Build Your Own Paddle with LRWP!
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Author: Heather Fenyk
Summer Institute 2023: #hiddenstreams with LRWP & coLAB Arts
With thanks to our wonderful coLAB Arts partners for making magic on the theme of #hiddenstreams and watershed health. For six weeks in Summer 2023 we are working with coLAB Arts to lead area youth in creatively imagining resilient futures for our central NJ landscape.
Weeks 4-6 final presentation will be held Friday August 25, 1pm in New Brunswick’s Joyce Kilmer Park.
Youth visions for New Brunswick’s Lyell’s Brook
Final presentation at Rutgers’ Bloustein School for Planning & Policy
LRWP 2022 Annual Report
The Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership is pleased to present our 2022 Annual Report! With special thanks to Rutgers Raritan Scholar Chris McLaughlin for his assistance in developing this document during Spring semester 2023.
How Safe Are Our Public Access Beach Sites?
Pathogens pollution threatens our health
Swimming or other forms of contact with contaminated water can cause gastrointestinal illness as well as respiratory disease, ear and eye infection, and skin rash. Each year, there are an estimated 57 million cases of illness in the U.S. resulting from swimming in oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds. The vast majority of these illnesses go unreported.
Contaminated water can also trigger health warnings or closures that interfere with our ability to enjoy public bathing beaches. Around the country, for those public bathing beaches that are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Beach Advisory and Closing On-line Notification (BEACON) Program, there were more than 8,700 health warnings or closures in 2022.
Where does pathogen pollution come from?
Significant sources of pathogen pollution that can make swimmers, fishers, boaters, jet-skiers or others sick include stormwater runoff, sewage overflows and in some places, manure from livestock.
Two trends have increased the pollution risk in New Jersey from these sources:
- Development. The addition of impervious surfaces – such as warehouses, big box retail landscapes, parking lots and roads — increases the flow of polluted stormwater into our streams, brooks, and rivers, and coastal waters. Paving over wetlands or forests that had once absorbed rainfall and filtered pollution makes this problem worse. From 1996 to 2016, U.S. coastal areas added 4.2 million acres of development, while losing 640,000 acres of wetland and almost 10 million acres of forest. According to the EPA’s 2022 BEACON report, approximately half of all beach closure and notification events for which a cause could be determined were triggered by runoff.
- Outdated and deteriorating sewage systems. Sewage is a particularly dangerous threat to beach safety because it contains bacteria, viruses and parasites that are prone to cause disease in humans. Unfortunately, sewage infrastructure around the country is inadequate or in poor repair, enabling raw sewage to find its way into our waterways.
Sanitary sewers, the systems used in most of the country, can spill dangerous sewage if sewer lines become blocked or if poorly maintained pipes break or allow infiltration of stormwater through cracks, overwhelming the capacity of the system. Sanitary sewers overflow as many as 75,000 times each year in the U.S.
Combined sewers are outdated systems that combine stormwater and sewage into a single pipe. Still present in more than 700 municipalities across the country and in more than a dozen municipalities in New Jersey, many of these systems are designed to discharge raw sewage directly into nearby waterways during heavy rain events.
Private septic systems, which are used by approximately one in four Americans, are also a major source of sewage pollution that affects our waterways.
What can we do to reduce pathogens pollution of our waterways?
Congress took a big step to reduce the threat of pathogens pollution by passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (otherwise known as the bipartisan infrastructure law) in 2021. The law not only directly provides $11.7 billion for sewage and stormwater projects but also authorizes an additional $14.65 billion for that purpose. (The EPA estimates the actual need for wastewater infrastructure at $271 billion.)
However, there is much more we can do to protect and improve water quality in our waterways. Local, state and federal governments should:
- Prevent runoff pollution by increasing public investment in natural and green infrastructure features such as rain barrels, permeable pavement, urban green space and green roofs; requiring the use of green infrastructure in new development; and protecting natural infrastructure such as riparian areas and wetlands that filter pathogens and other pollutants.
- Prevent sewage pollution by repairing, modernizing and expanding access to sewage systems using funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law and other sources; enforcing pollution limits for sewage treatment plants; and ensuring proper maintenance of residential septic systems.
