Montclair’s office of Environmental Affairs will co-host a stream clean-up of Toney’s Brook, along with Cub Scout Pack 12 and the Montclair Community Backyard Habitat Project. The event will take place in Glenfield Park this Sunday, September 28, from 1:00 to 3:30PM.

The River Restoration Program’s outreach team from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission will also lend a hand, providing gloves, plastic bags, and removing the trash at the end of the day.

The clean-up of Montclair’s principal waterway is part of the Local Public Education Program of the Township’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan. It also represents Montclair’s observance of World Rivers Day, which is part of the United Nations (UN) Water for Life initiative. In towns and in countries all around the world, conservation groups have been encouraged to participate in this year’s event.

Toney’s Brook flows from its headwaters at the Bellevue Avenue train station on Lorraine Avenue all the way through Montclair, and down through Glen Ridge and Bloomfield. It then becomes part of Second River, a tributary of the Passaic River, which drains into Newark Bay, and on into the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore, anything that goes into Toney’s Brook, or any of our local streams – including Nishuane Brook, Yantecaw Brook, Pearl Brook, and the Leg of the Third River – eventually ends up in the world’s oceans, affecting the waterways’ habitat all along the way. By cleaning up the streams – and also by reducing non-point source pollution from the pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers we use in our yards – we are helping to make the entire watershed healthier for people and for our entire ecosystem of plants and wildlife.

Cub Scout Pack 12 is sponsored by the Union Congregational Church on Cooper Avenue, and the event is being coordinated by Cliff Lindholm III.

 This project will also help the Montclair Backyard Habitat Project toward its goal of getting the town certified by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) as a Community Wildlife Habitat. For more information about how to reduce use of yard chemicals and certify your yard with the NWF as a Backyard Habitat, anyone can visit their website at www.montclairwildlife.com. Each certified home brings Montclair a step closer to becoming a Community Wildlife Habitat.