Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Today’s guest post comes to us from David Wheeler, Director of Operations for Edison Wetlands Association, a longtime Dodge grantee who is “dedicated to protecting human health and the environment through conservation and the cleanup of hazardous waste sites.” We are continually impressed by their tireless efforts on behalf of New Jerseyans to clean up toxic sites, while also mobilizing community support, and leveraging remediation funding sources.

By David Wheeler

All thy wat’ry face
Reflected with a purer grace
Thy many turnings through the trees
Thy bitter journey to the seas
Thou Queen of Rivers, Raritan!

English poet John Davis wrote his tribute to the longest river solely in New Jersey back in 1806, long before the Raritan River became one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. The stretch from Bridgewater down to the Raritan’s mouth at Sayreville and Perth Amboy was dubbed the “Chemical Belt,” serving as a thoroughfare for chemical plants, landfill dumpers, the United States Army’s Raritan Arsenal, and coal barges shipping Pennsyvania’s coal to New York City through the Delaware & Raritan Canal.

Growing up, my experience with the Raritan River was limited to driving over the Garden State Parkway’s Driscoll Bridge – greeted by Sayreville’s glowing lagoons and the accompanying noxious stench. Many of the area’s largest industrial plants have moved on, but the toxic legacy remained strong. Bob Spiegel founded the nonprofit Edison Wetlands Association (EWA) in 1989 to fight for the cleanups of the Raritan’s worst toxic sites. Without EWA’s active leadership, many of these sites would go decades without any real remediation, impacting the environment and potentially human health all the while. Yet the Raritan is now a river deep into its natural recovery from a century of industrial abuse.

Bob Spiegel, Executive Director, Edison Wetlands Association

In a royal rags-to-riches comeback worthy of New Jersey’s Queen of Rivers, many of those long-forsaken landfills are being transformed into ecologically valuable habitat. At Edison Landfill, EWA worked with Conservation Resources, Inc., the State of New Jersey’s Natural Resource Damages, and Edison Township to create a public walkway trail with kiosks, a footbridge and gazebo, swallow nest boxes, and native butterfly gardens along the Edison Landfill riverfront. Last year, the Raritan RiverWalk triumphantly opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony commemorating the first extended public access ever on Edison’s seven miles of Raritan Riverfront

Raritan RiverWalk

From the top of Edison Landfill on a site tour last week, visitors spotted a great horned owl, wild turkey, common yellowthroats, and a garter snake. Past forays have encountered bald eagles, box turtles, northern harriers, bobolinks, and ring-necked pheasants thriving along this vantage point over an oxbow bend in the Raritan that creates a scene worthy of the Everglades river of grass. It is a gorgeous view, especially in the largely flat terrain of Middlesex County.

Baby snapping turtle

Night Heron

The reason this vista offers such elevation changes is, of course, those manmade “mountains” of Edgeboro Landfill, Kin-Buc Landfill Superfund Site, and ILR Landfill.

“Behold the ‘Valley of the Dumps,’” says Spiegel. “This is as beautiful a place as there is anywhere, especially knowing the progress we’ve made on the Raritan.”

Across the river on East Brunswick’s Edgeboro Landfill, an EWA legal action resulted in the cleanup of a mile-long stretch of riverfront where trash had washed out with each outgoing tide. In its place, native vegetation and fruit-bearing trees were planted to attract cedar waxwings, swallows, and butterflies. This model Brownfields into Greenfields project can be thought of as turning garbage-to-gardens.

That Edgeboro legal action – along with an Akzo Nobel legal settlement – are helping to fund over a dozen other environmental projects in the Raritan Watershed, from NY-NJ Baykeeper’s public kayak and canoe trips, to Rutgers University’s landmark water quality testing initiative.

David Wheeler

Taking a sampling at Mill Pond

While the Upper Raritan remains pristine in many areas, the Lower Raritan was off-limits for the public for most of the 20th century. Downstream from Edison, the Keasbey Brownfield Development Area is returning Woodbridge’s Raritan Riverfront to public access for the first time in a century, cleaning up toxic sites and restoring wetlands while promoting economic redevelopment. It is a true partnership of elected officials, environmentalists, and business owners working together with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to show that balanced redevelopment doesn’t require a false choice between the economy and the environment.

