Revival in a Refuge: A 55-year Labor of Love
By Harrison Watson
(Photos by David Padulo, Chair of Friends of Rogers Refuge, and Doressa Watson)
Princeton, New Jersey--
Tick-it, tick-it, tick-it – avid bird watcher Winifred Spar’s ears perked up: A pair of Virginia Rails sang back to one another early one warm morning last spring along the meandering Stony Brook that borders the marshlands in Charles H. Rogers Wildlife Refuge in central New Jersey. Spar paused to admire the song.
It’s been nearly 40 years since the last pair of Virginia Rails, ground-dwelling birds that call the muds of marshlands home, visited this refuge on the outskirts of Princeton University. In that time, Spar and others – the Friends of Rogers Wildlife Refuge – have worked tirelessly to cultivate a place that serves to protect biodiversity during a time of great loss.
Work from groups like the Friends of Rogers Refuge is becoming increasingly relevant:
Map of the 45-acre tract of marsh adjoining Princeton’s 300-acre Institute Woods.
Map of the 45-acre tract of marsh adjoining Princeton’s 300-acre Institute Woods.
Back: Lee Varian, Melinda Varian, Winifred Spar. Front: Tom Southerland and Margot Southerland
Back: Lee Varian, Melinda Varian, Winifred Spar. Front: Tom Southerland and Margot Southerland
“And it’s a working reservoir, too,” said Spar during an early morning walk through the refuge. “Five percent of the Municipality’s drinking water comes from the waters in this marsh.”
Since 1967, the refuge has been known to local birders and naturalists as “the pumping station.” It is a wetland populated by unique bird species, particularly during the spring months when water is pumped in by Princeton Water Company from the Stony Brook tributary into the marsh.
“Princeton Water Company is an important partner in maintaining this refuge”, said Spar. They have been since 1967 when Tom Southerland alerted then-Princeton Mayor Henry Patterson of deleterious dumping practices around the refuge. The Patterson family owned the Princeton Water Company in those days.
Southerland is the longest serving member of the Friends of Rogers Refuge and has engaged Princeton Municipality for the last 55 years, beginning when he met his late-friend, and the namesake of the refuge, Professor Charles Henry Rogers.
Southerland and Rogers, with help from Patterson and the Princeton Water Company and the Princeton Environmental Commission, led efforts to establish the Princeton Wildlife Refuge in 1968. The refuge was established as a 45-acre tract of marsh adjoining Princeton’s Institute Woods. Now, the refuge and Institute Woods together form a 300-acre tract of deciduous forest bounded by wetlands.
The Princeton Wildlife Refuge was renamed to the Charles H. Rogers Wildlife Refuge following Professor Rogers’s passing in 1977,
Southerland continued to work in the refuge with Tom Poole along with Tom Gopsill as the founding members of the first of the Friends of Rogers Refuge. The trio of birders worked to restore the ecosystem, namely by removing debris and building houses for birds common to the marsh including purple martins and wood ducks, as well as installing an observation tower for frequent visitors.
Word of their work spread far: The refuge achieved statewide recognition as a premier locale for birding, particularly for warblers and saw-whet owls in the 1980s. Still, there was much work to be done.
Together with her late husband and two children, Spar frequently visited the refuge in the early 2000s. “My kids were embarrassed by their parents who were always out birding”, said Spar, jokingly. Frequent birding, however, makes for keen senses.
In Spring 2005, as the Spar family - Winifred, her husband Fred, and their two children - made their way up the noticeably creaking stairs of the appropriately well-worn observation tower, they noticed fish flopping around in fresh mud between 6-foot poles of Phragmites. The pump had broken, laying bare the invasive reed species issue that, beneath the hum of the pump, pushed away native cattails and the birds that depended on the natives.
The Spar family was inspired to take action and Spar went on to revive the Friends of Rogers Refuge with help from Tom and Margot Southerland, Lee and Melinda Varian, and the late Tom Poole. The Friends of Rogers Refuge were quickly back off to work. Fred helmed fundraising, notably from grants through the Washington Crossing Audubon Society. The money raised has been used to compile an environmental inventory of the marshes species and build two new observation towers, interpretive signs, birdhouses, a bird blind, and a trail that runs through the lower marsh named after Fred.
