Essex County Blog

In the winter months it can be hard to think of fun, inexpensive ways to keep your children active and engaged, but it is not winter yet and there is still time to think seriously about how to unplug your children. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average child spends nearly 42 hou...

Fall is here. We know this not just by the chill in the air and the browning of leaves, but because it's official. We are well past the equinox and daylight savings time is soon to be in effect.

Some people dread the impending cool and the hours of leaf raking, but I've got to say I am looki...

Other than a few mums, it's likely that there are few blooms lingering in your yard. Nightly frosts and shorter days are telling your perennials that it's time to hibernate and your annuals that it is time to quit. But when it comes to flowering plants, out of sight should not mean out of mind....

As we start to feel the nip in the morning air, hinting of cooler months, it might be a good time to start to think about how to keep your home warmer. It is wiser to do a few projects now, before it gets too blustery to leave the doors open and you start to become reluctant to go out of doors. ...

Summer spells fun for kids. It's not just being out of school. It's ice cream and sleepovers and swimming pools. Since we spend a lot more time out of doors during the summer, it can also be a great time to learn about the environment and our role as stewards of the earth. Just because a chil...

The combination of a wet and protracted spring followed directly by an excessively hot summer has made people miserable in not a few ways. But the issue that's made me most miserable is mosquitoes. All day long it is too hot to really enjoy my backyard and when the evening falls and the tempera...

Three weeks ago I was taking a jog in Brookdale Park, near the ever populated track, when I heard the aggressive squawking of blue jays. Up above the field house two jays were swooping and wheeling. They flew away and then back again, over and over, the noise never abating. It was clear they w...

This morning I got up and did a few chores and then headed out of the house. As I got in the car I noticed it was 8:30. I zipped up my street and drove two blocks before I got stuck in traffic where I idled for the next 15 minutes. School time! If I had stayed home 15 more minutes I could hav...

By now, even the least conscious consumer knows that opting for plastic at the checkout counter is not the way to go. It contributes to the consumption of literally millions of bags each year. But if you wait to get to the register to think about waste at the grocery store, you are definitely n...

There was a time when only the most wealthy and well educated owned books and their collections were so small that they had no need of shelves. In fact, the first bound books did not have hard spines because they were intended to be stored on their sides, probably on display. But along came Cax...

Each time sunny weather breezes in, I breathe a sigh of relief. I know my energy bills with soon be plummeting. The heater will be turned off and hot water will be used less often, but that’s not the only place I see savings.

Right outside my back door is a very special device. It is the ul...

Every woman loves to receive flowers. They make the home feel fresh and airy. But after a few days, they begin to wilt. This is one reason I have always been a fan of the potted plant. They may wilt temporarily, but with a minimum of care they will also revive and flower again and again. Whe...

Happy Earth Day everybody. And Happy Birthday to the Awarenest, which launched last year on Earth Day.

To make it a meaningful event and not just a marker on your calendar, get active in your community. Parks and clubs across the county are hosting plantings, clean ups, and walking tours in...

A year ago, if you had asked me where to find eco-yarns, I probably would have directed you some alpaca farms in West Jersey. If you had no time to go directly to the source, then I would have recommended the internet. From alpakits

to ya...

Every year the Essex County Park System is growing better and better and has plenty to be proud of. This year is a banner year. It officially marks the 35th year of the Cherry Blossom Festival in Branchbrook Park. Although the event has been going on a long time, recent years have marked an up...

There may be remnants of snow on the ground here in Essex County, but the longer hours of daylight have definately got me in the mood for some spring cleaning. Over the years I have received several e-mail forwards about the cleaning applications of common household products. So this year I have...

All this rain and all these flooded streets are making me think a lot about water pollution again. Each time it rains and I go out for a walk, I see that the storm drains in my area are becoming more and more overrun wi...

The weather today is nippy and we have been popping in and out of cold spells for a few weeks, yet outside the first tips of my crocuses are pushing up through the cold earth. This reminds me that although I don’t much feel like going outside, it is time to start planting seeds. The seeds won’t...

It is such a popular trend these days to market a product as green, that it’s a surprise to come across something that is very eco and doesn’t seem to realize it.
I’ve wanted to own my own power tools for some time now. When I finally went shopping for the basics, my priority was manageabili...

There are certain things we all know we can’t throw out – motor oil, hazardous waste, glass . These things are better off being recycled or more properly processed. But there are also a lot of items that we are allowed to throw out, which could escape the trash and be recycled. Some items whic...

As Valentine’s Day approaches many people are thinking about love. I am thinking about ways to love the planet. And as I do so, a simple maxim comes back to me: sharing is caring. While, when thinking green, we often think about buying products which come from greener sources, are made in gree...

