CONTACT
MAPS
PLEASE DONATE
BECOME A MEMBER
STORMWATER
RESOURCES
RAIN GARDENS/
GREEN
INFRASTRUCTURE
FACEBOOK
WATER QUALITY
MONITORING

SIGN UP
to be added to our mailing list and get the latest from RRWA!

 

Rahway River Watershed Organization

RRWA Auction 2020

Our 2020 auction was a big success! Thanks to Eric Hausker for volunteering his time to help the RRWA out by running the auction this year.

 

Thank you everyone for your generous donations!

Rahway Fried Chicken

Jersey Fried Chicken

Chicken Delight

Il Forna a Legna

Olivia's Catering & Dining

Herbs for Life

Cranford Canoe Club

The Waiting Room

Sansone Toyota

Dreyers Farm

Rocky's Bar and Grill

Witty's Fine Wine & Liquers

Pampered Paws

Kirk Barratt

Ann Turalski

Emile DeVito

Joanna & Eric Miles

Cherry Street Farmer's Market

Scott Avenue Grocery & Deli

Main Street Spirits

And thank you everyone who purchased the donated items!

Gail Driscoll

Betty Ann Kelly

Jeff Robinson

Thomas & Parthena Rosahl

Susan Sallamack

Eric Thies

Marian Glenn

 

 

Click here for our January 2020 Currents Newletter!

 

Happy World Wetlands Day!

Courtesy of Ocean Conservancy

A Few Things About Wetlands that Might Surprise You

Just in time for World Wetlands Day 2018, we’ve got some of the coolest, wildest facts about these incredibly fertile and diversity-rich ecosystems. From the marshes of the Gulf to the Great Dismal Swamp, some of our most fascinating natural wonders may lie in some of the most unexpected places. While celebrating their importance to both human communities and those in nature, test your knowledge: how many of these nuggets of information do you know? More at this link – Wetlands

___________________________________________

 

Summary of RRWA comments on Draft Integrated Feasibility
Report/Environmental Impact Statement for the Rahway River
Flood Risk Management Study, 2017

 

Click to view summary

Click to view comments submitted by the RRWA to the ACE

Click to view the U.U. Army Corps of Engineers Integrated Draft
Feasibility Report (DFR) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

 

___________________________________________

New Rain Gardens!

People in downtown Summit can enjoy the beauty and benefits of three new rain gardens installed by Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program, through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation - Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Competitive Grants Program.

Click to see the whole process

 

 

 

 

___________________________________________

 

A New Map Design!

A new map of the Rahway River Watershed has been created depicting the 4 branches of the Rahway River, the West, East, South and Robinsons's branches, the Nomahegan Brook, a tributary, plus town, county and state borders.

You are free to use and share this map, however please credit the RRWA when doing so.

Click to view and download map

 

 


 

___________________________________________

Fulfilling The Olmsted Vision: Connecting the South Mountain Reservation to the East Coast Greenway

The East Coast Greenway is a city-to-city route that runs from Key West, Florida to the Canadian border in Calais, Maine. The route traverses the Rahway River watershed in Middlesex and Union counties, on the way from New Brunswick to Elizabeth.

The RRWA Olmsted Parks committee is exploring routes to connect the East Coast Greenway with other trail networks in the watershed, and recently presented a slide show at the NJ Land Conservation Conference: The Future of Land Conservation, The Next 20 Years. The group proposed several possible routes for suburban greenways along the Rahway River to connect trails in Lenape Park and Black Brook Park with the trail network in South Mountain Reservation. Crossing routes 22 and 78 present majors challenges, but pedestrian overpasses in other greenways along these routes have successfully met this challenge.

The photo essay for the presentation can be found at the link below. See how many of these places along the Rahway River you can recognize! Contact RRWA President Marian Glenn at Marian.Glenn@shu.edu for further information.

Click to view presentaiton

___________________________________________

Fanwood Rain Garden Ribbon Cutting

Fanwood's new rain garden (rear) at Borough Hall was opened Tuesday, May 19, in a short ceremony as Mayor Colleen Mahr and 10-year-old Taylor Klein cut a yellow ribbon with clippers to make it official.

