Conservation Management Area is 3.8 acres of protected open space and a restored natural habitat located off of Brooklake Road. The site is the first place in Florham Park designated solely for passive recreation. It offers a natural retreat for all visitors and promises to serve as an informative destination for schools and community groups to learn about local ecology.
The Commission has been working for more than 2 years to restore the property to its original natural form as an early successional forest rather than a mowed piece of public land. Visitors can now observe native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and wildlife and better understand how environmental conservation and restoration projects ensure biodiversity. Visitors can follow a ½ mile walking trail overlooking the Passaic River floodplain.
Stop and listen for a few minutes and you may hear songbirds such as orioles, song sparrows and gold finch, and see green frogs, butterflies, dragonflies, turtles and flora with names like beardtongue, black-eyed susan, boneset and mistflower that were planted with the help of many volunteers.
A big THANK YOU to the work groups that have volunteered to clean up and maintain the site. Prudential employees devoted a day in 2008 and on May 2, 2009, the Hatch Mott McDonald Group made significant progress helping install the new sign, remove invasives and protect plants from deer damage. A committed group of volunteers from town made huge progress weeding on June 27th (see photos below) and another productive cleanup took place Saturday July 11th with tons of mugwort removed. Additional thanks goes to Novartis and the motivated group of nearly 50 employees who spent Thursday, October 1, 2009 improving the site and assembling a boardwalk for better access. The work day was coordinated through the NJ Land Conservancy. Florham Park resident and handyman Roger Steinbach donated a lot of time to cut the lumber for the walking path that now enables people to walk along the trail on the site.
