Lorenzo Santiago, from Hawaii Landscaping in Long Branch, helped us beautify the Ross Lake garden on Elinore Ave.  He weeded the front and put wood chips down.  Maggie Boyce, Monmouth County Master Gardener met me one day and we strolled around the garden.  She suggested how to make it better. She suggested that some of the grasses were not planted in the optimum spots and they should be cut down. Lorenzo did just that and put them in the street.  The City came and took away the clippings the next day. The garden looks wonderful. Thanks for your help Lorenzo and Maggie.

The Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association is celebrating our fifth anniversary this month.  Above is a slideshow of one of our Greenway projects: Ross Island Park garden, located on Elinore Ave in Long Branch.  Come by and walk along the path, gaze at the stone hut as you look for a gnome to come out.  If you like, you can pull a weed or two, or just enjoy the beauty.

Below you’ll see a picture of another one of our projects on the Greenway: Whale Pond Preserve Student Trail.  We’re so proud of our students at Ocean Township High School who cleared the path and wheeled many, many, many wheelbarrows full of wood chips to create this beautiful piece of the Greenway, located behind the Intermediate school. 

oh please pick me, pick me. A fun, hands-on Whale Pond Brook watershed ecology and non-point source pollution lesson was taught to 4 sixth grade science classes at the Ocean Township Intermediate school. Kevin Connelly, Brookdale Ocean Institute,  has a great way with the students and they all had a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll get some home rain gardens out of the lesson.

This is the first garden on the Whale Pond Brook watershed greenway. It was designed by Estelle Lumer, our Monmouth County Master Gardener extraordinaire and paid for with a generous allowance from the Long Branch Environmental Commission.  This fall will be the third year.Volunteers watered and spread wood chips. People stopped by and chatted. It was fun and the garden is coming along.  Come visit it and walk on the trail to help keep the weeds down….corner of Norwood and Elinore, by Monmouth University entrance.

By the way, there are still PLENTY of wood chips to spread so let us know if you can go and we’ll meet you there.

 Mark Brummer from Brummer’s Tree Service donated a truck full of wood chips to help us keep the weeds down in Ross Island Lake park.    We also walked around and looked at the trees on the island and towards Norwood Ave.

Thank you for helping us Mark.

Tak Lake looks really low. Unconfined wood on the beach from flume demolition.

Debris on the banks of Green’s Pond.

Very pretty view looking east from top of pipe where the flume was located.
New dam under construction.

The stone hut on Ross Island has been cleaned of debris and restoration of the structure itself is underway. A lovely garden with native plants has been established on Elinore Ave. Cranes, swans and other birds of the desirable kind are there to be observed. More people are walking around, enjoying the garden and the view. Some are even pulling up beach chairs and relaxing in this new ambience.

We’ll be there Thursday morning if you want to join us for more gardening. Bring your own tools.
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Jim, Faith and Chucks walked around the entire Weltz Park, guided by Jim. Here are a few pictures and some trail ideas. We’ll see Ken Thoman about them soon. Any comments are appreciated.

click below to go to the link.

Chris Obropta, P.E. Rutgers Water Resources Division presented Impervious Cover Assessments and Impervious Reduction Action Plans to members of the Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association and the Ocean Township Environmental Commission.  12 sites were chosen by Rutgers and the public is invited to suggest other sites where we might better manage stormwater in your neighborhood by using green infrastructure such as rain gardens and pervious surfaces in parking lots. This is a continuance of our regional efforts to stop flooding on the Whale Pond Brook watershed which began in 2014 with a regional watershed meeting including all 5 towns on the watershed.  Send your suggestions to us on our website: https://restorethewatershed.net/ or contact Ray Pogwist, Chair, Ocean Township Environmental Commission.

Left to right:  Jeff King, Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association, Ray Pogwist, Ocean Township Environmental Commission Chair, Laura Bagwell, Whale Pond Brook Watershed Association, Fred Brody, Planning Board Liaison to OT Environmental Commission, Chris Obropta, Rutgers Water Resources Division and Laurel Van Gerichten, OT Environmental Commission.

Ken Manzi, our mason, has completed Phase II of repairing the stone hut roof.  He used the platform to pull his men and equipment back and forth.  See the aluminum canoe? That’s how he got the platform off the island to use.  We have to be creative to get this job done. Thanks Ken.