Wallkill River Riparian Reforestation Project in Sparta, NJ

In the early 2000s, the Wallkill River Watershed Management Group partnered with North Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council (NJRC&D) and Sparta Township to plant approximately 800 trees and shrubs along the banks of the Wallkill River within Sparta Township’s Station Park.

Beginning in 2015, the WRWMG expanded upon this earlier work to establish a streamside reforestation project along the Wallkill River, downstream of Station Park. Over the past decade, 1,270 Sparta High School biology and environmental science students have planted 11,742 trees along the Wallkill River. Through these outdoor field lessons, students are gaining a better sense of the human impact on water quality and ways that they can become actively involved to protectwatershed health.

The Wallkill River Reforestation Project has involved the strong partnership support of NJDEP, the NJ Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership, the Arbor Day Foundation, Sparta Township, Sparta Public Schools, the NJ Tree Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Lake Mohawk Preservation Foundation.