As the contaminated sites industry left behind are remediated, and native vegetation replaces exposed trash on landfill riverfronts, the Raritan gets cleaner. The first to benefit from that improved water quality are the fish. In Raritan Bay, the water teems with striped bass, winter flounder, bluefish and eels, and the bay floor below is dotted with oysters, quahog clams, lobsters, and blue crabs.

“The Raritan is a world-class fishery for striped bass and sports fishing,” notes Raritan Riverkeeper Bill Schultz.

The bountiful fish, in turn, help other wildlife recover. American oystercatcher, black skimmer, and yellow-crowned night-heron have returned in greater numbers, and bald eagles are spotted regularly along Highland Park’s riverside greenspaces and downtown New Brunswick’s urban riverfront. Eleven osprey nests sit jaggedly atop pilings and bulkheads along the Lower Raritan – without a single piling going nestless. Under the surface, sea turtles thrive all summer, and four species of seals winter here. River otter, mink, and beaver are seen along the riverbanks and tributaries, while bottlenose dolphins and pilot whales can be found at the mouth of the river and Raritan Bay.

Osprey

Bald eagle

Beaver

With more fish and improved water clarity, the wildlife returning to the Raritan is complemented by waves of people – fishermen, crabbers, birdwatchers, hikers, kayakers, and boaters – doing likewise. Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning is heading the Raritan River Collaborative and hosting its third annual Sustainable Raritan Conference this Thursday, focusing on the progress and public potential of this mighty river.

Many threats remain, however, to a fully healthy Raritan watershed. With EWA’s active involvement, the United States Environmental Protection Agency is making significant progress on the remediations of four Superfund Sites in the Lower Raritan Watershed: Horseshoe Road and Atlantic Resources in Sayreville, and Cornell-Dubilier Electronics and Woodbrook Road in South Plainfield. But other sites are proving problematic. The American Cyanamid Superfund Site in Bridgewater holds chemical lagoons with high levels of contaminants, and the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund Site in Old Bridge and Sayreville leaches toxic slag into the bay with each tide. Along the Lawrence Brook tributary of the Raritan, the Ford Avenue Redevelopment site in Milltown has impacted Mill Pond with contamination. And Raritan Center, the industrial business park within the sprawling former Raritan Arsenal, still poses threats from long-buried munitions. EWA’s Raritan River Project has progressed more than anyone thought possible 20 years ago, but work remains to be done.

“Our vision is a Raritan River that is safely fishable, swimmable, and drinkable again,” says EWA’s Spiegel. “The more that people become aware of just how vital the Raritan is to our daily lives, the closer we get to making that vision a reality.”

All hail the Queen of Rivers!

David Wheeler is the director of operations for Edison Wetlands Association and the author of Wild New Jersey: Nature Adventures in the Garden State.

Don’t Miss This!

NJN’s new film, Rescuing a River: The Raritan, will premiere tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 630 pm at the Forum Theatre on Main Street in Metuchen. See the Raritan’s recovery first-hand, free to public. Call EWA to reserve seats at 732-321-1300.

Images: Bob Spiegel photo by Barbara Bierne; bald eagle photo by Melanie Worob; osprey photo by Bill Schultz; night heron photo by Thomas Oates. All other images courtesy Edison Wetlands Association

We’ve been following a number of interesting features on the newly-designed Grist website, and in particular wanted to mention Bikenomics.

In case you’re not familiar with Grist, they are an excellent online source for environment news and commentary. Let’s be honest: environment-related news often leaves us feeling, well, a little depressed. But Grist manages to produce thoughtful reporting peppered with humorous observations and practical information, which helps us feel optimistic and empowered as individuals. In fact, Dodge funds them, in part, because of their proven ability to inspire social change, particularly from the next generation, creating a diverse and inclusive view of the environmental movement.

We recommend Elly Blue’s Bikenomics series, which makes a compelling case for rethinking our car-centric culture in favor of bicycles.

Graphic by mgmt design courtesy of the National Building Museum. Click for a larger image.

From a discussion of tearing down urban freeways, to tackling the health care and energy crises, the series is a comprehensive look at alternative ideas that are worth considering – particularly here in New Jersey, as we explore the attributes of sustainable and livable cities. (Is your town participating in Sustainable Jersey? You can find out here.)

One more thing: when you make your way to the Grist website, don’t miss their popular Ask Umbra column.

