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Coles Brook: Ready for the
Storm By Kathy Urffer On Oct. 4, 2003, volunteers and staff from Hackensack Riverkeeper and TRC Omni Environmental came together to install the last collection of plants for our environmental restoration project in Staib Park, Hackensack. We planted the newly constructed storm-water swale, which was expertly installed by Landscapeworks, a local landscape contractor. The storm-water swale was designed to parallel the brook and will catch the storm water run-off from the park and parking lot, reducing the amount of fecal coliform, pesticides, fertilizers, oil and other pollutants from entering the Brook. Our volunteers gave their all in unloading and installing over 1000 plants including swamp milkweed, New England aster, fringed sedge, riverbank wild rye, boneset, cardinal flower, blue lobelia, New York ironweed, fox sedge, common rush, sensitive fern, cinnamon fern, royal fern, and swamp azalea. A generous lunch was donated by ShopRite of Hackensack. Thank you! At the end of January a water quality assessment of the Brook was performed. We found that the amount of fecal coliform bacteria was still very high and the salinity (salt) in the Brook was a little high for what should be a freshwater stream. No doubt this salt entered the brook as run-off from surrounding roads during winter road salting. This spring we will continue to monitor the water quality and check on the viability of plants. Parking bollards will also be installed to protect the plantings. The Coles Brook restoration project is a cooperative venture between Hackensack Riverkeeper, the City of Hackensack and TRC Omni Environmental Services. Funding for the project is provided through a NJDEP grant under Section 319(h) of the federal Clean Water Act to mitigate non-point source pollution.
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