The Princeton Council has approved a bond ordinance for $615,000 for assorted open space-related improvements, including money for the town’s planned microforest at Quarry Park.
The bond ordinance earmarks $293,000 for the microforest and municipal-wide tree removal and planting.
The microforest is planned for a 5,000-square-foot area in Quarry Park, at the end of Spruce Street. It would follow the Miyawaki method, which is based on experiments conducted by the late Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. He was an advocate for restoring natural forests.
The Miyawaki method calls for planting native trees and shrubs at very high densities. It causes them to grow faster because of the competition for light and water.
Trees and shrubs of varying heights would be planted. Some trees would reach about 60 feet in height at maturity, and others would reach about 15 to 25 feet. It results in a forest that is very close to a natural ecosystem.
According to a presentation on capital requests for 2025 at the Princeton Council’s March 24 meeting, the cost for the microforest is $35,000 and the spring and fall municipal-wide tree planting is $150,000. Tree removal costs – specifically a crane rental – are pegged at $60,000.
The bond ordinance also includes $124,000 for repairs to Quarry Park and $21,000 for the Mountain Lakes Preserve streambank preservation project.
There is $125,000 in the bond ordinance to replace the fence at Community Park South and for open space and bikeway improvements. The presentation on capital requests for 2025 indicated that $20,000 would be earmarked for the fence replacement. The remainder would be spent on the open space bikeway and pedestrian improvements.
And the bond ordinance sets aside $52,000 for the park and open space signage project which calls for replacing the signs to make them uniform.
