Focus on the Bronx River

By Amie Worley

The Bronx River Parkway Reservation was created in the early 1900’s in response to growing urbanization, which caused runoff issues along the Bronx River. The river had become an open sewer for the refuse of homes, factories and farms along its banks. The success of the parkway, therefore, was two pronged. First the parkway improved Bronx River water quality by allowing the purchase, for protection, of parkland on the banks of the river. Second the parkway itself combined a passive form of recreation with a public appreciation for the river valley. Thus a river was saved.

Working Together

Today the Bronx River is the only free flowing river in any of New York City’s five boroughs and still a beautiful parcel of Westchester County parkland. Westchester County’s Bronx River initiative is an effort to work with public interest groups such as the Bronx River Conservancy, Federated Conservationists of Westchester, and HPAC, as well as a connection to the Bronx through the Bronx River Alliance. These various groups are united with the parks department in their investment in the quality of life in and along the Bronx River and the protection of this site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Water Quality Testing

The parks department has designated a Bronx River Curator to the site in an effort to work with the public and bring people down to the river. This fall curator Amie Worley has been out in the field with WESC students who were part of a series of leafpack studies on the Bronx River. Now, a leafpack study includes a habitat assessment, the laying of a mesh bag of leaves in a stream riffle in order to study the insects that colonize the leaves, and, in our case, a site clean-up. There have been a series of five leafpack studies along the river as well as multiple clean-ups with the help of the student of WESC, from tributary streams in Mt. Pleasant and Butler Woods, to river sites in Mt. Vernon. Monitoring the life in the river combined with the clean up of floating debris along the river are two important ways to keep tabs on the health of our Bronx River, so thanks to the WESC students for all their help!

Volunteers Needed

The hope is that communities throughout Westchester will come to the river for recreation and relaxation. Also up and coming on the Bronx River will be volunteer water monitoring programs run through Westchester County’s Planning Department. This will allow citizens and students to take a hands-on approach to cleaning up the river. Furthermore, the parks department will be coordinating a vine work day in the Harney Road and in the Bronxville areas of the river this winter. So far we have the support of the Bronx River Conservancy and FCWC for this work and hope to coordinate volunteer groups of all ages out on the banks removing invasive vines. We are excited to be in a county with such a commitment to the environment. Hope to see you all out there on the river in whichever capacity you enjoy most! Call 723-4058 or 864-7000.

Amie Worley is a curator with the Westchester County Parks Department

The Bronx River Conservancy

By Lowell Tooley

The Bronx River Conservancy, was founded in 1997 as a private nonprofit organization to support the County of Westchester in its stewardship of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation. The Conservancy’s job is a big one. The Bronx River flows about 24 miles from Kensico to the East River, eventually entering Long Island Sound between Hunts Point and Classon’s Point in the Bronx. The Reservation in Westchester County is ten miles long from the Kensico Dam to a point south of Bronxville, consisting of over 800 acres and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The section of the River between the Bronx County line and Fenimore Road in Scarsdale is currently classified by the NY State DEC as a Class C surface water, “suitable for fishing and fish propagation” as well as for primary and secondary recreational contact. Between Fenimore Road and the Kensico Dam it is classified as suitable for the propagation of trout, and in fact the Parks Dept does stock several ponds on the River in this area. In the fall of 1998 the NY DEC conducted a biological Stream Assessment which revealed a substantial drop in macro invertebrate and fish species between Valhalla and White Plains, with better conditions near Tuckhoe and the Bronx, concluding that the River is a moderately to severely impacted system depending on the sampling location.

The Conservancy Board is advocating the formation of a Westchester Advisory Committee 7 ( a WAC 7) to cover the entire watershed of the Bronx River in Westchester similar to the six WACs already in existence along the Sound. The Conservancy also supports the inspection work of Attorney General Spitzer, to locate pollution inflow into the Bronx River in Westchester, such as the action recently initiated in Yonkers.

The Bronx River can be a river of clean water in Westchester and part of a linear park providing opportunities for recreation, the enjoyment of nature and history in a developed suburban area where the County and volunteer citizens work together to care for this very valuable resource. Anyone wanting to help with this effort should contact the Conservancy at 725-3829.

Lowell Tooley is the President of the Bronx River Parkway Reservation Conservancy

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