Last week, New Jersey Audubon talked about promoting locally grown and sustainably harvested wood under the “Jersey Grown” label as a creative solution to the difficult economic issues related to land and habitat conservation. Today we learn how birdseed (yes, birdseed!) is making a real difference for New Jersey farmers, and it’s helping NJ Audubon manage habitats for rare grassland birds.

Derwood Farm in Hillsborough, NJ managed by Mark Kirby.
Photo by Regina Geoghan

By Troy Ettel
Director of Conservation & Stewardship
New Jersey Audubon

In this space last week, I discussed how our work at New Jersey Audubon developing and implementing large-scale habitat management projects has brought home the importance of economic realities to the sustainability of conservation. The reality that the quality of life and opportunities for people that live in the regions that we are striving to protect are an incredibly important part of the equation first became apparent to us while working directly with New Jersey farmers.

Annually, over the past three years we have hosted what we have called “Farmer Forums.” Often, we have been joined by other conservation partners and a growing assortment of farmers interested in participating in NJ Audubon’s S.A.V.E.™ initiative. Making use of the USDA’s Conservation Innovation Grant program, we are connecting farmers, forest owners, and local operators to niche markets, launching our own brand, S.A.V.E., that stands for Support Agricultural Viability and the Environment. The goals of the project are to help revitalize local economies of the region while sustaining ecological restoration and preserving landscapes at the same time.

The Forums are not just an opportunity for NJ Audubon to vet new ideas; some of the best new ideas and problem solving continues to come from the farmers. Over time, the need for NJ Audubon to reiterate the ecological component of the project has faded; today the farmers often make the point for us. At a Forum in 2010, when a new farmer asked what would happen if a participant in the program was not interested in the conservation side of the project, another farmer was the one to jump in and emphatically state, “we would kick them out of the program.”

Farmer Forums hosted in Jim Laine’s barn at his farm in 2009 in Hillsborough, NJ, which connected retailers interested in the birdseed with farmers.

Partially as a result of the economic downturn, many of the government subsides that have fueled natural resource stewardship for decades are receiving less funding or have been eliminated altogether. The conservation community faces a time of change and adaptation to this new paradigm that parallels our colleagues in the agricultural sector. Looking around the table at the Forums, change and adaptation are clearly becoming the new “normal” for farmers. Brant Gibbs formerly operated a prominent dairy farm in Warren County, Buddy Shimp from Salem County got started in the business as a potato farmer, and Raj Sinha is a first generation farmer from Sussex County who, among other ventures, is producing his own Jersey Grown salsa label. Today, all are growing birdseed with NJ Audubon.

Ultimately the Forum and discussions are all about connections – how farmers, conservation groups and retailers can collaborate to meet their varied individual objectives better than working apart. Thus far the results have been very positive. Jersey Grown Birdseed was the first product marketed under the S.A.V.E. initiative. Three farmers, Mark Kirby and Jim Laine of Hillsborough and Tom Zeng of Ringoes started growing black-oil sunflower in 2008 for the initiative. With a loyal customer base built over the past 20 years to purchase birdseed, NJ Audubon offered something that the farmers did not have – direct access to a niche market. This helped remove some of the project’s risk. In turn the farmers could give NJ Audubon something that it wanted: a local, Jersey Grown seed as an alternative to what was available in the marketplace – seed trucked from the Upper Midwest.

Freshly harvested, Jersey Grown birdseed. Look for it in garden centers and stores near you.

A business plan designed in collaboration with Rutgers MBA Consulting Program helped keep the birdseed project on target. Start-up funding from the United State’s Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Innovation Program, allowed the farmers and NJ Audubon to further focus on a greener product, allowing establish of test plots experimenting with small bits of charcoal or bio-char, to look at opportunities to fix carbon in the soil within agricultural systems. At the same time, NJ Audubon uses revenue from the program to manage habitat for rare grassland birds and – equally important – used the expertise of the farmers to help manage the habitats. Sales have increased by 96% in its third year, 2011, exceeding 60 tons and being sold in nearly 30 locations statewide and now with 11 farmers involved. The success has allowed NJ Audubon to eclipse its modest initial goal of 40 acres managed for grassland birds and hopefully move in a direction that ensures future sustainability.

