There’s been a minor change for “Cleanup Day”, set for Saturday 4/28. The event is still to be held at 9 AM at Borg’s Woods and various parks, but the RECEPTION and FREE FOOD will be under a tent at Johnson Park.
The city will be dedicating the walkway at Johnson Park at 12:00, so this will be a good opportunity to gather residents who are doing the cleanup and let them participate in the walkway dedication. The city’s section in Johnson Park was completed last year, and the County’s section running north from the end of Johnson Park is currently under construction !!!
The current weather forecast is for a high temperature of 49 degrees on Saturday, and partly to mostly cloudy. It should be in the 40’s for this event.
Charlotte Panny had set a meeting with the new County Parks director, Bruce Bonaventuro, to discuss the scope of work for this and future events at Borg’s Woods. Bruce canceled the meeting, and another has not been set.
However, Bonaventura has spoken with and met the local residents on Brook Street who are DESTROYING the environment, and are advancing an agenda contrary to the interests of Borg’s Woods. The Brook Street residents are draining the wetlands and lowering the profile of the stream that drains out of the central swamp, altering the fragile ecological balance. The wetland is a vernal pond, which is typically fullest from November to mid-May, and usually bone dry in mid-summer. Over the past 20 years, the residents of Brook Street are responsible for a 1-foot drop in the water level. They come in at night with shovels and do their work. The Hackensack Riverkeeper Organization researched this, and it was determined that [name remove by Editor] is the primary responsible party. [name remove by Editor] is a former advocate of Borg’s Woods who I know well.
As a result of the water level drop, Borg’s Woods has experienced LOCAL EXTINCTION of amphibian species. In addition, small trees are now growing in the open wetland, an area previously too wet for them to take root. The entire open marshy habitat is slowly being destroyed. The swamp is NOT filling with organic matter through any natural process and become a forested wetland. It’s being drained by residents, including one resident who wants to sell their house, and doesn’t want buyers to see standing water behind their property.
Is this a question of resident interests VERSUS environmental protection? Not at all. The entire premise of the residents view is faulted.. The residents complain about basement flooding, but the irony is that the swamp is NOT responsible, as follows:
(1) the water table under Brook Street is MUCH HIGHER than it was before the street and the houses were built (1952 +/-) because a previously existing intermittent brook along the base of the hill was filled in when the area was landfilled and the houses were built. The street was named for this brook. Landfilling is known to cause water tables to rise, this is a classic case. Especially when a BROOK is landfilled.
(2) Underground water flow around Brook Street is NORTH, not south. Nature wants to recreate the stream that used to flow north into the swamp. The water in their basements is draining off the hill to the east, flowing north underground, and causing the water table to rise. It has nothing to do with the swamp or anything else downstream.
(3) The bottom line is that northwards migration of groundwater ensures that THE WATER TABLE ON BROOK STREET WILL ALWAYS BE HIGHER THAN THE SURFACE LEVEL OF THE SWAMP no matter how much they drain the swamp, or they persuade the County to drain the swamp.
(4) Theoretically, the entire swamp could be dredged and the water table dropped 3 feet, and it wouldn’t stop their basements from flooding.
These same residents would prefer not to have trail improvements either, as if the nature preserve is their big back yard and nobody is ever walking back there. The “big back yard syndrome” was Freeholder Richard Mola’ objection to purchasing the woods in 1994. Then to top it off, all 5 houses regularly dump all their leaves, branches, and yard waste in the woods, smothering native plants and wildflowers and despoiling the environment.
These people communicate with the County, and present themselves as the voices of reason, and the advocates of the woods. Nothing could be further from the truth.
[Editor's note: I don't know the person ericmartindale accused. I delete the name because as far as I know, this is only ericmartindale's opinion about the situation. Since I do not (and will never) try to verify all the facts that other people assert, I will usually delete anything that I may consider defamatory.]