By Anne Levin

In the Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI), currently available on the Princeton Environmental Commission’s (PEC) website, there are more than 150 pages covering everything from flooding and groundwater contamination to rare animal species and soil limitations for development.

That exhaustive document was compiled in 2010. The PEC, in partnership with the town’s municipal staff and Ecotone, Inc., has recently announced plans for an update — not to replace the 2010 inventory, but to augment it. And they want input from the community, to be gathered at a Zoom meeting on Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m. Members of the public are encouraged to attend, pose questions, and provide feedback.

“We want people to ask questions,” said Tammy Sands, PEC chair. “We are highly recommending that people first take a look at the old inventory — at least the introduction — which will give them a background.”

The 2010 ERI was completed when Princeton was still divided into Borough and Township. “The town has changed,” said Councilwoman Eve Niedergang, who serves as liaison to the PEC. “The new ERI will look into similar aspects of the old one, like areas for natural vegetation, our animal communities, our little ecosystems, and our waterways. But this one will look at new priorities. What are they? Invasive plants, perhaps? It will be based on data we receive from the consultant.”

The ERI “provides information on the natural resource characteristics and environmentally significant features in Princeton,” reads a release from the PEC. “An ERI acts as a baseline for measuring and evaluating resource protection issues, and serves as a tool for decision-making by the municipality, including its environmental commission and planning board. It also informs the public on the status and value of our natural resources.”

The 2023 update will provide updated information based on the new data, and will conduct analyses not undertaken in the last report. Both the 2010 and 2023 ERIs may be used as references to inform municipal decisions.

“What we’re really looking for is how the information from this ERI might be able

to be integrated with the revised master plan,” said Niedergang. “They kind of go hand-in-hand, in a way. They reflect one another.”

Among the issues that have developed since the last ERI is the destruction of thousands of trees by the emerald ash borer, which has altered Princeton’s skyline. “We’ll be looking at what we can anticipate in terms of that destruction,” said Sands. “If we’re losing tens of thousands of ash trees, how do we restore the habitat? In what areas do we have dead trees that are creating a hazard? We need to understand that, and that’s part of what this ERI is.”

“The 2010 ERI provided an incredibly comprehensive and thorough assessment of Princeton’s natural resources,” Niedergang said in the release. “With this update, we’re looking forward to analyzing what has changed, and digging deeper into newer data and technology that was not available 13 years ago.”

Members of the public unable to attend the virtual meeting can view a recording that will be available on the PEC webpage at princetonnj.gov. Comments can be submitted until March 8 by emailing engineering@princetonnj.gov.