Project Description
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, (the “Trustees”) of the American Cyanamid Superfund Site identified a preferred restoration project that will compensate the public for injury and losses to natural resources and wildlife in floodplain, riparian, and wetland habitats, that occurred as a result of release of hazardous substances at the American Cyanamid Site in Bridgewater Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. The restoration project involves restoring 112-acres of floodplain and riparian habitat on property owned by Duke Farms, a center of the Doris Duke Foundation, in Hillsborough, New Jersey. The project consists of converting former agricultural fields into forested and scrub-shrub floodplain habitat adjacent to the Raritan River. The location of the proposed restoration is approximately 2.8 miles upstream of the American Cyanamid Site.
This project will involve intensive management of undesirable invasive plants, planting of approximately 50,000 native trees and shrubs, installation of deer fence around the project perimeter to protect the plants from herbivory, construction of three acres of vernal pool habitat for amphibians, and 15 years of monitoring and adaptive management. Anticipated benefits from the project include re-establishment of floodplain forest, one of the most biologically diverse yet historically degraded habitats in the region; enhanced habitat for wildlife including birds, bats, and amphibians; improved water quality of the Raritan River; bolstered flood storage capacity and storm resiliency; increased carbon sequestration through tree growth; and improved ecosystem services that will benefit local and historically underserved communities. The restoration construction will take place over a few years and will be monitored and stewarded for fifteen years to provide long-term benefits for the resources and the public.
Parties Implementing Restoration
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; NOAA; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Wyeth Holdings LLC
DOI Project Representatives
Fish and Wildlife Service