A Great Way to Celebrate Earth Day

Join URWA on Saturday to help clean up
a stream in your neighborhood!

It was 41 years ago this week that the efforts Senator Gaylord Nelson gave birth to the modern environmnetal movement.  The first Earth Day observance on April 22, 1970 brought together 20 million Americans, all of whom called for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.  In 1990 the Earth Day rallies went global, with an estimated 200 million people joining in the call to action to protect our environment.  Every year, Earth Day serves as a powerful focal point around which people from all walks of life demonstrate their commitment to a healthy planet.

We invite you to celebrate Earth Day this weekend by spending a few hours cleaning up local waterways.  Clean water is something that many of us take for granted here in the lovely Upper Raritan watershed.  Our streams appear almost pristine and most of us drink water directly from our taps without being concerned about carcinogens and other polluntants that may taint drinking water in other parts of our state.  It might surprise you then, to learn that each year when we head out to survey local streams and collect trash from them that we gather up about 300 pounds of garbage at every site we visit!  We've found everything from tires and household appliances to construction materials and broken toys in the brooks, streams and rivers that flow through the countryside here.

We'd love to have your help on Saturday morning as we gather along the banks of streams in Far Hills, Bedminster, Branchburg, Chester and Peapack/Gladstone to collect garbage.  We'll start at 9:00 a.m. and we'll provide everything you need - work gloves, garbage bags and snacks - to make the morning a productive one.  We'll wrap up our work by about noon, so you'll have the rest of the day free to enjoy the great feeling that will come with knowing you've contributed tangible service to the Earth Day ethic!

For more information about URWA's stream clean-up efforts and to sign up to help, please call (908) 234-1852, ext. 12 or email Lauren Theis.     

The Bluebells are Back! Visit URWA's Burnt Mills Floodplain Preserve to See Them

Native to this region, Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
are a sight to behold at this time of year along the Burnt Mills
Fllodplain Preserve.

The Burnt Mills Floodplain Preserve was established on December 21, 1989 when Ken & Yvonne Schley and Anne & Floyd Stradling deeded three parcels of land totaling 11.32 acres to URWA. The parcels had been in the Schley family and were bequeathed to Ken and Anne in 1944 upon the death of their father, Kenneth B. Schley. A grist mill was built on the floodplain shortly after the Civil War, and was taken down by Mr. Schley after he purchased the property in 1928. Its ruins still sit on the site today, adding historical interest to the preserve.

The site, on the Lamington River near the confluence of the North Branch, supports diverse wildlife including great blue heron, long-tailed salamanders, red shouldered hawks, barred owls, and freshwater mussels, including the threatened triangle floater (Alasmidonta undulate — learn more about this mussel in the “Creature Feature” on URWA’s web site at www.urwa.org). Each spring, under a canopy of sycamore, black cherry and ash, Virginia bluebells carpet the forest floor – it is a sight not to be missed!


Lesser celedine, a highly invasive plant, threatens to crowd
out the native plants along the fllodplain preserve.



Unfortunately, another plant also awaits springtime visitors – the Lesser celandine, a small yellow buttercup-like flower, is an invasive plant that is spreading across the site. Lesser celandine spends much of the year underground as thickened, fingerlike tubers or underground stems. During the winter, leaves begin to emerge and photosynthesize in preparation for flowering. Flowering occurs from late winter through midspring, and afterwards, the above-ground portions die back. The plant spreads primarily through abundant tubers and bulblets, each of which is ready to become a new plant once separated from the parent plant. The tubers of Lesser celandine are prolific and may be unearthed and scattered by the digging activities of some animals, including wellmeaning weed pullers, and transported during flood events. It is difficult, but not impossible, to control invasive plants like Lesser celandine, and URWA is committed to stopping its spread.  We will soon form a "Friends of Burnt Mills Floodplain" group to help serve as stewards of this property, and one of the priorities for the group will be to combat the spread of Lesser celedine and encourage the growth of native Virginia bluebells.  Please contact us if you'd like information about the "Friends" group. 

The preserve has been part of New Jersey’s Green Acres tax exemption program since 1990, and as is the case with all of URWA’s preserves, the Burnt Mills Floodplain is open to our members and the public for passive recreational purposes. The preserve is used by fishermen, photographers, walkers, kayakers and people who simply enjoy observing the natural world.

Troubling News From Trenton

Two troubling discussions are underway in Trenton, one in the Assembly, and the other at the Department of Environmental Protection.  Both, if enacted, are bad news for the Upper Raritan Watershed and the rest of New Jersey.  

In the Assembly, bill A2486 would prohibit the DEP from adopting any regulation that provides for more than minimum federal environmental requirements. This measure was pulled on March 14th but it has strong advocates and we expect it will reappear.  If passed, this bill would affect rules about coastal dumping, air quality, stormwater, flood hazard and water quality planning, wetlands... the list goes on and on.  Federal standards are broadly written, and we need regulations that are tailored to the specific conditions in our state.

In March, the DEP announced it was proposing a rule that would allow the agency to supersede existing laws and regulations and allow it to approve waivers of strict compliance with its rules "to address situations where rules conflict, or a rule is unduly burdensome in specific application, or a net environmental benefit would be realized, or a public emergency exists."  The "waiver rule," as it is known, is an outgrowth of Governor Christie's "Common Sense Principles" for state agencies.  DEP Commissioner Bob Martin says it will maintain environmnetal protection as it cuts through the state's bureaucracy and red tape.  This might sound reasonable enough at first glance, however what this really means is that the DEP may give itself the authority to supersede both laws and regulations, and then decide on its own who needs to comply with its rules, and who doesn’t.   This makes a mockery of the regulatory process, and deprives the public of any meaningful opportunity to comment on individual waiver decisions.  The proposed rule is available online at http://www.nj.gov/dep/rules/notices.html.  A public hearing on the waiver proposal is scheduled for Thursday, April 14th at 3 pm, in the DEP's public hearing room at 401 East State Street in Trenton. Written comments may be submitted through May 6 to: Gary J. Brower, Esq., ATTN: DEP Docket No. 03-11-02, NJDEP, Office of Legal Affairs, 4th Floor, PO Box 402, Trenton, NJ 08625-0402.

Please join URWA and tell our representatives in Trenton and the DEP that the environment and our health will inevitably suffer with regulations and rule changes like the these.