Two tadpoles swam in the bucket, bringing a smile to her face. She picked up a snail feeding on a leaf with her bare fingers and put it back in the water. Michaluk knelt in the dirt below a canopy of trees, and using a net, she scooped up the water from a vernal pool and poured it into a bucket. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor Many of the streams along the Princeton Ridge provide drinking water for residents. The wetlands also provide food for other animals, such as foxes, turtles, and birds, in addition to helping mitigate flooding and filtering water. Several amphibians rely on this wetland to reproduce - from frogs to Michaluk’s favorite spotted salamanders. Sonja Michaluk looks for signs of health of the wetlands around Princeton, N.J., using life captured from pools to evaluate samples. And … to make sure that all the beautiful creatures we live alongside get protected and are able to thrive, especially ones where their numbers are drastically decreasing due to habitat loss and fragmentation.”Īfter a rain-filled morning, Michaluk walked through a muddy stretch of wetland that she’s trying to protect from the building of mansions. “It’s especially important for making sure that our drinking water is clean and safe. “By conserving these different plots of land, someone can … enjoy these beautiful places, and learn about the natural world, and be able to have access to open spaces,” Michaluk said. The area provides homes for endangered and threatened species, including the Eastern Box Turtle, Cooper’s Hawk, and Barred Owl. The forest and wetland habitats in this ecological area in Mercer County are among the most environmentally sensitive in the region.
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