Along the renovated trails beneath the canopy, fragrant shrubs hang just above your brow. These are the native spicebush that were once sparse and stood no taller than your shoulder. Following several years of rigorous deer management, the thicket of tall spicebush shrubs now blocks out the sun. Once-absent wood thrushes flit through the cool thicket.
As you walk out of the spicebush thicket and onto one of the sturdy observation towers, you’ll find a sea of furry-tipped cattails – a favorite of Virginia Rails.
“When you’re in the thick of it, hacking away, it seems impossible. But, over time, little by little, you will get there,” said Spar, reflecting on the Phragmites removal project that spanned 15 years. “With all the doom-scrolling nowadays it can be easy to get overwhelmed. So, I think that it’s important that we get people – young people – outside and doing something in their communities to make things better. Fifteen years may seem like a long time to young people, but those are results that you can see in a lifetime.”
Phragmites. Image from University of Florida IFAS Center for Aquatic Plants.
Phragmites. Image from University of Florida IFAS Center for Aquatic Plants.
Cattails. Image from University of Florida IFAS Center for Aquatic Plants.
Cattails. Image from University of Florida IFAS Center for Aquatic Plants.
Looking out from the newest observatory tower, you can get a view of several bird species.
Purple Martins are frequently found using nests installed by the Friends of the Rogers Refuge.
Yellow warblers are often found late into the summer darting about the branches.
Red-winged black bird are among the most commonly sited birds in the marsh.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds are eastern North America's sole breeding hummingbird.
These days Spar spends much of her time exploring the revitalized refuge with new visitors of all ages. During a crisp morning on May 1st, Spar and the new chair of the Friends of Rogers Refuge, David Padulo, led the next generation of naturalists through the refuge rediscovering her old stomping grounds for the Cola Morano Community Science Day. (This Community Science Day is a joint effort between the Friends of Rogers Refuge, Princeton Environmental Commission and the Princeton Public Library for children and families to learn more about open spaces across Princeton.
With backpacks slung over their shoulders and binoculars in hand, the participants – many of them children – marveled at brilliant bald eagles flying above, while snakes slithered and bees buzzed around radiant flowers between the cattails of the marsh. “It’s important for us to recognize that everything in an ecosystem evolves together,” said Spar.
“I also liked to show kids the swinging bridge. They usually get pretty excited, but there was this one kid who” – she chuckled – “hops down from the bridge and I ask him how it was,” she shrugs her shoulders as if to imitate the young visitor.
The swinging bridge that connects the refuge to the Institute Woods.
The swinging bridge that connects the refuge to the Institute Woods.
"'It was alright,' he says."
Two weeks later on a sleepy Friday morning on May 13th, the refuge hosted 66 visitors during Princeton University’s 2022 Reunions.
“Sixty-six people! Sixty. Six.” Spar enunciated with enthusiasm. “Sixty-six people were out here on a Friday morning, bright and early. Folks weren’t exactly dressed for birding, but were up to go!"
Spar said she would have been overwhelmed by the crowd if not for a serendipitous partner: Claire Wayner. Claire is a recent graduate from Princeton who, during her undergraduate years, co-founded the Princeton University Birding Society, which won the Audubon Society’s World Series of birding on May 14, 2022. Claire cultivated her expertise spending time in the refuge scoping out a bevy of birds, from bald eagles to bitterns with Spar and other members of Friends of Rogers Refuge.
On this day, however, Spar, Wayner, and others admired a new visitor: the Eastern Bluebird. “They haven’t been around here for some time, but this guy sat perched atop one of the old birdhouses like he was posing for the crowd. There were so many of us that we had to go in only a few at a time. Everyone just ate it up! And I think the Bluebird was enjoying it too,” said Spar, jokingly. We shared a laugh that was distinctly full of life.