One of the highlights of the project has been the ability to increase traffic and attention to local farms participating in the project with NJ Audubon. This has included developing eco- and agritourism opportunities to further connect farmers and farms with the people living in New Jersey’s cities and suburbs. One of the orgininal farmers, Mark Kirby said, “One of the best things about working with NJ Audubon is that they have 22,000 members and now I am getting calls from people asking me what else I sell.” That sentiment has laid the perfect foundation for discussion in Forums. The project is ultimately about connections – connections for people to the land as food and as a natural part of their environment. The farmers are now bringing their ideas forward to talk about the next products for the label and some have had independent conversations with retailers carrying the seed about collaborating on other ways.

One of the greatest connections behind this project is the direct ability to connect consumers with the origin of their products. Any consumer who wants to know where their birdseed is grown or any of their other products comes from can join NJ Audubon for a trip to see the fields, meet the farmers, and see the habitat being created. You can check it out yourself. Just visit www.njaudubon.org this summer to sign up for trips, find retail locations, and look for those new S.A.V.E. products – cold-pressed sunflower oil and native pine mulch – coming to market in 2011.

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Special thanks to Troy Ettel and to our friends at New Jersey Audubon for this guest series.

Follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook to get the latest news as well as information about new S.A.V.E. products.

Today’s blog post comes from grantee New Jersey Audubon. Founded in 1897, NJ Audubon has long been a leading advocate for conservation in our region. To remain true to its mission of fostering environmental awareness and a conservation ethic among New Jersey’s citizens, NJ Audubon is working with a number of partners to engage the people and communities that live and work within the landscapes they seek to conserve and to recognize the important role that local economies play in the long-term sustainability of conservation.

By Troy Ettel
Director of Conservation and Stewardship
New Jersey Audubon

I’ve been following the recent guest series by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and their partners dedicated to local, fresh food and its important implications for social justice. This is a major theme in our work at NJ Audubon as well.

Over the past seven years at NJ Audubon, our work to develop stewardship plans throughout New Jersey, whether in Highlands forests, South Jersey pines, or within the agricultural landscapes that define the Garden State, has really brought home the importance of economic realities to the sustainability of conservation. In particular, the quality of life and opportunities for people that live in the regions that we are striving to protect are an incredibly important part of the equation. We’ve seen that there are direct parallels with the “Buy Fresh/Buy Local” initiative for fresh, local food to cultivate similar unique opportunities that connect local consumers with local producers for an even wider range of products.

Seeing the connection and importance of local producers playing a role in the implementation of conservation projects, NJ Audubon decided to become more directly involved in connecting agricultural producers with consumer markets. NJ Audubon trademarked its own brand – S.A.V.E.™ - which stands for Support Agricultural Viability and the Environment. After decades in the trenches fighting against the types of land uses that we do not like, we felt it was time to start highlighting those that we do. Thus, the emergence of S.A.V.E. – a brand that connects farmers to consumers with a conscience – those interested not only in the origins of their products but also in knowing that supporting the environment is as easy as purchasing a product. In 2008, we started with Jersey Grown birdseed which I will talk more about next week. Now the brand is broadening.

NJ Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher with the sawmill operator Paul Shairer looking at freshly milled Atlantic white cedar lumber

Yesterday at a press conference in Egg Harbor City, Atlantic County, NJ, Douglas Fisher the NJ Secretary of Agriculture joined NJ Audubon and Lynn Fleming, NJ State Forester in announcing an expansion of the Department’s highly successful Jersey Grown/Jersey Fresh program to allow, for the first time, products made from 100% NJ wood to be labeled “Made with Jersey Grown Wood.” The first products to be certified under this label expansion are birdhouses and birdfeeders offered by NJ Audubon.

“Consumers who see the ‘Made with Jersey Grown Wood’ logo on products will immediately know they are supporting New Jersey businesses,” said New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher. “We are happy to partner with NJ Audubon on the expansion of the Jersey Grown program to first, sunflower bird seed, and now, wood. We urge everyone to ask for Jersey Grown at participating nurseries, garden centers, feed stores and specialty shops.”

