The clean-up tonight at Ross Island Park is canceled due to the weather.

The Wild Rivers National Monument, New Mexico  was created this year and is already under ‘review’ by Secretary Zinke.  So remember, whether it be the confluence of the Rio Grande and the Red River in New Mexico or our Cranberry Brook and

Whale Pond Brook, we love and try to protect our rivers and watersheds. Last month at our local Sierra Club meeting we generated 19 letters to Secretary Zinke urging him to protect our national monuments and parks.  At the local level, please join us in our clean-ups, educational efforts,  trail building and gardening.  Get to know your watershed. Check out the events page on how you can get involved.

We went to the Master Gardener sale with our native plant list  of ideas from various  people. We wanted to provide food and housing for bees, butterflies and beneficial insects.   Here’s what we purchased, using a generous donation:

We’ll be planting them this Tuesday, May 23 at 4 pm.  Please join us in celebrating our new additions.

May 17

Today was a busy day at the Park.

We changed the shape of the western entrance to the trail and filled in the area with wood chips.  Looks like it’s been like that forever.

We are experimenting with using vinegar on some of the weeds. We poured it on and will see what they look like on Wednesday.

Suzan Cole released beautiful butterflies that she and her ESL class hatched. She released them in our butterfly garden. She also released some lady bugs that her class nurtured.

She also picked her 4X4 garden area.

We’ll be there again at 2 – 4:30 on Wednesday, May 17.

Butterfly garden is growing. See the first purple flowers in the middle.

Chuck and I were working at Ross Lake this afternoon and saw an osprey dive into the water and come up with a fish in it’s talons.  It flew away to the north and it’s mate flew along with it.  If you stand quietly in the garden you will see so many wondrous things.

Come join us this Wednesday May  beginning at 1 until ????? as we help to beautify the garden.  Tools and gloves will be available or you can just stop by to chat and enjoy the beauty and serenity of the lake and garden.

Elinore Ave, Long Branch 07740

                  All the friends of the Whale Pond Brook wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.

On November 14, 2016  the Science/Environmental Club at Ocean Township High School created a beautiful and functional rain garden in the cafeteria courtyard. Christina Demuro, advisor to the Club, brainstormed the idea with Patrick Sullivan, science supervisor and members of the WPBWA, including Suzan and Faith.

We all agreed that the location would allow students to see how impervious surfaces (i.e., their school roof) translate into flooding and how their rain garden is a storm water management tool. We hope this will motivate them to become watershed stewards and advocates.

On Nov 12, Burke Construction, Inc. generously volunteered their equipment, workers and excavation expertise to dig the garden exactly as designed by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources  team.

Chris Perez, Rutgers Water Resources Program came to collaborate with Jason Burke’s crew and the results were stupendous, including the mulch and river rock.Michelle Hartman, Rutgers Water Resources Program coordinated the design and implementation of the garden.

Dr.  Stefankiewicz, Ocean Township superintendent, helped us a great deal to envision the process of presenting the seminars and planting the rain garden. Here you see smiling faces on Suzan Cole , WPBWA trustee and Dr.  Stefankiewicz at the rain garden planting.

and pizza was enjoyed by all……

The rain garden planting was the culmination of a series of adult and student seminars.  Kevin Connelly, from the Ocean Institute at Sandy Hook  presented ‘The Watershed Ecosystem’  to 5 sixth grade science classes at the Ocean Township Intermediate School. In a hands on workshop, he taught how a watershed works and then highlighted how non-point source pollution gets into our watershed. He went on to explain the great many benefits of rain gardens in mitigating the effects of pollution and pointed out also the garden’s aesthetic value.  As you can see from the photos below, Mr Connelly knew how to connect effectively with the students.

These seminars and grants were made possible with a generous grant from the Stoney Brook – Millstone Watershed Association – Watershed Institute grant entitled:  Restoring a Watershed: A Community Takes Action.  We also received funding for the rain garden design and plants from Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program.

It has been a pleasure to work with the Ocean Township school system and the Ocean Township Mayor, Chris Siciliano and City Administrator Andrew Brannen.

Thank you all for your support in helping us achieve our goal of educating our neighbors to incorporate responsible environmental practices into everyday actions they take on their properties.

We had two great events on this beautiful day; one began at the Tak Trestle Trail where sorority women from Monmouth University helped us pick up trash along the lake and on the trail as part of their community service Big Event Day.  Thank you all for a great job.  Rich Richardson from the Monmouth County Clean Communities provided the truck, gloves, sticks, garbage bags and guidance.Meanwhile, back at Ross Lake, our extraordinary volunteers and trustees  managed to cover up the stone hut using two giant tarps, ropes and stakes provided by the Urban Coast Institute. Ken Manzi, our stone mason, provided the guidance and the tarps went up perfectly, as you can see in the videos below.

Here you can see one of our boatman ferrying the platform back to a safe docking station.  Certainly a day to remember.

At the same time, other volunteers were working in the Ross Island Park garden.  They did a fantastic job of moving wood chips and beautifying the north west corner of the garden.

We made things better today on the watershed. Thanks.