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graeme_birchall 0 skip to content graeme_birchall home page urban kayak design kayaking new jersey nj kayaking allamuchy pond black brook black river blue heron lake budd lake catfish pond collins pond conventry pond cranberry lake crater lake deer park pond delaware river gardner s pond ghost lake green turtle pond greenwood lake haledon reservoir hemlock pond jefferson lake lake aeroflex lake ashore lake hopatcong lake lookout lake musconetcong lake ocquittunk lake sonoma lake success little swartswood lake long pine pond lost lake lower blue mtn lake merrill creek reservoir monksville reservoir mountain lake musconetcong river owens station crossing pond oxford furnace lake passaic river paulinskill lake pompton lake quick pond ramapo lake raritan river ridge road pond rockaway river round valley reservoir ryker lake sawmill lake shepherd lake silver lake speedwell lake splitrock reservoir spruce run reservoir steenykill lake stony brook lake swartswood lake thunder mtn road pond tilcon lake twin lakes wallkill river washington valley reservoir wawayanda lake white lake white s pond willow crest lake kayakers guide astronomy open menu close menu graeme_birchall home page urban kayak design kayaking new jersey nj kayaking allamuchy pond black brook black river blue heron lake budd lake catfish pond collins pond conventry pond cranberry lake crater lake deer park pond delaware river gardner s pond ghost lake green turtle pond greenwood lake haledon reservoir hemlock pond jefferson lake lake aeroflex lake ashore lake hopatcong lake lookout lake musconetcong lake ocquittunk lake sonoma lake success little swartswood lake long pine pond lost lake lower blue mtn lake merrill creek reservoir monksville reservoir mountain lake musconetcong river owens station crossing pond oxford furnace lake passaic river paulinskill lake pompton lake quick pond ramapo lake raritan river ridge road pond rockaway river round valley reservoir ryker lake sawmill lake shepherd lake silver lake speedwell lake splitrock reservoir spruce run reservoir steenykill lake stony brook lake swartswood lake thunder mtn road pond tilcon lake twin lakes wallkill river washington valley reservoir wawayanda lake white lake white s pond willow crest lake kayakers guide astronomy open menu close menu home page urban kayak design folder kayaking new jersey back nj kayaking allamuchy pond black brook black river blue heron lake budd lake catfish pond collins pond conventry pond cranberry lake crater lake deer park pond delaware river gardner s pond ghost lake green turtle pond greenwood lake haledon reservoir hemlock pond jefferson lake lake aeroflex lake ashore lake hopatcong lake lookout lake musconetcong lake ocquittunk lake sonoma lake success little swartswood lake long pine pond lost lake lower blue mtn lake merrill creek reservoir monksville reservoir mountain lake musconetcong river owens station crossing pond oxford furnace lake passaic river paulinskill lake pompton lake quick pond ramapo lake raritan river ridge road pond rockaway river round valley reservoir ryker lake sawmill lake shepherd lake silver lake speedwell lake splitrock reservoir spruce run reservoir steenykill lake stony brook lake swartswood lake thunder mtn road pond tilcon lake twin lakes wallkill river washington valley reservoir wawayanda lake white lake white s pond willow crest lake kayakers guide astronomy thoughts on kayaking by graeme birchall east river new york city introduction this website is a bit of brain dump on the subject of urban and suburban kayaking and in particular free public kayaking as it is practiced in new york city and northern new jersey all comments expressed are my own about myself i am originally from new zealand but i have lived in new jersey for more than three decades i am now retired but for several decades i was active in various local conservation and outdoor recreation organizations i have concluded that enabling safe and affordable access to the local outdoors at scale for urban and suburban residents is necessary if we are to save the earth local outdoors movement the local outdoors movement is about acknowledging that urban residents do not do the earth any favors when they travel to a remote rain forest for a holiday the emphasis should be on bringing the outdoors to the people rather than having the people travel to the outdoors in many cities and suburbs the nearest available outdoors is the local harbor lake or river unfortunately we live in world where many of the government agencies that are tasked with managing and protecting the outdoors are also tasked with encouraging travel to the remote outdoors they do not have a mandate to minimize the door to door carbon footprint of urban or suburban residents who wish to experience the outdoors a related issue is that access to the local outdoors for urban and suburban residents is about much more than just recreation when safe healthy affordable and family friendly outdoor recreation is enabled at scale it can deliver significant public health benefits access to the outdoors in a democratic society public access to the outdoors should be defined in quantifiable terms to illustrate consider new york harbor approximately eighty thousand people to go kayaking on the harbor every summer this sounds like a lot but it is not it means that if all eight million residents of new york city wanted to go kayaking on the harbor just once in their lifetime they would have to wait more than one hundred years for the opportunity but this assumes that there are no births no immigrants no tourists nor any repeat kayakers in practice the wait will be more than a thousand years the situation on the rivers of northern new jersey is much worse there is a similar number of nearby residents but vastly fewer opportunities to go boating there are none of the popular free public kayaking programs that exist in new york city in practice there is no public access to any of these rivers and none is planned this has consequences people will not care about protecting an outdoors environment if they are unnecessarily excluded from that environment there is always going to be a tension between protecting a fragile ecosystem and getting public support to enable the protection only allowing token access is not a solution especially if more access is feasible the limited access antagonizes people it also causes them associate environmental protection with an elitist and exclusionary agenda this is bad politics and thus bad for the environment comments are welcome graeme birchall email graeme underscore birchall at verizon dot net october 2025