bergenfun.com » Gardens & Nature Centers

Lost Brook Preserve & Tenafly Nature Center

maurycy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:38:30 +0000

Lost Brook Preserve together with Tenafly Nature Center occupy approximately 380 wooded acres. You will find approximately seven miles of trails here. Oak forest surrounds the trails, Prister’s Pond and buttonbush swamp. While you are visiting stop by the Nature Center’s Interpretive building to get a map of the trails and information about special programs.

Harring Rock

Glacial erratic are rocks that have been transported by glaciers and dropped at a distance (often many miles) from their original locations. Erratic are a different rock type than the local bedrock because it was common for glaciers to flow across different types of bedrock, plucking up chunks of rock as they moved.

In the late 1800’s and early 1990’s, Dr. John J. Haring made sick calls throughout the area on horseback, bartering farm goods for medical care.

He often walked through the woods and along the brooks in the area which would later become, in part, the Lost Brook Preserve. He would meditate near a 15 ton boulder. At that time, the glacial erratic was 10 feet tall by 10 feet around. Delicately poised upon trap-rock, the sandstone boulder was deposited by melting glacial ice approximately 12,000 to 15,000 years ago onto property which would later be owned by the local Jewish Community Center (JCC).

In the late 1960’s, the JCC was developing their property, with the plan to blast apart the erratic. Saved by local activists and financed by a modern medical doctor, Dr. Alfred Traynor, the boulder, named the Haring Rock, was hoisted onto a flatbed and moved to the eastern section of the JCC property, out of harms way, on property which would still later become the Lost Brook Preserve. However, man could not duplicate nature’s positioning of the erratic on its narrower bottom and had to turn the boulder upside down and cement it into place, burying some of the erratic below ground level.

General Information

Trails open daily from dawn to dusk. Parking lot open Tuesday–Sunday 9am–5pm. Parking is permitted on Hudson Avenue. Outdoor restroom and pavilion is handicap accessible but interpretive building and indoor restroom are not.

Contact Information

313 Hudson Avenue
Tenafly, NJ 07670
Phone: (201) 568-6093
Website: www.tenaflynaturecenter.org

Location

Pictures

Closter Nature Center

maurycy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:37:01 +0000

Closter Nature center was created in 1962 by mayor and council. Originally 80 acres area was over the years expanded to current 136 acres and includes ponds, brooks, meadows, and forests. In 1967 building was erected for meetings and classes. Nature center is providing informative lectures, nature walks for the genera public, as well as schools, a five week summer program for young people.

General Information

Website: www.closternaturecenter.com

Location

230 Ruckman Rd
Closter, NJ 07624

Demarest Nature Center

maurycy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:36:01 +0000

Created in 1972 as non-for-profit corporation, nature center includes 55 acres of land.

General information

Website: www.demarestnaturecenter.org

Trail map: download here

Location

90 Park St
Demarest, NJ 07627

Flat Rock Brook Nature Center – Englewood

maurycy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:35:14 +0000

Flat Rock Brook Nature Center was established in 1973. It is a 150-acre preserve and education center. Situated on western slope of the Palisades in Englewood, NJ is one of the last remnants of the Palisades Forest. Center provides educational programs for people of all ages, has network of trails leading to streams, wetlands, ponds, wildflower meadows, quarry cliffs and woodland.

General information

Trails and picnic areas are open free to the public every day from dawn to dusk.

Website: www.flatrockbrook.org

Location

Greenbrook Sanctuary

maurycy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:31:27 +0000

Greenbrook Sanctuary is located on top of New Jersey’s Palisades and covers 165 acres of woodland. Mainly oak forest with areas of maple, beech, dogwood and tulip trees. A five-acre pond and 250-foot Greenbrook Falls add to the beauty of this sanctuary.

General Information

Open to members only from dawn to dusk.

Website: www.njpalisades.org/greenbrook.htm

Location

For driving directions, please visit Greenbrook Sanctuary web site.

Teaneck Creek Conservancy

maurycy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:30:28 +0000

Teaneck Creek Conservancy is part of Bergen County’s Overpeck County Park. Park covers 46 acres and has trails for walking and jogging, and nature observation. Environmental and cultural programs are also offered. They include exhibitions, nature and history walks, art displays, geocaching, and special school programs.

General Information

Trails are open to the public from dawn to dusk.

Website: www.teaneckcreek.org

Maps can be downloaded here

Location

20 Puffin Way
Teaneck, NJ 07666