Well, it’s been a winter of snow storms and we are not in the clear yet. As the snow falls and falls and piles up outdoors, we might be tempted to start taking short cuts. We might start looking for fast solutions to get rid of the giant hillocks of white obstructing our view of everything.
...

Does your back yard attract several species of birds or other wildlife? If you tend to get more creatures in your backyard than your neighbors and you like it that way, chances are you are already doing things which foster wildlife in your garden. The basics include providing the same things we...

As the tight economy encourages more and more school districts to cut funding to extracurricular activities, the number of fundraising activities that students and parents are asked to participate in grows exponentially. But fundraising is nothing new. As a high school student engaged in many c...

Opting for Co-Op

For many of us, one landmark of summer is the opening of farmers markets. But if that is true, then one landmark of winter is their closing. Around here, by the beginning of November there was nowhere to go for fresh, locally grown produce, or at least it felt that way. Som...

Lots of people put lights outside their homes during the holiday season. It adds a festive cheer to the neighborhood. Some may say they do it because it is part of their religious and cultural tradition, but I suspect that just as many of us do it because around this time of year things just st...

One scene from Chinua Achebe’s most famous work "Things Fall Apart" always stuck with me. It’s the one where Obi has so poorly managed the money entrusted to him by his village, that he finds it necessary to remove all but one light bulb from each room. This way he will cut down on his electric...

New Years is often about resolutions and planning for the upcoming year, but I am jumping the gun. If you want to have a greener giving season next year, you’ll need to start now. If you want until January it will be too late, and here’s why.

With a little hoarding of holiday items (and I’...

If the holiday shopping propaganda hasn’t already sent you running to the stores then it’s quite likely that as soon as the Thanksgiving exhaustion passes you will be on your way. Marching to malls and shopping centers and yet again trying to find that special something - out there trying to fin...

Of course we all go to our local parks to get out in nature and enjoy the greenery, but do you ever think about how green your park service is? Does your park just look green or is it a model of greener living? For quite some time I suspected that, sadly, the Tags: Parks, Green spaces, Essex County

By now we all know that trashing a coffee cup every day adds up to a lot of unnecessary trash. According to some sources, over one hundred fifty million cups of coffee are sold per day, which in the ...

Look high atop Clara Maass Hospital and you might see a red tailed hawk. Across the road at Branchbrook Park you might spy up to thirty species of sparrow in the underbrush or pecking across the lawns. Essex County’s local parks are rife with migratory and resident bird life. To help us learn...

When the American Automobile Industry crashed along with the economy, one of the much hailed recovery strategies was the now monikered “cash for clunkers” program. People came in to dealerships with working, but fuel inefficient vehicles and received rebates to put toward newer and more ecofrie...

Do you have a sock monster in your home? A creature that lurks in the laundry room and consumes sock after sock until you find yourself with a pile of single socks. A pair of socks was tossed into the laundry basket, but only one returned.
Perhaps you keep that lonely sock for a while. Allo...

Some people look at a neglected area and see filth and stay away, others see it as a convenient place to hide away, but a special few see it as an opportunity to bring wildlife and native species back to the area. This is the goal of the Friends of Clark’s Pond and Third River.

Clarks Pond h...

A smudge here, a sticky spot there, a spill on the floor, and a footprint on the floor. In a day you could easily blow through a roll of paper towels. Perhaps more than one if you have young children in your home. Over the weeks and months that translates into hundreds of rolls and hundreds of...

Have you ever taken a look at the list of chemicals that go into your kitchen cleaner?

The back labels of most house cleaning products are practically their own novels. It's impossible to figure out if what you're spraying is even safe for your pets, your family, or for the planet. Yet most pe...

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” has become the official slogan when it comes to environmental issues on an individual basis.
I actually like to add “Reconsider” to the list, but we’ll get to that later.

For now, let’s focus on “Reduce”. So what does reduce mean for an individual?
I bet your first t...

I am a self-confessed movement geek. Be it the NBA finals, The New York City Ballet or American idol, I can’t stop watching people move. As a runner moves past us in the street, my 18-year - old daughter always looks prepared to hide as I exclaim, “I like the way that person moves”! Yes, I am an ...

Over the past few weeks I have received emails on community events, programs and groups involved with green lifestyle practices. I use green for the lack of a better universally understood word; it’s a powerhouse of meaning and associations. Being a color it has various shades and degrees of inte...

With Memorial Weekend just days away we finally put the coats in the back of the closet, apply sunscreen, tend to our gardens and begin to kick back. This is a great time to support Farmer’s Markets; during the summer season my market radar is fully charged. When traveling I go online and resear...

It’s official The Awarenest went live two weeks a go, another exciting reason to celebrate spring. What a great time to share green living with Essex County. I am a warm weather person and love observing the changes that come with warmer temperatures. We open our windows to brighter, longer days...