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Branch
Brook Park Alliance Mission
BBPA
is committed to raising awareness of the tranquility that
Branch Brook Park offers to the local community as a sacred,
democratic space where people from diverse backgrounds can
meet on common ground. BBPA and the Essex County Department
of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs are partners
in improving this oldest of Essex County's parks, the crown
jewel”of the first County parks system in the nation
and a tourist destination for visitors from around world.
BBPA is self-supporting and must raise significant monies
each year to finance its operations, create landscape improvement
plans, and implement capital projects and programs.
 Local
residents and other people of goodwill formed the Branch
Brook Park Alliance in the fall of 1999 to help stem the
tide of deterioration occurring throughout the Park. Joining
with the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation &
Cultural Affairs, and with the office of the Essex County
Executive, the Alliance is providing design expertise and
funding to help Essex County plan and prioritize improvement
projects, and to implement these projects according to the
Park's historic character.
To
date, the Alliance's has contributed the commissioning of
a Cultural Landscape Report, Treatment and Management
Plan (CLR) for the entire Park. The CLR is a
comprehensive study of the Park that includes a full history
of its development, an outline of existing conditions, and
an analysis of its features, systems, and environmental
issues, culminating with recommendations for how to restore,
or treat, areas and problems. Further, the plan also provides
suggestions for how to maintain these restored areas, including
manpower needed, fertilizing, pruning and other maintenance
schedules. The CLR will provide a detailed roadmap
for how the restoration of the Park should proceed, a project
estimated at $25 million by the Essex County Recreation
and Open Space Master Plan (2003).
The
CLR is now 90 percent complete. The Cultural Landscape
Report is being prepared by the landscape architect firm
of Rhodeside & Harwell Incorporated of Alexandria, Virginia,
experts in Olmsted park restoration with a specialty in
adaptive reuse to serve today's clientele. Essex County
and Branch Brook Park Alliance have already begun implementing
the CLR. Currently under construction is the replanting
of the Branch Brook Lake Edge in the Southern Division,
a demonstration project of both historical and ecological
importance. The goal of the restoration project is to reestablish
a naturalistic lake shore in the Olmsted style. The replanting
project follows the original Olmsted design with plant substitutions
made in some cases to replace plants that have been deemed
inappropriate. The boulders will both control access and
protect the shoreline. The project includes restoration
of the pedestrian paths. Funding for the prioject is generously
provided by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority,
the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Office
of Natural Resource Restoration, and the Branch Brook Park
Alliance.
Also
under construction is the renovation of the Middle Division
Ballfields. The ballfields serve over 3,000 children annually
through organized Little League and another 2,000 users
through adult leagues. Along with Essex County Executive
Joseph N. DiVincenzo, the Alliance felt that Newark children
should have access to the same state-of-the-art sports
facility that their suburban counterparts do. Rhodeside
& Harwell Incorporated has designed these new facilities
gracefully into the Olmstedian pastoral landscape. The
entrances to the ballfields andplantings along Lake
and Bloomfield avenues are being renovated as well. The
Alliance believes this type of investment will help maintain
the sustainability of the surrounding neighborhoods. Funding
is being generously provided by Essex County, the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres
Program, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority,
and the Branch Brook Park Alliance.
Click
here to learn more about becoming a sponsor or making a
contribution to Branch Brook Park Alliance.
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