Former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean recalled Tuesday a Meadowlands region that once was so polluted that “you could see fires burning so extensively that they could never be put out.”
“Who would have thought back then that this would ever be a place where children would come on trips to learn,” said Kean, the keynote speaker at “Super Day at the Meadowlands: Where footballs and egrets fly.”
By the time the Super Bowl date of Feb. 2 draws near, the egrets will have long since “snowbirded” to Florida, with pretty much all but some ducks and geese of their feathered friends having joined in them in warmer climes.
So the event, held at River Barge Park in Carlstadt (former home of the old Barge Club), was designed by the state Meadowlands Commission to help the media show through words and pictures the peak season of the natural side of an area famous for the nearby Meadowlands Sports Complex and – to some – infamous for the dormant Meadowlands Xanadu project on the same site.
As Meadowlands Commission communications officer Jim Wright put it, “We’re in the middle of nowhere, and the middle of everywhere.”
That’s what it felt like throughout this pontoon boat ride along the Hackensack River.
Look, there’s a snowy egret and a great egret over there (guess which one is bigger), points out tour guide Gabrielle Bennett-Meany.
There’s a red-tailed hawk’s nest, a cormorant with only his (her?) head above the water, a bunch of diamondback terrapins bailing out into the river, Route 3, the New Jersey Turnpike, three black skimmers, Meadowlands Hospital, the Harmon Cove condo complex, American Dream Meadowlands, the Rutherford East landfill – it all comes at your senses almost simultaneously, it seems.
And under Route 3, there’s a peregrine falcon at her nest. And on this abandoned train trestle, an osprey looks after her nest while the male makes what presumably are threatening noises (if you’re another bird) as our boat gets too close for his comfort – even though he’s several stories about our river spot.
Kean, who took office as Governor in 1982, reminisced about how only a decade earlier the New York banks had – with some cajoling by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller – collectively refused to finance construction of Giants Stadium to try to keep the team from leaving the Empire State.
The preservation of wetlands that has led to all those children’s tours – 15,000 kids a year, say NJMC officials – was jumpstarted by Kean in the mid-1980s, and that was an initiative that Kean clearly still treasures.
“We should all be proud of ourselves for this,” Kean said.
NJMC executive director Marcia Karrow warns visitors not to eat the fish or crabs, but she also says that the increasing number of birds who make regular stops in the area – 34 of the 77 endangered or threatened species included – mean that “Mother Nature tells us that the water is getting cleaner.”
The tours are a good way to cool off on a hot day – today it was quite comfortable on the boat with all that breeze – now through September. more info at njmeadowlands.gov or 201-460-4640.
