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Volunteers Pitch In, Help Beautify Island Beach State Park
By Bill McLaughlin
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| --Photo By Bill McLaughlin Scout troops, church groups and civic associations volunteered to join the Friends of Island Beach State Park to clean up the area. |
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Bryce Bennett looked around at the people working to beautify old Coast Guard Station No. 112 on the southern end of Island Beach State Park in Berkeley last Saturday, and he liked what he saw.
The former rescue center has been transformed in recent years into a Nature Interpretation Center and serves as a place where young and old can learn about nature and man's place in this environment.
Bennett, a certified landscape architect, and Tyler Branham, his assistant, were overseeing a complete makeover of the site on what was called "Join Hands Day" at the park.
A number of Scout troops, church groups and civic associations volunteered to join the Friends of Island Beach State Park to clean up the area, sweeping the landscape from the water's edge to the piney woods.
"This is an annual event," Branham said, "where people come to clean the park of the refuse and damage from the winter."
This time it was a little different, as the cleanup was part of a major facelift for the structure. As he spoke, the final masonry pavers were being tamped into place at the front entrance to the building.
"It's done this way for feng shui," said Leon Kanopka of the uneven lengths on the two opposing rows of cement that encompassed a natural garden.
"It's all natural," said Bennett, whose work can be seen in projects throughout the shore. "We plant, for instance, bayberry because it's something that grows naturally in the sandy soil," Bennett said. "We're working with natural materials, not trying to impose something foreign to the area."
Bennett said the final landscaping will use what nature already provides, letting natural irrigation provide for the flora.
"We'll bring the plants to where the water is going to be," Bennett said. "We're using all native plants - some of them very beautiful. We'll try to highlight that and when people come to visit, they'll take that idea home with them. They'll see that this can work in their own gardens."
Bennett watched as loam was being spread around the building and noted that most Ocean County municipalities provide free organic compost at the town dump.
"A lot of the plants we use don't require water and chemical fertilizers," he said. "It's a natural garden and it looks that way."
Branham said the station is undergoing a major renovation inside and out with volunteer labor doing much of the work.
"Part of the renovation is a Boy Scout project," Branham said. "They're putting in planters that were donated and brought plenty of help."
Meanwhile, the brambles beyond the building were rustling from the efforts of dozens of men, women and children who spend much of their summer recreation time in the wilds of the park. They were filling bags with plastic soda bottles, fast food packaging and other modern pollutants.
"This is Mother Nature at her most vulnerable," said one middle-aged woman who didn't want her name used in this story. "Sometimes, she needs a little help to throw off the bad things people leave behind at the end of the season. You never know what's going to wash up on the beach."
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