Nomahegan Park Update

[youngdumbandfulloffish]

Got a response for the county about the construction. They are deepening it and removing "organic matter". Can we sift through that and get our lures back? The canadian geese information is interesting. Hopefully it is just steeper banks to limit geese access and not affect ours. My favorite part of that lake is the unlimited shore access all around.

Dear Mr. Griffin,

Thank you for writing. As to your question about stocking the lake at Nomahegan, the State handles all of the stocking of ponds and lakes in the Union County Parks System. For details on this, go to: ucnj.org/community/parks-community-renewal/wildlife-management/fishing/

The only exceptions are the annual fishing derbies, when the Newark Bait and Fly Casting Club stocks Echo Lake, the City of Plainfield stocks the pond at Cedar Brook and the Elizabeth Police stock Warinanco.

As for the on-going construction at your favorite fishing hole, Parks is in the process of removing decades of accumulated organic matter in order to restore the lake to its original depth. There are also going to be some significant changes to the shoreline in order to curtail the Canada Geese population.

As you may know, the fecal matter from geese can have a major impact on water quality. Wildlife experts have found that by hampering access to bodies of water so that the geese cannot just walk in and walk out en masse, it helps cut back on the number of birds that will want to utilize an area.

We realize that Nomahegan is a very popular park and look forward to getting it back to park goers by June. Parks expects that the benefits of this project will be seen for years to come and that this temporary disruption will have been worth it.

Once again, thank you for writing. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to contact us.

Gabriel Gluck
Union County Parks