Bronx River Ecomedia Blog

Today’s environmental workshop about the Bronx River took place in Drew Gardens, a pretty place across the street from the Bronx River Art Center. Because of all the recent rain the river was unusually wide and full. The trees and undergrowth along it were still thick and green. Crossing busy Tremont Avenue and going into the garden seemed like making a quick trip to the country.

Children and teen-agers who are taking classes at the art center took part in the workshop which was taught by Anne Marie Rufola of the Bronx River Alliance. We learned that we live in the Bronx River watershed. The river runs through low-lying land and when it rains water flows from the high ground around it into the river. The definition of a watershed is “an area of land that drains into a body of water.”

During heavy rains water cannot soak into the city’s brick and concrete as it would into soil and so flooding occurs carrying garbage, gasoline and other pollutants into the river. Sewers also overflow into the river during heavy rains. When it’s hot the rain heats up from the streets. The warm rain entering the river dissolves oxygen from the water and then fish die off.

We learned that we could help clean up the Bronx River by joining restoration projects. There will be restoration work going on behind the art center.

–Peggy

This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 4:41 pm and is filed under About environmental worshops, by Peggy, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.