Pictured are Board of Trustees vice-chair Bill Carmean, Pass It On campaign co-chair Peter Gibson, Board of Trustees chair Sophie Glovier, Campus Planning Committee chair Barbara Griffin Cole. Pass It On co-chair Meg Gorrie, Watershed executive director Jim Waltman, Farewell Architects Principle Michael Farewell, Representative Rush Holt, N.J. DEP deputy commissioner Michele Siekerk, Sustainable Jersey chair Pam Mount, Assemblyman Dan Benson, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, Hopewell Township Deputy Mayor Allen Cannon and Senator Linda Greenstein.
The Board of Trustees and staff of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association gathered to commemorate the ground breaking of its new Environmental Center on Dec. 6.
The facility will be build on the organization’s 930-acre Watershed Reserve in Pennington. The new center and other improvements to the Reserve have been made possible with the financial support of nearly 300 individuals and institutions, which have contributed more than $8 million.
The ceremony featured speeches from elected officials, including Representative Rush Holt.
“The Watershed’s work in central New Jersey has been essential to the protection of clean water and a clean environment for many decades,” Holt said. “The new environmental center will further enhance its programs and services and elevate the Watershed’s status as a leader in environmental protection in New Jersey.”
Designed to achieve the environmentally acclaimed LEED-Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, the new facility is set to demonstrate strategies to dramatically reduce consumption of energy and water, and improve management of stormwater and wastewater.
Sustainable features include photovoltaic (solar) electricity, rain gardens, geothermal heating and cooling, evacuated solar tube hot water, rainwater harvesting, LED lighting and wetlands-based wastewater treatment.
The new center will provide classrooms, exhibit halls, a laboratory, computer learning center, conference rooms, gift shop, kitchen and staff offices.
It will also serve as the central hub of all Watershed Association activities. Open to the public year round, guests will be encouraged to engage in interactive educational exhibits, visit with the resident amphibians and reptiles, learn from scientists and teacher-naturalists, borrow a book from a lending library or hike the Reserve’s trails. In addition to the environmental exhibits that will be available in two exhibit halls, the building will have an auditorium for speaker’s events and other functions.
The new center is designed to increase the Watershed’s program capacity by more than doubling the organization’s existing space. It will provide teaching and research facilities to heighten the rigor and sophistication of the organization’s scientific and educational curriculum.
More information is online at thewatershed.org.
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