The things I like to do outdoors include bicycling, kayaking and just being outdoors. I think I like this so much because I am a Park Ranger by profession, have been the last 35 years. It's been the most interesting job; I am extremely lucky to enjoy my work.
April of 2000, I was transferred to Manasquan Reservoir Recreation Area. This is a 770 acre reservoir owned by the water company and leased to the Park System to be run as a recreational facility. We provide a bait shop and rental boats for fishermen and fisherwomen. There is also a perimeter trail, which provides a place for people to walk, jog, run and ride bicycles or horses.
I started with the Park System back in July of 1974. My first park assignment area was Turkey Swamp Park. This is a wooded land with camping. The campsites and deep woods made this park a real neat place to work. There is an 18-acre lake on which people could rent rowboats, canoes and paddleboats during the summer season. In the winter there was ice-skating provided the lake froze to sufficient thickness.
This is where I first canoed and ice-skated. Never before had I attempted such things. This is also where I met my future wife. She used to go there after school and enjoy the park. She never really enjoyed the outdoors as much as me. We only went camping a number of times. She prefers the luxury resort type of accommodations.
After working almost ten years at the "swamp" I was sent to Holmdel Park.At the time this was known as the showcase park in the system.
They had lots of money and resources available. The park was beautiful and the maintenance high profile. I was here only a couple of years. I must confess that it was a nice park to work at and I learned many things, but too many visitors. I longed for the simpler times at Turkey.
From high profile to laid back Tatum Park. I worked here for about three years, lots of wooded area and old buildings that were used for programs. Nearly all of which were in the evening. To many late shifts here. But we did install a new playground. I learned some things that would prove usefull later. Another Playground Project in my future at the next Park Assignment Area. More on that later.
And the Heath Center this year gets a new much welcomed addition. This is a big year for Tatum; a new addition to replace the old army barracks style building. I know this because I had a temporary reassignment for last winter at Tatum.
Speaking of temporary assignments the winter of '98 and '99 I worked at Deep Cut Gardens. What a beautiful Park, this is a horticultural center. Gardens and Greenhouses it is just beutiful. I leaned much there about gardening, I was the only Park Ranger to have ever worked at Deep Cut. A rare privaledge indeed!
From here I went to Shark River Park. The first Park circa 1961, it was and still is basically a picnic park.Use is heavy in the summer by the local residents as a family and group picnic site.Main claim to fame of Shark River Park is the fossil hunting programs in the small stream that runs through the park. Sharks teeth fossils are found every time there is a school group that does this program. Searching for fossils, they make their screens and off to the river for a find. Oh Yeah, this is where we put in a new playground when I was there. My second playground project, here the ground is sandy and wet. This presented another set of problems in the construction project. We eventually made plywood boxes to hold back the sand as we dug the footings. This worked but it took us a long time to figure this out.
From here, after about nine years I was off to The Beach. Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park in Long Branch.I must admit I didn’t think I would like this park due to the enormous crowds.But there was no better place to spend a summer! Three summers here and off I go again. This time, the move is to The Reservoir where I currently work.I beleive this is a new Park System showcase park.
A new Evironmental Center building was built and opened here. This is a beatiful building with a Geo-thermal energy system installed. State of the art high speed internet access for the staff was included in the building, cool!
Then of course we had an Ameican Bald Eagle Family take up residence at the park in 2001. This changed many things, a trail closure and reroute as not to disturb the nest. And a large area of water was closed to boating and fishing. And over the last couple of years the number of visitors here is greater than Holmdel or the Beach, whew!!
It's early fall 2007 and I figured it might be time for an update:
that Bald eagle female died giving birth in the winter of 2004 after producing 2 eaglets in 2003.
Well the way nature works another young female started hanging around and the pair nested in 2005 but they were still too immature to produce offspring that winter.Then in 2006 they had 3 eaglets. And last winter they had an eaglet late and everyone thought that the nest had failed. But they got a surprise visit with a newly hatched eaglet from Maryland whose nest had blown down in a storm and the youngster was relocated to our nest here.
So this year they successfully raised two eaglets.
The New building onsite still has growing pains, leaks in the roof and in the ponds. But that's another story. I'll try to keep this page more current as time goes by, the eagle update is from memory of the last six years and some of the facts may not be accurate,just the way I remember them.
Happy New Year 2010. Time for a little updating. This year the Park System celebrates its 50 year anniversary.
I personally remember 35 years of the 50, Boy I'm getting old.We had a new playground built at the reservoir around 2007, this time it was contracted out. No problems with that one. Ecept maybe that certain apparatus constantly breaks.
We are the top visited Park in the system these last two years,over a million visitors. That would explain the amount of use the facilities get. Our small crew does the best job we can to maintain the Park. It is really loved by all who visit the Reservoir.
This winter the Bald eagles are nesting again come out and watch them on the new Flat screen TV at the Evironmental Center.
