NEW Bergen SWAN 2012 Events!

NJ Goes Native! 
An Educational Celebration of Native Plants: Next Week at State Line Lookout on the Palisades, Alpine

Native plant fun for one and all! Nature walks, native plant talks, crafts, workshops, and demonstrations, plus a native plant sale! Free admission, free parking - how can you lose?!

As part of the Nature Program Cooperative (NPC) of northern NJ (www.natureprogram.org), Bergen SWAN has worked with our partner organizations to make this an exciting, informative, and fun time for children and adults.

Go to our Happenings page for the event flyer and see the NPC website for more information.

Also coming soon......

Bergen SWAN will host a guided nature/photography walk on Sunday, June 24 with naturalist Nancy Slowik and photographer Charles Dexter - at Old Tappan Woods on the Hackensack - details coming soon...!

 Bergen SWAN 2012 Events!

Bergen SWAN Combined  Nature Tour/Nature Art Workshop for Young Folks Wows the Crowd!

SWAN  teamed up with a local naturalist and local artist to host a very special nature walk and art event for children ages 8 - 12. 

The event began with a guided tour of the 100+ acre Emerson Woods led by naturalist Nancy Slowik, who  brought walkers' attention to the remarkable signs of early spring in a wetland forest.

Following the walk, participants climbed aboard  the Fun Art Bus, a mobile eco-art studio, received personal art instruction from Laurie Rivlin Caspert of YouGottaHaveArt (www.yougottahaveart.org), and learned how to create an original artwork inspired by their favorite plant or other feature observed during their walk.  There are new budding Georgia O'Keeffe's and Pablo Picasso's in our watershed!

Bergen SWAN 2011 Events!

Bergen SWAN and Naturalist Nancy Slowik TeamUp to Explore New Territory

We originally planned to host just one guided tour through Emerson Woods with naturalist Nancy Slowik on December 4th, but when the waiting list grew to over 25 people we arranged to host a second walk on December 18th.  The second walk was also filled to capacity!  To see pictures from the walks, go to our flickr site at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergenswan . You can also read about the December 4th walk at the NJ Urban Forester Blog: http://njurbanforest.com/.  Keep checking this site for additional walks this spring!

Bergen SWAN Explores the Spatterdock Marsh!

On Sunday, May 22, twenty canoes and kayaks set out to explore the Sapatterdock Marsh in West Nyack, NY.  The tour was led by Naturalist Nancy Slowik and UWNJ Watershed Manager Ray Cywinski.  For over two hours, the group paddled thoughout the marsh and up into the river, learning about the plants and animals in the region and the ecology of this unique natural area.   For more details go to Happenings.

 Go to our Picasa site for more pictures.

The Bergen Record has published a special Earth Day article on the history of open space preservation in New Jersey. 

Click here to read "How the Green Movement Shaped New Jersey."

Upcoming events in the works!

We are planning a number of exciting environmental education events and restoration projects for the upcoming seasons.  We are working with partner groups throughout the watershed to design rain garden and rain barrel installations and buffer enhancement projects to help mitigate runaway stormwater.  Please call or write us if you are interested in volunteering.

 Sunday, April 17 -  2:00 PM
Greening Your Yard! - Short Films, Talk and Demonstraions

"Greening Your Yard with Water-Saving Tools & Techniques," will be the topic of a FREE educational program for local residents and landscape professionals interested in learning the best practices for a healthy, green and water-wise yard. The program will be held on Sunday April 17, 2011 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Westwood Public Library, 49 Park Avenue, Westwood, New Jersey. It is coordinated by Bergen SWAN and Pascack Sustainability Group, a non-profit dedicated to promoting sustainable practices in the Pascack Valley.  Please visit our Happenings page for full details!

Palisades Virtuosi Presents
"H2O - Water in all its Forms"

March 26, 2011

The Unitarian Society of Ridgewood,  113 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, NJ
7:15: Pre-Concert Talk; 8:00: Concert

Please join us for a very special evening of water- related music. Palisades Virtuosi will perform a concert of classical pieces ranging from  Handel's Water Music to a newly commissioned work by David Sampson called Undercurrents Redux.

Tickets are $20 general admission and $15 for students & seniors. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Bergen SWAN. 

If you run a local business, please contact SWAN if you would like to take out a program ad.

For more about the event and Palisades Virtuosi, visit their website:

http://www.palisadesvirtuosi.org/

For further information, call: 201-488-4983

Hackensack River StoryNight Art Exhibit Continues at the Haworth Municipal Library!

"Watershed Art" Exhibit -                          Now through October 30, 2010            Closing Reception - Saturday, October 30, 12-2 PM

Portions of proceeds from art sales will benefit both Bergen SWAN and Haworth Municipal Library.  More details can be found on our Happenings page!

 For further information, contact Celine Ennis at 201-387-8879 or Barton Knight at bergenswan@sprynet.com (subject: Haworth Art Show).

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Bergen SWAN will be hosting a table at the event and giving a presentation from 1:30 - 2:15 on how installing rain barrels and rain gardens around your home can help improve the quality and quantity of our water resources. For more information, visit the Environmental Summit website at:

http://town.clarkstown.ny.us/html/environmentalsummit.html

Thanks to all our friends and voluneteers for helping to make our 10/1/10 Hackensack River StoryNight an unforgettable event!  Over 50 people came out to listen to tales of life along the Hackensack River, to hear river-inspired music, and see works of art in many media depicting local waterways.  We will be posting a few photos from the event soon.  

Please take some time over the month of October to stop by the Haworth Municipal Library to see an expanded version of the art show that debuted at StoryNight.  We will bring you news soon of a closing party for the show - currently in the works and tentatively scheduled for Saturday, 10/30/10.  Library hours and directions there can be found at: http://haworth.bccls.org/Directions.htm.

