Bear Brook Park
Hickory Corner, East Windsor, Mercer County, NJ

Directions:

New Jersey Turnpike south to Exit 8; turn right heading west on Route 33; turn left onto Main Street and then take the next right onto Route 571; drive 0.8 of a mile and turn left heading south on Route 130.  Turn right onto Hickory Corner Road.  There is a little park toward the end of the road, near the intersection of Hickory Corner Road and Dutch Neck Road. (Or you can park at the Hickory Corner Library; the woods is just behind the library.)

History:

$1 million grant from the Garden State Preservation Trust combined with a $500,000 grant already received from the Garden State Preservation Trust by East Windsor Green Space Inc., a private nonprofit agency devoted to preserving East Windsor open space to purchase a 15-acre parcel west of the intersection between Maple Stream Road and Route 130. (The parcels to be purchased are on the north side of the brook, running from the Hickory Corner Branch library to Route 130.)

The Maple Stream property will be added to the township's Bear Brook Park. The preserved land will "help buffer the Brookwood neighborhood" from Route 130, Mayor Mironov said.

Source: "Grant will help save open space: East Windsor to preserve over 100 acres on west side" by Michael Arges, The Packet Group, Sunday, May 14, 2000 http://www.pacpubserver.com/new/news/5-14-00/landgrant.html

Facilities:

At the small park there is a bike path and a children's playground. 

Trails:

10/21/04.  I parked by the library and went behind the building to the woods to find an opening.  I did not find any formal opening, so I found an area of less vegetation and entered the woods.  The woods along the stream in this part of the area is a narrow one with houses on the opposite shore.  There are only some informal walking paths so I walked roughly east paralleling the stream.  Crossed the stream to find a Japanese stilt grass filled, linear open space reminiscent of a gas line cut.  I kept walking east until I reached the noisy Route 130.  I came out by the Windsor car wash just north of some car dealerships. Turned around and roughly came back the way I went out. 

Driving farther down Hickory Corner Road, I found a small pull-off area by a small park along the stream (with its little pond at this point).  There is a bike path that makes a rectangular circuit around the area crossing over and back across the stream via sturdy bridges.  (A plaque on the bridges says "Continental Bridge; Alexandria, MN.") 

I did not see any direct connection between this area and the woods.  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney
* = plant found in bloom on date of field trip, 10/21/04

Trees:
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Carya tomentosa (mockernut hickory)
Catalpa sp. (catalpa)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum)  lots and lots of it
Nyssa sylvatica (tupelo)
Picea abies (Norway spruce)
Pinus sp. (pine) at the playground area
Pinus strobus (white pine) planted
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus phellos (willow oak)
Quercus velutina (black oak)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)
Salix sp. (willow)
Sassafras albidum (sassafras)

Shrubs and sub-shrubs:
Alnus serrulata (smooth alder)
Cornus amomum (swamp dogwood)
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Ilex sp. (holly) ? 
Lindera benzoin (spicebush)
Rhus copallina (winged sumac)
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose)
Rubus sp. (black berry)
Salix discolor (pussy willow)
Sambucus canadensis (common elderberry)
Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum) 
Vinca minor (periwinkle)

Vines:
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Smilax rotundifolia (round-leaved greenbrier)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)

Herbs:
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)
Apocynum sp. (androsaemifolium ?) (spreading dogbane) ?
Arctium sp. (burdock)
Aster spp. (aster) *
Boehmeria cylindrica (false nettle)
Impatiens sp. (jewelweed)
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygonum sagittatum (arrow-leaved tearthumb)
Solidago canadensis (Canada goldenrod) *
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion)
Trifolium repens (white clover) *

Rushes:
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Scirpus cyperinus (woolly grass bulrush)

Grasses:
Cinna arundinacea (wood reed grass)
Dactylis glomerata (orchard grass)
Digitaria sp. (crab grass)
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer-tongue grass)
Panicum virgatum (switch grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Tridens flavus (purple top grass)

Ferns and fern allies:
Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda regalis (royal fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis (New York fern)