- Protect wetlands, which reduce beach contamination by absorbing floodwaters and filtering out pollutants. State and local protections for our remaining wetlands are increasingly urgent after the Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA erased Clean Water Act safeguards for many of them.
- Expand and improve beach testing to identify beaches where pollution puts public health at risk and ensure the safety of the public.
July 8, Inaugural Boat Launch!
PLEASE JOIN US!! We are very excited. hope to see you there! (Pre-registration requested)
7.1.2023 Guided Paddle on the Raritan
CANCELLED: July 1 Boat Build and July 2 Fireworks Paddle
The boat shop is closed this weekend to allow our very wonderful boat build team to enjoy a relaxing long weekend.
The Sunday July 2 moonrise/fireworks paddle is cancelled due to anticipated storms. To take advantage of what looks to be a beautiful evening, we will host the paddle instead (sans fireworks) TOMORROW Saturday July 1. Email Anton for more info!
Thank you!
CANCELLED June 7 Boat Build
Due to horrible air conditions (fires in Canada), we are CANCELLING boat building for tonight Wednesday June 7. See you on Saturday.
Mower May I
Article and photos by Joe Mish
A children’s game, now fading from collective memory, where an authority figure stood facing away from the players who would ask permission to take steps forward. The question included the refrain, “Mother, may I”. The reply might be, ‘take one giant step forward’ or ‘take two baby steps back’. This game is said to be inspiration for Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, when he said, ‘One small step for man. One giant step for mankind’.
The months of May and June are the time turtle step forward, one small step for that turtle and a giant step for preserving that species genetic future as they seek a location to lay eggs.
Turtle species have relied on thousands of years of evolution to reach a relatively stable set of behaviors that has seen them through a millennium of environmental change before the appearance of humans.
If change occurs faster than a species can adapt, it ceases to exist. The changes turtles face today were never included in the genetic mapping that made them so successful for thousands of years. Roads and highways, farming and land development have thrown a curve ball to confound the turtles’ evolutionary success via gradual change. Mower blades spinning at 3,500 revolutions per minute sound a death knell to the species in general and elimination of threatened and endangered reptiles from an already shrinking home range.
The presence of a turtle, no matter the species, is a miracle to behold when you consider it is a time traveler, unchanged in appearance from prehistoric times, who stepped through a wormhole in space into the 21st century.
The most common species found crossing roads, as evidenced by unsuccessful attempts, is the ubiquitous snapping turtle. An aquatic species whose genetic GPS directs it to favorable high ground away from the vagaries of floods and droughts to lay its eggs. Perhaps it is the distance traveled to lay eggs that has made the snapper so successful and vulnerable to predators, among them autos.
Another turtle commonly found crossing roads is the eastern box turtle. Box turtles are often concentrated in upland areas. A terrestrial species, it follows the rule of not laying eggs in the area it normally lives. I speculate that predators know where to find their prey and the prey know that the best chance for eggs to reach term would be somewhere away from the general population. So it is that each spring, female turtles will leave home grounds for a suitable nursery in which to incubate their eggs. Eastern box turtles are assigned a ‘concerned’ classification, given a shrinking environment and loss of genetic variation due to populations isolated on islands of habitat. Continuity of habitat is a critical concern and a prime reason to establish and preserve greenways along rivers and streams.
The wood turtle is classified as endangered by state and ‘under review” by federal US Fish and Wildlife Service and is found locally. Aquatic and terrestrial, it spends time in meadows and uplands near rivers and streams making it more vulnerable to mowing not only during spring egg laying but throughout the season from April to October. Wood turtles are long lived and do not reach reproductive age for several years. This makes wood turtle populations very sensitive to loss of any mature adults. Research finds the loss of one or two adults may mark the end of that population over time. From the Wisconsin DNR website “Wood turtle populations are particularly sensitive to removal of reproducing adults, and Compton (1999) determined that removal of only two adults annually from a group of 100 individuals would result in extinction of that population in 76 years, and removal of three adult individuals annually would lead to extinction in 50 years.”
The meadows and uplands along our rivers are prime wood turtle habitat and any mowing must be evaluated for benefit vs harm. Walking trails trod by hikers is preferable to mowing. A mature wood turtle was killed on open space land when a path was mowed for the convenience of some local walkers. This act may have signed a death warrant for the wood turtle population in the area. In this game of survival, the wood turtle may ask ‘Mower, may I ?” when traversing our meadows during egg laying and feeding.
