NJIT Students and Faculty Help Save New Jersey's Old-Growth Forests
With world leaders recently in climate change talks at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, NJIT students and faculty have been busy getting others to appreciate the value of the environment back home, and their efforts have helped save forest land in Princeton, New Jersey in the process.
NJIT students Daniil Ivanov ’21 and Harleen Oza ’21 (Dec.) recently joined with their faculty-mentor Zeyuan Qiu, an environmental economist and environmental science and policy professor in NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, to volunteer with the Princeton Environmental Commission (PEC) and determine the monetary value of two old-growth forests to the local community.
The group’s valuation of two forest tracts located along Princeton’s Province Line and Herrontown roads has helped lead to the preservation of a 153-acre old-growth forest, protecting the land of over 10,000 trees from a recent housing development proposal.
“There are very few large tracts of old-growth forests left in this region of New Jersey,” said Patricia Shanley, forest ecologist, Princeton resident and a Board of Director at the Ridgeview Conservancy, the local preservation and education non-profit that advocates for the preservation of the 153- and 90-acre forests. “Those old-growth forest tracts are truly gems of nature, providing benefits such as air purification, carbon storage and sequestration, flood prevention, recreation and fascinating cultural histories. They are also home to many plants and animal species that are so unique in this region of New Jersey and the Northeast.”
“Ecosystem services are a fancy way to say the benefits provided by the forest to the community,” said Qiu, who oversaw Oza’s and Ivanov’s undergraduate research opportunities alongside him as a PEC volunteer starting last past spring. “Despite being so essential to the community, the ecosystem services are not commercial products that are properly priced in a marketplace. In fact, most of the ecosystem services are free gifts of nature and, therefore, are often overused and underappreciated because of the lack of a price tag.”
Putting a Price Tag on an Old-Growth Forest
Putting a price tag on the forests’ ecosystem services was where Qiu and his students came in.
The team gathered sample data on the tree species and size in the forests, used a valuation program called i-Tree that includes several separate models, and analyzed satellite images available on the Google Earth to estimate the economic value of the ecosystem services provided by the forest tracts.
“The program helped us to estimate the contribution of the forest on carbon sequestration, oxygen production, carbon storage, water retention, air pollution removal, and overall, the monetary value of these ecosystem services,” said Ivanov, who assisted in the modeling work as a biochemistry undergrad and Albert Dorman Honors Scholar, and who is now pursuing a M.S. in Environmental Science at NJIT.
Above: Daniil Ivanov and Harleen Oza began working with PEC as biochemistry undergrads last spring.
The team — which also included PEC Commissioner and Princeton graduate student Harrison Watson — conducted their work throughout this past spring and summer, collecting, documenting, and sampling data on thousands of trees, and verifying and comparing different modeling results.
“The most rewarding thing was being able to contribute to something that makes a meaningful impact,” said Oza, a biochemistry student who was involved in reviewing literature on valuation of ecosystem services and verifying the team’s modeling results. “What I am most proud of is that we were able to bring awareness towards such a critical issue and illustrate the importance of preserving that forest.”
In the end, the effort and results paid dividends for Mother Earth.
“These analyses and numbers gave Princeton a concrete idea of how important these forests are and helped the community secure sufficient donations to preserve the 153-acre Province Line Woods property,” said Tammy Sands, chair of PEC, who had been working along with the team. “We truly appreciate the support provided by Professor Qiu and his students, as this was not only a win for a single municipality but for neighboring municipalities, and more importantly, Mother Earth and her living ecosystems.”
“To preserve 153 acres of forest lands in a place like Princeton took tremendous resources and efforts,” said Qiu. “I would say the municipality, PEC and local conservation and preservation organizations deserve all the credit. I am so thrilled by their success and pleased to see they credit our students’ efforts for the success.”