Monthly Archives: October 2020

Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Surviving Sandy 8 Years Later

 It was 8 years year ago that my wife and I escaped our Moonachie home chest high in water carrying our two beagles on our shoulders. The look of shock on the faces of our scared and frightened  neighbors that escaped the most horrific natural disaster of my lifetime along with us will never be forgotten and forever etched in my memory. It was an event that nightmares are made of.

As we all stayed close waiting for help to arrive, many of us not knowing each other’s name and at most maybe recalling nodding good morning to one another as we rushed off to work in previous  mornings, would now be forever connected by mother nature’s infinite fury . There was no need to say anything. It was apparent by everyone’s sad, almost expressionless faces that we may never have anything or any place to return to.

 As it turned out many of my neighbors have never come back home, the damage to their humble homes too devastating  and the destruction much too overwhelming for them to return. I still wonder where some of them went and if they are they okay, something I may never know.

Hurricane Sandy was our wake-up call, a slap in the head by Mother Nature and her stern reminder about who is really in charge. No Doppler radar , iPhone, laptop,video game, Apps or text message could protect us on that horrific night and today no Madison Avenue or political pundits nifty catch phrases will bring us back.

My neighbors need still feel the aftermath and hopefully this 8 year anniversary will bring them the peace they deserve. We will never really ever be stronger than any hurricane or super storm. We are human, but time will tell if we have become smarter or more resilient than we were before Sandy slapped us around and had us down for the count on this day in October.

We need to finally make the commitment to face climate change, build smarter and except the fact that nature has put us on notice, live with her in harmony or face the awful consequences.

Reminder: BCAS Halloween Family Nature Walk at DeKorte Park – Oct. 31 at 10 a.m.!

Start off Halloween by getting out in nature with the Bergen County Audubon Society! The BCAS will lead a special Halloween Family Nature Walk at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to noon.

As an extra bonus, if come in your halloween costume you will get a FREE BCAS TOTE BAG for your Trick or Treating ! Contact: Don Torino at greatauk4@gmail.com or 201-230-4983.

Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Skeetkill Marsh, A Refuge Among Steel and Concrete

Photo by Don Torino Above. All other photos by Jim Macaluso

Amid the concrete and iron, along the steel rails and paved roads, within the highways, parked cars, power lines, jet noise and people rushing off to work lies an overlooked natural Eden where Green-winged Teal gather, Yellowlegs organize and Black Skimmers fly in formation.

Black Skimmers

Most times overlooked, unheeded and ignored by our human fragilities, and yet continuing on regardless of who might be watching, or for that matter if anyone cares to see, an oasis, an island of an Ark, a refuge, a sanctuary and an asylum of wildlife called Skeetkill Marsh

Skeetkill Marsh is a 16.3-acre sigh of relief in the town of Ridgefield, a place where hardworking people battle to make a living, put food and the table and keep a roof over their head much as the wildlife fights to survive at Skeetkill Marsh.

White-crowned Sparrow

From Soras to Sparrows, Sandpipers to Skimmers, and Kestrels to Cattails,  Skeetkill Marsh survives as the example in suburbia as a case study of what can be accomplished, saved and protected in an otherwise hostile setting. In a location that perhaps should not have been there and yet due to the forethought of good people who cared Skeetkill Marsh simply and purely does.

Wilson’s Snipe

Skeetkill Marsh should stand as a testament to what can be done when people care, a human testimony that shows how important even preserved small places can be to wildlife. A living, thriving triumph that holds on to the birds, plants and wildlife, that is the last place for them to exist and one of the final places close to home where we can still find a much needed connection to a world that is quickly slipping by us.

 The future of wildlife, many now threatened and endangered, depend on all of us protecting places like Skeetkill Marsh. Although strong and resilient they now depend on human intervention and cannot thrive on their own.

Pollution, invasive plants and human encroachment all need to be watched and scrutinized through the eyes of future generations that will need to stay ever vigilant to be sure places like Skeetkill Marsh still exist not only for the wildlife  but also for human kind. When all is said and done we will not thrive or survive without nature and places like Skeetkill Marsh

See you in the Meadowlands

BCAS Halloween Family Nature Walk at DeKorte Park – Oct. 31 at 10 a.m.!

Start off Halloween by getting out in nature with the Bergen County Audubon Society! The BCAS will lead a special Halloween Family Nature Walk at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to noon.

As an extra bonus, if come in your halloween costume you will get a FREE BCAS TOTE BAG for your Trick or Treating ! Contact: Don Torino at greatauk4@gmail.com or 201-230-4983.

Nominations Open for BCAS Jill Homcy Memorial Award

Bald Eagle Photo By Jill Homcy

The Bergen County Audubon Society is proud to announce the establishment of the Jill Homcy Memorial Award. The award will honor Jill’s memory by recognizing a photographer or videographer whose skill and passion behind the lens has raised awareness to preserve and protect wildlife and natural habitat in our region. If you would like to nominate or make us aware of a deserving person please let us know. Email Don Torino at greatauk4@gmail.com

Reminder: BCAS Walk at Losen Slote Creek Park Next Tuesday (Oct. 20)

Join the Bergen County Audubon Society next Tuesday (Oct. 20) as they lead a walk through Losen Slote Creek Park in Little Ferry, one of the last lowland forests in the Meadowlands. The walk goes from 9 to 11 a.m.

Check out BCAS President Don Torino’s recent column on the wonders of Losen Slote here

Contact: Don Torino at greatauk4@gmail.com or 201-230-4983.

Thank You Numerator for MCT Skeetkill Creek Marsh Cleanup!

Left to right, background: Don Smith, Patrick Lynch, Marc Jaffe. Foreground: Dana Blumenfeld.

Many thanks to the employees from the Numerator company who last Friday conducted a cleanup of the Meadowlands Conservation Trust’s Skeetkill Creek Marsh property in Ridgefield. The employees filled several garbage bags with litter and debris and cut away brush and branches blocking the park trail. The volunteer cleanup was supervised by Don Smith.