About The Brook Park Alliance Alliance Mission
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.
The Branch Brook Park Alliance is governed by the following dedicated Trustees and volunteer leaders:
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Thank you to our Contributors
