NJ Productive Ecologies II - Citizen Interview/Access to Marsh

Because we had previously visited the areas of our site along the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers on a studio boat tour in September, we decided to make an early October visit to the Kearny section to try and get a peek of the marsh.

Using the world wide web, we found complicated directions to our destination at Gunnell Oval Park.

What we found was a very discreet "trail" that led us to the marsh. We were determined to walk through the overgrown grasses, albeit some harassment by the hungry mosquito population.

We decided to document the current access conditions at Gunnell Oval Park, from start to finish (finish being the first sight of the marsh). Later that day, we came across a citizen of Kearny at the park and decided to muster up enough guts to ask him some questions for our research. We were not entirely surprised to learn from him that Kearny residents have very little connection to the wetlands, and the landfill itself...let alone the construction of "cool" projects regarding energy efficiency.

Unfortunately, we did not think to ask for his permission to post the brief interview online so we decided to create a mash-up of the access video and interview audio.

Take a look...

Access to Kearny Marsh from Laura Moen on Vimeo.