Summer Fun for Dogs and Their Humans

Schooner and Dory always enjoy
their visits to Fairview Farm!

The hot, muggy days of August can sap the energy and enthusiasm of everyone, including man's best friend.  During the new event that will be offered by the Upper Raritan Watershed Association (URWA) this weekend, dogs and their human companions will participate in a variety of special activities guaranteed to cure the daze brought on by summer’s haze!

Dog Days of Summer at Fairview Farm
Saturday, August 20th, 9:00 a.m. to Noon
Fairview Farm Wildlife Preserve, 2121 Larger Cross Road, Bedminster
Register by calling Susan Brookman at (908 )234-1852, ext. 20

Dog owners from across the region frequently bring their pets to Fairview Farm to walk them and let them enjoy off-leash time.   The site, which is where URWA is headquartered, is a 170-acre former dairy farm that was donated to URWA in the 1970's.  The Dog Days of Summer event is being held to offer an exciting new activity to the dog lovers who are already familiar with the site, and we hope that the event will introduce Fairview Farm and URWA to dogs and their human companions who do not currently walk at our preserve.  The event will be more than simply a social event for dogs – we'll help participants learn more about river- and watershed-friendly practices so they can become better environmental stewards.  URWA is the environmental watchdog of the region, and we want to create a large contingency of civilian watershed watchdogs to help us in our work! 

After arriving at Fairview Farm and checking in, dogs and their owners will take a walk on the Waggin' Trail.  This path will feature a series of posted questions about canine outdoor etiquette and conservation practices. Each dog whose human correctly answers the questions will be designated an official Upper Raritan Watershed Watchdog and will receive a unique Watershed Watchdog bandana.  Participants who fall short will spend some time in a Dog-Gone Summer School (URWA’s Nature Classroom) where they will be able to learn the correct answers and achieve the Watershed Watchdog distinction.  Other activities will offer participants the opportunity to make paw-print art, find their way through the Dog Daze Maze, try an agility course made with recycled materials, romp in an off-leash play field and clean up at a self-service Shampooch Station.

Registration is $20 per dog ($10 for each additional dog in the family).  Proceeds will support URWA's water conservation education & advocacy program.  Each dog must be accompanied by at least one adult human. Dogs should be current on vaccinations, well socialized and leash-trained.  URWA also asks that dog owners bring doggie bags so that your dog 'leaves no trace' at Fairview Farm.  For more information about the Dog Days event or to register, please contact Susan Brookman at (908) 234-1852, ext. 20 or via email at sbrookman@urwa.org.

Reminding the Highlands Council that Its Job is to Protect Water!

URWA participated with a coalition of environmental groups who rallied outside the Highlands Council’s offices in Chester earlier this month to acknowledge the Seventh Anniversary of the passage of the Highlands Act, legislation that protects the land, natural resources and drinking water for 5.4 million New Jersey residents.

A key speaker at the rally was Senator Bob Smith, co-sponsor of the Act and chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee who said “The Highlands Act is as relevant today as it was seven years ago…the Highlands Council, its staff and participating municipalities have come a long way towards balancing the goals of resource protection and planning for sustainable growth and development. I applaud them for what they have achieved and for their continuing efforts to protect the water supply that so many of us depend upon.”

Members of the environmental coalition took the opportunity to speak about their fear that Governor Christie is strategically weakening the protections of the Highlands water supply by verbally undermining the Regional Master Plan and making appointments to the Council that represent anti-Highlands sentiments.

URWA staff attended the rally to remind the Council that we are watching the conformance process and looking to them to stay focused on meeting the Highlands Act’s goal of protecting New Jersey’s clean drinking water.

Kudos to the DEP!

There don’t seem to be too many people with good things to say about governmental entities these days.  Taxes are high while the services they are meant to fund seem to be shrinking, thus fueling a great deal of taxpayer discontent.  While we ourselves often take issue with decisions that are made by elected and appointed officials, we are pleased to have good reason to salute the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for a step that its staffers recently took!

The Department has long offered interested parties the opportunity to review permit applications and other types of documents that are pertinent to its decision-making process.  Until a short time ago, all that information was sent out to people who requested it in hard copy format.  To our constant frustration, the Department did not utilize any type of system to select what it sent to whom – if you were on the list to receive copies of materials related to permit applications, you received information for every application under review in the State.  Even though we were really only interested in pending action in our region, we were routinely sent materials related to developments all across the state.  That used up tremendous amounts of taxpayer resources, both in terms of labor (staff time to copy, bind and mail the materials) and money (to purchase/lease and maintain the copy machines, purchase the paper upon copies were made and postage fees), not to mention the natural resources that were used to make the paper, transport the raw and finished products to the end users and ultimately, to dispose of them.  Several weeks ago, the DEP quietly made the switch to sending out electronic copies of these documents to interested parties. 

While there are obviously still expenses related to the distribution of this information, the expense to taxpayers and our natural systems is undeniably smaller.  The time it takes a staff member to distribute electronic documents pales in comparison to the time it takes to get hard copies ready for mailing, even if those documents must first be scanned.  Much of our review of the materials can be done without printing out the documents, and when we do feel the need to print something, we have the option to print just the pages of particular interest.  When we are not interested in a document that we are sent, we simply delete it from our computer files.

So, we send out a sincere pat on the back to the staff of the DEP for finally taking this step to reduce expenses while actually improving the service it provides to taxpayers!