Location

E Sheffield Ave
Englewood, NJ

Location

600 Ramapo Valley Rd
Mahwah, NJ 07430

Site also offers picnic tables and free public programs with guest speakers, hike leaders and films (free on weekends and Tuesday).

History of the Environmental Center

The site of the present day Environmental Center was formerly a Pig Farm owned by the Henkle Family. In 1962 the farm was purchased by Bergen County with the help of Green Acres, making the Center one of the first Green Acres purchases in the State. Plans were made, and in 1966 the 2.4 acre wild-life pond was excavated, then the museum building was constructed. Programs began with nature classes for school groups. Since that time several live animal shelters have been constructed., which have been home to various non-releasable wildlife over the years. Later an addition was put on to the center which included the foyer, office area, and 600 gallon fish tanks. The Center now welcomes thousands of visitors to the park every year.

History of the Pond

The James A. Mcfaul Environmental Center’s Pond is man made. Created in 1966, the pond site was a natural run-off area. Some digging and stream damming was necessary for pond depth. Now, our 2.5 acre pond is home to an abundance of plant and animal life. Some of which live here year round, and others for use as a rest stop during migration.

Location

Crescent Ave & Brookside Ave
Wyckoff, NJ 07481

Pictures

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

General information

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

Website: www.flatrockbrook.org

Location

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.