the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, at Wednesday’s Village council meeting resident Ellie Gruber recited instances of what she referred to as repeated resident dumping at Dunham Trail in Ridgewood.
According to the Ridgewood Wildscape Association Dunham Trail, a 1/4 mile, peaceful walking trail alongside the Ho Ho Kus Brook, stretches between Grove Street and Spring Avenue. The trail features beautiful views of the brook, with its two small dams and sandstone wall, butterflies and many birds, especially kingfishers and woodpeckers, plus several very old sycamore trees. The wooded areas are thick with trees and bushes.
Ms. Gruber went on to describe the poor condition of the trail due to erosion , but focused primarily on what appeared to be neighbors dumping yard waste and landscaping debris on the trail.
These people should be fined.
Grass clippings are biodegradable.
Thanks for posting, James.
Grass clippings should be left on your own lawns, and yes they are biodegradable but are not the culprits of dumping at Dunham.
These are branches from homeowner yards, fence posts, metal, evergreen branches, rocks and cement. They are put way up at the top of the trail, or alongside the trail, thinking nobody will notice. There are fines, but first you have to find the person doing the dumping.
And its not only Dunham, we have reports from North Road Park as well as other areas. But Dunham is the most endangered right now.
Keep Up the good work Ellie , we will post any pics if you forward them
Put a camera on the entrance and exit of every trail in town…we’ll call it Ellie-Cam !
Pave it and make new parking spaces.
Yes, placing at least a temporary camera in places where problems have been identified would make a lot of sense and cost very little. We are so lucky to have curbside trash pickup FREE roughly twice a month. There is no excuse for this laziness and yes, commission of a crime. The trouble is that once trash begins to accumulate, it’s seen as a free zone. Not true. We should all care about our parks.
Bravo to Ellie Gruber for making this public. The HHK brook bordered our former property and while we did not have people dumping directly there, we always had garbage and debris floating down the brook from storm drains. I would collect plastic bottles, styrofoam cups and plastic lids, straws, tennis balls, plastic bags and a variety of other garbage on a daily basis. Just too much litter all over and little or no respect for our few remaining wild spaces. Members of the throw away, convenience society are also very lazy and selfish.
OK, So this a law that we need to follow?
.
I just need to know which laws I have to follow and which ones I can ignore (like the Ridgewood ban on short term rentals – AirBnb)