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Watershed strategy targets the river's tributaries (cont.)
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JEF DAUBER/Courier-Post |
But even such controls will only go so far, Hirst said. The Iron Works Park forest, planted in March as a joint effort between the state, Rutgers University and local environmental groups, is designed to demonstrate that local cooperation can work to enhance water quality.
"It's starting to come together, but the idea is still in its infancy," said Harold Nebling, a DEP environmental specialist. "We've made some steps, but we have a long way to go."
Improved water quality will foster better conditions for shad and other fish that have been coming back to the creeks as a result of the clean-
up of the Delaware, he said.
Moorestown resident Barbara Rich has been working to protect the Rancocas Creek for years as a member of the Rancocas Conservancy. The environmental group's vice president is frequently amazed how little people know about the impact of their lifestyles on the creek.
"You hear horror stories about people putting changed oil down the storm drain," she said. "Something like that is devastating to the creek."
But she says attitudes are slowly shifting. For example, motorists now stop to get information when her group conducts creek clean-ups.
And more than half the residents of a neighborhood around Mount Holly's Woolman Lake Park responded to an informal survey about lawn care habits, conducted in conjunction with a project to restore natural vegetation along parts of the lake.
Rich hopes eventually people in the creek's watershed will reduce their use of lawn care products. And she hopes those who live right along the creek will plant their own riparian buffers instead of maintaining well-groomed lawns that erode easily and let pollution run unimpeded into the creek.
"We have to educate people to restore nature," she said. "As much as we would like it to happen tomorrow, we have to be realistic and recognize it takes time. It's a big watershed."
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