Protecting and restoring the Rahway River and its ecosystem

News

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Top Stories

  • NEW Rahway River Elevation Map

    Thanks to Dr. Steven E. Yergeau at the Rutgers University Dept. of Environmental Sciences for creating this informative elevation map of the Rahway River watershed in September, 2012.

  • L'Oreal volunteers clean Robinson's Branch

    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 on June 15.

  • 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 theRahway 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 on this link to view a series of photos of the Rahway River from Chyzowych Field to Memorial Park in Maplewood. These photos were taken by Cami Zelevansky, a member of the Maplewood Rahway River Greenway Task Force. The photographs were intended to show the actual state of the Rahway River and its embankment at different locations along its route through Maplewood (each photo has a tagged location on the map).

  • RRA participates in annual 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!

  • RRA partners with students, scouts, volunteers to clean up Milton Lake

    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.

    To view a slideshow of photos from the event taken by volunteer Clea Carchia, click here.

  • RRA tackles non-native plants in Ashbrook Reservation

    RRA members joined Union County Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski, Union County Parks personnel and Union County Adopt-a-Park volunteers on September 22, 2010 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. You may download a copy by clicking here.

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

    To view a photo slideshow of the event, please click here.

  • Volunteers needed to clean up Carteret garbage patch

    Photos courtesy of Debra Partesi

    Portions of the Rahway River in Carteret found themselves under several feet of plastic bottles following several Spring nor'easters. Volunteers are needed to help clean up this mess. Please contact RRA Trustee Fred Virazzi at 732-541-1914 if you would like to help.

    Please see a news story on our efforts by clicking here.

  • A Greenway grows in New Jersey

    The prestigious Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy held a Planning Studio of graduate students in the fall of 2008 with the charge of developing the Rahway River Greenway for the next generation. Presided by Susan Gruel and Fred Heyer of the renowned Heyer and Gruel Planning Firm, the class collected information from a wide range of sources in county, municipal and state agencies and institutions pertaining to parkland, open space funding, natural resource inventories and greenways that was panned and/or implemented in the 41 square mile Rahway River watershed. After collecting the data, the class collaborated and wrote a draft greenway handbook that will offer a vision of developing the Rahway River Greenway throughout the region. The greenway would expand eastward towards the Rahway River mouth to include the cities of Linden and Carteret. From the traditional Union County Park system’s green necklace, which ends at Milton Lake Park, the Rahway River would connect to the emerging City of Rahway River Greenway and the Linden Hawkrise Nature Sanctuary on the north side of the River. On the south side of the Rahway, a greenway would extend from Middlesex County’s Medwick Park to annex lands that are landlocked and economically underutilized such as junkyard, wetlands and vacant lots east and west to the confluence with the Arthur Kill. Consolidating municipal greenways in Essex County would create a shared vision, design standards and accessibility on an urban landscape. With a preliminary draft in hand, the class held a public meeting in mid-December of 2008 for the benefit of the public. With nearly 40 attendees, the class to presented a PowerPoint demonstration of how to achieve the expansion of the greenway. Five case studies were presented of where the greenway is planned to include the daylighting the river in Woodbridge, reversing a redevelopment area that endangers sensitive wetlands in Carteret, and increased parkland in Cranford.