In 2016 the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership, with input from the Middlesex County Department of Planning, is spearheading development of a Natural Assets Map for the Lower Raritan Watershed (Watershed Management Area 9).

On February 16 we will hear presentations by John A. Miller, Princeton Hydro Water Resources Engineer and co-founder and legislative committee chair for the New Jersey Association for Floodplain Management and Rutgers Professor JeanMarie Hartman, Director of the Hartman Lab of Watershed Systems Studies at Rutgers.

Presentations from 9-10:30AM followed by LRWP general meeting.

Location: Middlesex County Office of Planning located at 75 Bayard Street in New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Lower Level Large Conference Room.

About the LRWP Natural Assets Mapping Project

We have three key objectives in developing a Natural Asset Map:

1) To evaluate, prioritize and map natural and cultural assets in the Lower Raritan Watershed;

2) To provide an informed basis for Green Infrastructure (GI) Initiatives to be included in pending updates of regional/County Comprehensive Master Plans; and

3) To promote inclusion of a mitigation plan component with GI implementation strategies into recertification of Municipal Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) permits and stormwater management plans for municipal master plans.

To advance these goals, the LRWP will host a speaker series in 2016: “Developing a Natural Assets Map for the Lower Raritan Watershed.” The year’s activities will be roughly divided into two phases. The first half of the year will include a series of presentations that will help us develop priorities for assets mapping and lead us to development of a Natural Assets Map for the Lower Raritan Watershed. The second half of the year and running into 2017 will focus on how to use the LRW’s Natural Asset Map to prioritize GI initiatives at the municipal, county and watershed level. We are using Karen Firehock’s “Evaluating and Conserving Green Infrastructure Across the Landscape: A Practitioner’s Guide” to structure the mapping effort and orient our work.