Want to catch up on all the news from the Great Swamp Watershed Association? Join us for wine and cheese at our annual membership meeting, immediately prior to our Evening Briefing on Environmentally Sound Cleaning Products at the Kemmerer Library, 19 Blue Mill Rd., Harding, NJ. No registration required.
White vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice: these common household items are more powerful than you think! More than cooking ingredients, they are the basis of many environmentally safe cleaning products! Learn more about what ingredients in daily personal products and household cleaning products you should avoid and how not all environmental labeled products are what they claim to be. There are many ingredients in common cleaners that have detrimental environmental impacts on you, the local environment and our regional water supply. You will leave this briefing prepared to make better decisions about what you bring into your home and what you wash down your drain. Most importantly, leave with some DIY cleaning product recipes and some homemade cleaning products to start you off! Registration required. Register now or by calling (973) 538-3500.
Got salt? There's more than one way to break the ice! Before you head out to purchase your snow clearing supplies, come learn about the impacts of traditional rock salt to the environment and its organisms, and some environmentally safe alternatives. Steven Vernik, Vice President of Gaia Enterprises and Director of Operations, Sales, and Marketing, will provide relevant information for homeowners, businesses, and municipal leaders alike. All who attend will leave with some product samples, and a grab-bag of winter necessities generously provided by Long Hill Township. Registration required.
Can you tell a spring peepers from a wood frogs? What does a carpenter frog sound like and do they live in your neighborhood? Join GSWA and FrogWatch partners Eric Jackson and Tedor Whitman from Cora Hartshorn Arboretum for this hands-on training session to learn your frogs and even become an official FrogWatch volunteer! FrogWatch is a citizen science program using volunteer observations to establish long-term and large-scale data on amphibian populations. Learn how to recognize different species of frogs and toads from their appearance and calls, and how to record your observations into the database. We will work with you to find monitoring locations and you will be frog counting in no time!
Together, we all just faced some of the most severe weather we've seen in New Jersey since Hurricane Sandy, causing wide-spread power outages, thousands of downed trees, and major structural damage. In less than four weeks, we went from a stone-cold winter, to a beautiful, 80-degree day, to relentless winds, to 26-plus inches of snow in some parts of the state. In the past decade, New Jersey has experienced its wettest and warmest years in over a century of observations. Extreme events of late suggest that something is happening to our climate regime. We've asked Dr. David Robinson, a professor in the Department of Geography & a NJ State Climatologist at Rutgers University, to help us explore the physical dimensions of the issue, both short and long term. Dr. Robinson will also help us learn how we can get more involved in the monitoring of weather and climate conditions in our local regions.
The #1 question we always hear is, "so how's the water?" This is your opportunity to come out and learn about the water quality along your stretch of the Passaic River. Sandra LaVigne, Director of Water Quality Programs at GSWA, will present the 2017 Water Quality Report Card. She will give a brief talk on the health of our streams both throughout the Great Swamp watershed and the region of the Passaic River between Millington Gorge and Stanley Ave. Park in Chatham. You’ll also get an update on our downstream Passaic River expansion sampling, and our plans to develop and rollout the new microplastics protocol. Registration is required. Want a sneak-peak at the report card? Click here
Come join us for an update from the EPA on the status of the Rolling Knolls Landfill in Green Village, Chatham Township. We are looking for a few good men and women to participate in a Community Advisory Group (CAG). As discussed in the cover article, the CAG will provide a public forum for the community to discuss their concerns and offer input to the EPA on the cleanup as it moves forward. Even if you are not interested in being a member of the CAG, please join us to learn more about the process. Registration is required.
Can I recycle the cap on a plastic water bottle? Are black plastic food trays recyclable? Do I still need to tie up my newspapers? We all know that recycling means separating out paper, plastic, glass and metal from our trash. But understanding the fundamentals of recycling is what helps us make informed decisions on what and how we sort. Learn how “aspirational recycling” can actually be detrimental to the recycling process. Liz Sweedy of Morris County MUA, our recycling expert, will sort the myths from the facts about the ins and outs of recycling and pass along this knowledge to you, so you can share with others. Light snacks will be served. Registration required.
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