Best-selling author Richard Preston was the featured speaker at the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space’s annual meeting April 28 at Baldpate Mountain.
Preston’s presentation, titled A Climb in the Redwoods, gave the audience a view from the tops of the world’s tallest trees and insights into the science of the forest canopy and the microhabitats that can be found there.
Preston is the author of nine books, including The Hot Zone, and most recently Micro, which he completed when co-author Michael Crichton died unexpectedly.
He took up tree climbing while he worked on his book The Wild Trees, which follows the work of tree canopy scientists in California.
After his slide-lecture, Preston demonstrated the gear that enables climbers to ascend the ancient trees, some nearly 400 feet tall.
At the meeting, FoHVOS president John Jackson presented the Jack Gleeson Environmental Award to Pennington resident Joann Held, a founder and co-chair of the Hopewell Valley Green Team. Held also a founder and board member of the Pennington Farmers Market and a member of the Pennington Environmental Commission.
Other meeting activities included a tour of the recently completed native plant garden near the Strawberry Hill mansion atop Baldpate Mountain.
FoHVOS received a grant from the Church & Dwight Employee Giving Fund for the purchase of plants, soil amendments, deer protection and plant tags. Many volunteers worked on installation of the garden, a joint project of FoHVOS and the Mercer County Park Commission which manages the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain.
The preserve was acquired in 1998 by Mercer County in partnership with FoHVOS, Hopewell Township and the State of New Jersey. It is named for former FoHVOS president Edmund W. Stiles, who died in 2007.
Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space has had a major role in the preservation of nearly 4,000 acres throughout the Hopewell Valley since its founding in 1987.
More information is online at fohvos.org.
Photo captions:
Author Richard Preston demonstrates the gear he uses for climbing the world’s tallest trees at the FoHVOS annual meeting.