NJ Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher, NJ State Forester Lynn Fleming, and Troy Ettel inspecting the new “Made with Jersey Grown Wood” bird houses and feeders

Our birdhouses and feeders are made of Atlantic white cedar sustainably harvested under forest stewardship plans approved by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection. The lumber is sawn at Schairer Brothers Sawmill in Egg Harbor City. Founded in 1936, Schairer Brothers is one of the few sawmills left in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, providing lumber to local markets mostly within a 50-mile radius. Owner Paul Schairer is a third generation mill operator, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who first began milling wood in the 1920s and operated the family mill while his sons served in World War II. Paul sees a place for his small, family-owned sawmill both to preserve New Jersey’s forests and to serve the local market. He mentions that he used to provide wood to a local furniture-making business, but lost the contract when the furniture maker began buying lumber sourced from China. He also is frustrated by the lack of management around him that is contributing to a decline in the region’s forests – from invading insects such as the southern pine beetle and gypsy moth, to a poorly understood decline in Atlantic white cedar. “We need management on some parcels,” Paul says. “The woods are not healthy. Without management we have stressed trees.”

Atlantic white cedar is an important, native ecosystem that harbors many rare plants and animals in New Jersey – but despite the presence of tens of thousands of acres of cedar forests on public land it is declining. Restoration of cedar is one of the highest conservation priorities in South Jersey; it is also has one of the highest per acre restoration costs. To date, cedar restoration has been funded almost entirely by grants from the federal government. However, considering the current debate surrounding the national debt and severe cuts to many of the programs that have been allowing this important work to occur, we should be deeply concerned about the sustainability of government-dependent conservation. If an economic incentive existed to properly manage and maintain not only white cedar forests, but forests throughout the state, implantation of approved Forest Stewardship Plans would allow sustainable harvest while also helping achieve goals for forest restoration and management.

State Forester Lynn Fleming, who oversees the NJ State Forest Service, the agency within NJ DEP responsible for approving Forest Stewardship Plans, agrees, “The ‘Made with Jersey Grown Wood’ label advocates quality products produced by our state’s local forests. Fortuitously, the introduction of the label coincides with the International Year of Forests, which celebrates sustainable forestry all over the world.”

NJ Audubon agrees, and supports local, family-owned businesses that provide forest and farm products for local use, support the local economies of New Jersey’s communities, and help secure the future of New Jersey’s forests and farmland. When preservation of natural resources makes economic as well as ecological sense, our job is a lot easier.

Initial funding for these initiatives was provided by the Conservation Innovation Grant program from the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA.

For more information about the program please visit www.njaudubon.org

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Troy Ettel has served as the Director of Conservation and Stewardship with the New Jersey Audubon Society since 2003. In this capacity, he works directly with partners to develop stewardship projects that are centered on minimizing the threats and negative impacts on native ecosystems throughout New Jersey. Troy serves on a number of appointed councils and advisory committees in NJ including the Pinelands Forest Advisory Committee, NJ Forest Stewardship Committee, and Governor’s Invasive Species Council. He is also the co-chair of the Raritan Piedmont Wildlife Habitat Partnership.

This series continues next Wednesday

Images courtesy NJ Audubon

If you’re a regular reader of the Dodge blog, you may remember the six-part guest series we featured by the Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability (CUES) last November and December (see the end of this blog post for links). Dodge’s grant to CUES last year helped provide seed funding to support their vision for an expanded University Extension Program (i.e., outreach, research and educational services designed to be of practical value to New Jersey residents) on a variety of urban planning issues.

In partnership with County Extension Agents, CUES provides a wealth of knowledge and practice on problems such as stormwater management, urban infrastructure, and landscape rehabilitation, to farmers, county and town officials, Sustainable Jersey team members, town engineers and planners, school planners, school officials, and others, and always with an eye toward environmental justice.

They are an incredible resource, and they are only a phone call away.

We would be remiss, therefore, if we didn’t share the information on their upcoming two-day conference on May 18 (in Jersey City) and May 19 (in Newark). If you are involved or interested in urban planning issues, this is a must-attend conference.

For full information, including registering online, visit the CUES website.

If you didn’t read the Dodge/CUES blog series (or read it and want to revisit it!) here are the links:

Part 1: Urban Solutions Are Just a Call Away
Part 2: Transforming Newark Lot by Lot
Part 3: The Teaneck Creek Conservancy and EcoArt
Part 4: Overcoming Camden’s Toxic Past
Part 5: The Hackensack Riverkeeper Green Roof Project
Part 6: An Elegant Solution to Stormwater Runoff