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Coming in May & June...
Two Rain Garden Open Houses!
The public is welcome to attend one or both sessions...
Location:
317 Massachusetts Avenue, Haworth, NJ
Sunday, May 18
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Master Gardener/Landscape Designer Chris Shankar
Sunday, June 8
11:30 AM
Rutgers Univ. Water Resources Program
Program Associate Greg Rusciano
Find all the details on our Happenings Page.
For more some great information on Rain Gardens visit the home page of the Native Plant Society of NJ at:
http://www.npsnj.org/
Battle of the Botanicals: Native vs. Invasive Plants - A Nature Walk & Talk -
This Weekend - Rain or Shine!
Sunday, April 27
1:00 PM
Join
us and a stellar group of naturalists for two delightful and
informative presentations and a guided walk - see the Happenings page
for details!
Annual Clean-up of Emerson Woods Features Prizes, Refreshments, & Free Halos!
Sunday, March 30
Starting @ 1:00 PM
Please
be our angel for a day! Help us keep this natural treasure looking its
best, and safe for its human visitors and wild inhabitants!
Bergen
SWAN will sponsor its annual clean up of the 19.5 acre Emerson Woods
Preserve, located along Main Street in Emerson. Supplies will be
provided for the participants, who can park on Summer Street across
from Lakeview Terrace (off Main Street). The clean-up will begin at the
information kiosk at the preserve’s south entrance, a short walk east
of Lakeview Terrace.
Participants
will be provided with refreshments and will have a chance to win prizes
for the most trash collected and the strangest object cleared out of
the woods.
For further information on the clean-up or more detailed directions to Emerson Woods, contact Lori Charkey at     201-666-1877 or bergenswan@sprynet.com, or Ken Hoffman at kayceehof@yahoo.com.
Through March 31...
"Into the Woods!" Photography Exhibit
Framed photos by Girl Scout Troop 702 documenting 7-8th graders' explorations of Beechwood Park.
Harrington Park Public Library &
South Central Station Cafe
See "HAPPENINGS" for further details
Learn Humane Goose Population Control -
Get E. Coli, Nitrogen & Phosphorus out of our Waterways...
GeesePeace 2008 - Training Course/Refresher
Workshop for Bergen/Passaic/Hudson Counties
Thursday, March 27
1:00 to 3:00 PM OR 7:30 to 9:30 PM
The
second annual GeesePeace Training Sessions led by David
Feld, Founder/National Director of GeesePeace will be held Thursday,
March 27th. The 2007 Canada goose population stabilization success in
the Village of Ridgewood is a direct result of the two hour hands-on
training workshops providing all of the necessary information,
strategies and expertise required to addle/oil Canada geese eggs in
your area. This non-lethal protocol is designed to stabilize the
Canada goose population in cooperation with USDA and US Fish &
Wildlife Service and endorsed by the Humane Society US and PETA. The
Village of Ridgewood Departments of Parks & Recreation and Public
Works in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Ridgewood
invite you to come be trained to help you make a difference in your
county/community.
Training will be held at:
The Stable
259 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Pre-registration required. Light refreshments provided.
To register call Geese Peace at: 201-670-5560
http://www.geesepeace.org/
SWAN to Help Four Towns Improve Our Watershed
Bergen SWAN has won $4,000 in funding from the small grants program at Conservation Resources Inc. to fund our Watershed Stewardship Roundtable Series. This
series is designed to assist several local municipalities in facing the
triple threats of non-point source pollution, flooding, and erosion.
Through this project, we hope to:
- Initiate a series of guided discussions and presentations to elected, employed, and hired municipal officials.
- Develop
and assemble educational materials on both structural and
non-structural stormwater best management practices for area
waterways. Assist towns in distributing and communicating this
information through their newsletters, websites, libraries, and
schools, and to the media.
- Select appropriate sites for and plan/construct a demonstration rain garden.
- Create engineering plans for a future structural BMP (best management practice) device that will address a significant stormwater control issue in the region.
We
are currently seeking additional matching grant funds in order to make
this project whole. We hope to begin work this January.
Bergen SWAN & Harrington Park Girl Scout Troop 702 Plan Nature Walk Trail Improvements for Beechwood Park
With
help from Troop Leaders Lauri Scappi and Maryanne Schran-Pierson,
naturalist Ken Hoffman, and Planner Michael Hakim, SWAN is preparing a
GIS-based map of the 20 acre park, assisting in the creation of a new
trail guide, and making preliminary plans to construct a trailhead
kiosk. On Saturday, November 3, we led a group of approximately 10
scouts on an exploratory nature walk of the property. The girls have
been regularly documenting their observations of the flora and fauna
found in the woods. We look forward to partnering with them on this
new venture.
Naturalist Ken Hoffman's Sheets on Emerson Woods' History, Flora and Fauna Now Posted in Resources Section!
Naturalist
Ken Hoffman, a lifelong resident of Emerson, has familiarized himself
extensively with Emerson Woods over the years. Ken has created
one-page information sheets about flora and fauna that can be found in
Emerson Woods, which may now be found as Adobe Acrobat files in the
Resources section under “Emerson Woods Flora and Fauna.” The first
sheet has a listing of the flora and fauna by month; the rest are in
alphabetical order. Also in the Resources section, under “Emerson
Woods Information,” you may find Microsoft Word files about the history
of Emerson Woods as well as the birds, ferns, plants, shrubs, and
wildflowers that may be seen there.
Intern Kristin DeValue to Photo-document Preserved Watershed Sites, Post on Website
Early
last summer, Bergen SWAN hired Drew University undergraduate student
Kristin DeValue to embark on an ambitious project to photograph,
describe, and GPS survey the many separate parcels that we have helped
preserve over the past 20 years. The majority of these properties were
set aside as watershed protective buffer by our 1993 settlement with
United Water New Jersey. Kristin has been doing fieldwork for many
months now, familiarizing herself with the hundreds of wooded acres
surrounding the Oradell, Lake Tappan, Woodcliff Lake, and Lake DeForest
reservoirs in Bergen and Rockland counties. She will soon be posting
the results of her research on a new web page. Stay tuned!
Thanks for Making Our June 9 Watershed Festival a Great Success!!!
Over
250 people turned out for the Living Well in the Watershed Festival to
learn about better ways to care for our homes, ourselves and our
watershed. Over 20 talented environmental professionals gave talks
and demonstrations, and hosted exhibits on a wide range of issues of
critical importance to our watershed. Participants commented on their
delight in how much they learned in one day, and went wild over our
healthy food selection - especially the handmade, organic vanilla ice
cream! We are planning to spin-off some future educational
opportunities based on what took place at the festival. Stay tuned!
Click here to view some photographs of the event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8811639@N02/sets/72157600348335742/
Coming soon...find older news items on our RESOURCES page...
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