Essex County Parks is partnering with the South Mountain
Conservancy and the Rahway River Association to conduct a
Bioblitz of the South Mountain Reservation on June 20-21, 2008.
The South Mountain Reservation is the crown jewel of the Essex
County Park system with 2047 acres and straddling between the
first and second ridge of the Watchungs and the headwater for
the western branch of the Rahway River. Set aside as a nature
preserve by Essex County Park Commission after a series of
acquisitions starting in 1895, the Reservation was designed by
the world renowned Olmsted Firm which also designed Branch Brook
Park in Newark and Central Park in New York City.
The wilderness values was noted in 1896 when a local
observer Joh Duranda described the region as,
“a wilderness, as it probably existed at the time of
Hendrick Hudson, a primitive forest abounding with deer and
other wild animals, and traversed by streams alive with trout.
Game was plentiful – partridges, quail, woodcock, rabbits,
squirrels of every species, raccoons and foxes; while
occasionally a hungry bear that had trespassed on the farmyards
in the vicinity would be tracked to its den and shot.”
Today, the South Mountain Reservation is beloved park
and very popular for residents in the local communities as well
as throughout the region. The bucolic setting and verdant hills
of the South Mountain Reservation masks a wilderness area in
distress, however. Burgeoning herds of white tailed deer have
denuded the understory of native plants. Even worse, invasive
plants have capitalized on the barren forest
floor; supplanting with barberry, japanese knotweed, ailanthus
and multiflora rose among others. The South Mountain Reservation
Bioblitz will offer a one time opportunity to assess the level
of biodiversity found there by counting the number of species of
fauna and flora. The western branch of the Rahway River remains
the last stretch of an urban river that here looks wild and
unchanged with strong currents, natural elbows and dappled
sunlight from the surrounding forest.
On
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 the South Mountain Reservation
Bioblitz Committee will kickoff the planning and implementation
of the Bioblitz with a meeting at the Newark Museum, 49
Washington Street, Newark, NJ. If you want to volunteer your
time in this endeavor and attend the meeting please telephone
Dennis O. Miranda, Executive Director of the Rahway River
Association at (973) 209-6321 or (570) 228-1404 or by
email
