LOVE Your Park Day: FOPOS Land Stewardship Volunteer Sessions // 2.14.2026

Show your LOVE for the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve this Valentine's Day! Join the Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS) for a volunteer stewardship session on Saturday, Feb. 14th, 2026. Volunteers will work under the guidance of the FOPOS stewardship staff to perform ecosystem restoration and invasive species removal in the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. If you have tools and can bring them along, please do!

We have two volunteer sessions: 10AM-12PM and 1PM-3PM. Please pick the timeslot that works best for you! You are also welcome to attend both sessions. Groups welcome!

About the volunteer work: Volunteers will perform important riparian restoration work. This may include removing invasive species and freeing trees from vines. The dense cover formed by invasive plants prevents young tree saplings from growing into future canopy trees and degrades habitat quality for wildlife. We will be using pruners, loppers, and hand saws to cut back invasive shrubs and vines. Volunteers will learn how to identify target invasive species and tool safety. The stewardship skills learned at these sessions can easily be applied to restoring habitat in your own backyard. FOPOS's wonderful stewardship staff will be on hand to share this knowledge and much more!

What to wear & What to bring: We recommend wearing long sleeves, long pants, and work boots; this will best protect you from thorns, muddy areas, ticks, and poison ivy. If you have work gloves and tools like loppers and pruners, bring them along! We will have extra tools and gloves on site.

Why is this work important: Our current focus is on a 25-acre riparian restoration project that buffers Mountain Lake and portions of its feeder streams. Riparian areas play an important role in protecting water quality by slowing down stormwater and filtering out pollutants before they enter the water system. Water that flows through Mountain Lake ultimately finds its way into the Raritan River, an important drinking water source for central New Jersey. Riparian areas also provide critical habitat for birds, insects, and aquatic life.

Meetup Location: Mountain Lakes House Parking Lot

Directions & Parking: We will meet at the Mountain Lake House parking lot, located within the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve. Here is a link to the parking lot location on Google Maps & Apple Maps. The address of the Preserve is 57 Mountain Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08540; this will bring you to the entrance of the Preserve, not our meet-up location. To get to the Mountain Lakes House parking lot, look for the white gate along Mountain Avenue, marked by a series of black mailboxes along the road. Drive slowly down the long paved driveway. The gravel parking lot will be on your left, approximately 1/2 mile down the driveway.

Event waiver: Please complete this event waiver - fopos.org/waiver. This needs to be completed once per calendar year.

About FOPOS: Founded in 1969, FOPOS has been working to preserve and protect natural spaces in the greater Princeton area for more than 50 years. As a part of our work, we rely on volunteers to help make progress when it comes to restoration work, such as our current forest and riparian restoration projects in the Billy Johnson Mountain Lakes Nature Preserve.

Can't make this session? Consider making a donation to show your love for our local environment! All donations support our year-round stewardship work.

Looking to register for multiple volunteer sessions this season? Register HERE.

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