Check these websites, one from Wisconsin and one from New Jersey for more information about Wood Turtles,
and most interesting, the electronic tracking of a female wood turtle at the Great Swamp National Refuge by the US Fish and Wildlife Service!.
https://www.fws.gov/media/wood-turtle-transmitter-colin-osbornusfwsjpg
Author Joe Mish has been running wild in New Jersey since childhood when he found ways to escape his mother’s watchful eyes. He continues to trek the swamps, rivers and thickets seeking to share, with the residents and visitors, all of the state’s natural beauty hidden within full view. To read more of his writing and view more of his gorgeous photographs visit Winter Bear Rising, his wordpress blog. Joe’s series “Nature on the Raritan, Hidden in Plain View” runs monthly as part of the LRWP “Voices of the Watershed” series. Writing and photos used with permission from the author. Contact jjmish57@msn.com.
Where the Raritan Flows No One Knows
The Raritan River is the longest river that flows within NJ, its rich, pre and post-colonial history well documented in archives and books. Surprisingly, its location has confused state and federal authorities who have mislabeled the North and South Branch of the Raritan River as the Raritan River. Signs on interstate 78 in Clinton identify the South Branch as the Raritan River. Further east on I-78 the North Branch is designated at the Raritan River. State road 202 at the border of Branchburg and Bridgewater claim the North Branch of the Raritan River as the Raritan River.
To further muddy the waters of the Raritan, an online search of the River’s length will show anywhere from 69.60 to 115 miles. Imagine, a defined measurement of a major river’s length cannot be established! For the record, based on my two canoe trips down the entire Raritan River, I estimate its length at 33 miles. Given the margin of error, 33 miles referenced against the lowest published estimate of 69.60 miles, creates more of an enigma than a reality.
To bring the Raritan River in focus from an enigma, and accord the respect it deserves, it must be properly defined and labeled. Once the river’s identity is established, a gravitational pull of curiosity arises and compels a quest for more information. A better understanding of the river’s role in its watershed and the community it supports can provide critical perspective needed to make sound land and water management decisions.
The first step in establishing respect, whether a person or a river, is to know their name. It is innate in our nature to respond kindlier when a name is offered upon introduction. Consider a hiker walking across a field, free of obstruction, the path will be a straight line. Point out a single species of grass, and the hiker will alter their path to avoid stepping on the now identifiable plant.
Toward that end, an effort is underway to define the beginning of the Raritan River with a boulder placed at the confluence of its north and south branches. A bronze plaque will be attached and petroglyphs carved into the boulder to memorialize native animals and first people.
This indelible marker will, in a way, serve as a birth certificate in the form of a ‘birthstone’ to legitimize the Raritan River proper.
“Raritan River Birthstone” (DRAFT for plaque) “This stone marks the beginning of the
Raritan River and defines this natural treasure as an entity. The Raritan River’s legacy of beauty, inspiration and use, has nurtured all life since its post glacial formation. Arising from the confluence of its north and south branches, the Raritan River begins its thirty-three mile journey to the sea. The petroglyphs carved into this stone represent wildlife and symbols of the Unami, a branch of the Lenape tribe, which would have been seen in glyphs carved by the earliest people”. “Dedicated by the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership 2023.”
In 2023’s Raritan River, dolphins and seals ply the waters up to New Brunswick, while young Hudson Bay striped bass and alewives make their way up river to Bound Brook. As dams are removed and historic fisheries revitalized, the Raritan River is in a way reborn and deserving of a ‘birthstone’ to finally mark it place of birth.
Author Joe Mish has been running wild in New Jersey since childhood when he found ways to escape his mother’s watchful eyes. He continues to trek the swamps, rivers and thickets seeking to share, with the residents and visitors, all of the state’s natural beauty hidden within full view. To read more of his writing and view more of his gorgeous photographs visit Winter Bear Rising, his wordpress blog. Joe’s series “Nature on the Raritan, Hidden in Plain View” runs monthly as part of the LRWP “Voices of the Watershed” series. Writing and photos used with permission from the author. Contact jjmish57@msn.com.