River lovers take note - we are working on launching a new section of the SWAN website devoted to your interesting adventures along and observations of the streams in our watershed.  We hope to post stories, poems, voice recordings, art, video clips, photos, and even your recommended walks and canoe trips.  Please contact us if you have an idea for a contribution to this project!

Hackensack River StoryNight! - A Celebration of the River in Words & Art - 

Save the date for this very special evening at the lovely Church of the Holy Communion in Norwood, where you can listen to leading river advocates tell stories about their experiences living, working, and adventuring along the Hackensack and its tributaries.   The event is designed to be  participatory, with opportunities for audience members to tell their own river story.  The night will also feature an exhibit and sale of river-inspired art (painting, mixed media, photography) and river-related music.  Please attend this fundraising celebration of our 22^nd year working to preserve the watershed!  Check our Happenings page for more details.

Unbelievably, SWAN began advocating for the preservation of this parcel over 21 years ago.  Persistence does pay.  By consistently opposing development plans, successfully challenging land use regulation permits and building support for the purchase of these lands we have finally seen this dream come true.  Through our application to the NJDEP Green Acres program Bergen SWAN was able to provide $850,000 to the funding package.  We would like to offer a sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to bringing this long, long effort to a successful conclusion. 

Click here for a link to the report on the acquisition in the Bergen Record.

Our June 18^th event drew a capacity crowd of over 60 participants. Attendees at the session enjoyed talks by noted experts in the field of streamside landscaping, non-toxic lawn care and using native plants in our ornamental landscapes.   Thanks again to all our co-sponsors, United Water NJ, R & S Landscaping, Pascack Valley Sustainability Group and NJ Landscape Contractors Association. Pictures from the event can be seen by clicking HERE!

This workshop is envisioned as the first in a series of educational programs on maintaining our homes and landscapes in a more environmentally sensitive fashion.  Check our website regularly for announcements of upcoming events.

Thanks to the efforts of over 80 volunteers, our Planting in the Park on May 15 and 16 was a real triumph! 

With the cooperative perseverance of the organizers and volunteers of all stripes, all our planning, analyzing, digging, lugging, hauling, wheelbarrowing, shoveling, staking, tying, raking, seeding, feeding, and bucket brigade watering resulted in a lovely new circle of 60 new trees and 75 new shrubs around the pond at Pascack Brook County Park in Westwood.  These buffer of plantings will help to enhance the pond's water quality, beautify the scenery, and increase wildlife diversity. 

In case you missed them, links to stories in the Record  & Community Life covering our event are listed below: 

Record Article

Community Life Article

An array of photos of our event can be found at our Picasa site:

Planting in the Park Photos

Please send us any photos that you took during that weekend and we will select the best of them to add to the posting and share with others.

We look forward to working with all of you in the coming months as we  begin to develop plans for Planting in the Park II, which will add more shrubs, wildflowers, and grasses to the banks of the pond. Stay in touch to learn about our development of and involvement in other new restoration projects throughout the watershed. 

3,300 Acres of Water Company Land Now Protected by NJDEP Easements!

In settlement of our ten year inquiry into violations of the Watershed Protection Act, United Water NJ (UWNJ) will place a permanent conservation easement on over 3,300 acres of their watershed properties and contribute $1,000,000 to the NJ Green Acres program for future purchase of watershed protective open space in Bergen County.  A joint press release by UWNJ, Riverkeeper, and Bergen SWAN can be found at our Happenings page.  A link to a story in the Record appears below.  More details to follow...

Bergen Record WPA Settlement...

Welcome to Bergen SWAN…

From our beginnings in 1988, Bergen SWAN has been aggressively pursuing the preservation of the watershed buffer forests around our drinking water reservoirs.  To date, we have helped protect from development over 3,300 acres of woods and wetlands, and over 300 acres of golf courses. 

The narrow, protective, forest buffers around our reservoirs represent some of the only unbroken stretches of woods in an intensely populated, increasingly urban area. These watershed buffers are a critical link to sound watershed management for the Upper Hackensack, helping to maintain safe drinking water quality for nearly 1 million Bergen and Hudson County residents in New Jersey and in Rockland County, New York.

Watershed buffers... 

• Filter and slow runoff, absorbing pollutants
• Control erosion
• Mitigate flooding
• Provide habitat for wildlife
• Provide a sanctuary for hiking and passive recreation
  

While we continue to fight for the permanent protection of the last remaining open spaces in our region, we are increasingly turning our focus to developing stewardship and educational programs that ensure the long-term sustainability of our watershed.   These programs include:

• Encouraging good streamkeeping by residents living alongside waterways
• Installation of stormwater controls such as rain gardens
• Phasing out the use of high phosphorus fertilizers
• Promoting non-toxic, environmentally sound practices in public places and golf courses

Make your tax-deductible donations to Bergen SWAN using your PayPal or credit card account by clicking here...

 

Your personal checks are also graciously accepted and will result in the full value of your donation going to Bergen SWAN.

Bergen SWAN is now on Facebook!  Click HERE to join our Facebook community.

How it works… Throughout the year, each of the different partners of the Co-op (listed on the right side of this page) will host an outdoor activity or indoor educational program at a nature center or other appropriate location to which all group members are invited. When applicable, member discounts will apply to all Co-op partner members and supporters. For example, if Tenafly Nature Center hosts an event, members of all other NPC groups pay the TNC member rate. (Non-members are also welcome to attend the event, but must pay the non-member rate.)  All NPC events are advertised in each partner group’s newsletter.

For a list of upcoming NPC programs, please visit the NPC site at:

http://www.natureprogram.org/