Klein, a student at Park Middle School and winner of the recent Fanwood Earth Day poster contest, also unveiled the rain barrel she decorated that will be installed at Borough Hall.

The rain garden is along the driveway at Borough Hall and catches rain runoff from the drive and parking areas near the front entrance. It was designed and planted by Margaret Chowdhury and Phyllis Sandrock of the Fanwood Environmental Commission. Funding for the garden was provided by the Rahway River Watershed Association using a grant from the Watershed Institute.

In the photo, Mahr and Klein cut the ribbon to open the rain garden. Dave Schwartzberg, left, Sandy Redder, Sandrock and Chowdhury, right, of the Environmental Commission are joined by Bob Weldon of Weldon Materials, which contributed supplies for the construction of the garden.

___________________________________________

Rain Garden Built at Fanwood Borough Hall


FANWOOD, NJ -- The Fanwood Environmental Commission (FEC) has constructed a rain garden to help prevent pollutants from entering the Robinson's Branch of the Rahway River.
Click here to read the whole story

___________________________________________

Rahway River Basin Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is partnering with the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection to carry out a Feasibility Study to identify various flood risk management alternatives for communities along the Rahway River Basin, with a specific emphasis on the cities of Rahway and Cranford.
Click here for more information on the
Army Corps of Engineers Website.

___________________________________________

I-TEAM: New Jersey Waste Disposal Project Causes Concern in NY

A waste disposal project across the harbor from Staten Island that envisions using soil from other industrial sites to top off 2 million tons of cyanide sludge is causing concern among environmentalists and some New York lawmakers.

___________________________________________

Volunteers help with cleanup

Thank you to the many volunteers from L'Oreal USA who helped remove trash from the Clark Reservoir and Milton Lake Park in Clark & Rahway

___________________________________________

Rahway River Corridor Study

RRA participates on Rahway River Corridor Study

The Rahway River Association has been invited to provide input on the Rahway River Corridor Study that was recently ordered by the Maplewood Township Committee. The study examines the feasibility of creating a "green" corridor alongside the east branch of the Rahway River which flows through Maplewood. The study was prepared by Edgewater Design LLC and contains comprehensive historical and geological data. It take a while to download but is well worth the wait! Click to download study

___________________________________________

South Orange River Day Festival

On May 1, the RRA participated in the annual South Orange River Day Festival by leading a walk along a recently-restored section of the East Branch of the river in South Orange. In this photo, Dan Lipow explains how to make a "South Orange Salad" out of edible plants growing along the river. You'll never look at Japanese knotweed the same way again!

___________________________________________

Milton Lake Cleanup!

On October 2, 2010, approximately 30 volunteers joined RRA members to pick up over 20 bags of litter from Milton Lake Park in Rahway. The cleanup was sponsored by the RRA and the Rahway High School Social Action Club. Refreshments were provided by Saliga-Markey Real Estate and United Water Rahway. Equipment was provided by the City of Rahway Clean Communities Grant.

Milton Lake Park is part of the Union County park system and is bisected by the Robinson's Branch of the Rahway River. The volunteers were joined by Union County Freeholder Rick Proctor and Rahway Councilmember Samson Steinman, as well as a television crew from News 12 NJ.

___________________________________________

Invasive Plants

 

RRA members joined Union County Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski, Union County Parks personnel and Union County Adopt-a-Park volunteers to begin an ambitious plan to remove invasive plants from the Red Hill section of Ash Brook Reservation in Scotch Plains. Red Hill is unique to Ash Brook and certainly to Union County as it contains a variety of native plants and animals usually found in the New Jersey Pinelands many miles to the south. In 2009 the RRA commissioned an extensive report on Red Hill that outlined plans for combating invasive plants. Click to view report.

We plan our continued removal of non-native plants in 2010 and beyond, so please contact us if you would like to get involved.