This is a project to help fund and organize habitat restoration on the Lower Palisades.
Scroll ↓Mission
The Lower Palisades is the area south of the George Washington Bridge, stretching through Hudson and Bergen Counties.
Restoring native habitat and controlling invasive plants can preserve shelter and movement routes for species that continue to use this landscape.
We want to restore the Lower Palisades as a connected urban natural area.
The Palisades were nearly destroyed by quarrying in the late 1800s. A grassroots campaign led by the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs helped create the Palisades Interstate Park Commission in 1900.
Land acquisition and long-term stewardship protected the cliffs in Bergen and Rockland Counties. South of that managed parkland, the Lower Palisades remain divided among municipal and private lots without comparable environmental management.
Existing tools such as Jersey City's Palisades Preservation Overlay District provide a foundation, but protecting views and development patterns is not the same as managing an urban cliff ecosystem.
The Lower Palisades need coordinated ecological management, not one-off maintenance.
Tree of Heaven, Kudzu, Japanese Knotweed, English Ivy, Norway Maple
Just topping plants when they block visibility of roadways and skylines.
Dumping and encampments in difficult areas to clean.
Begin with City-owned lots on the Palisades cliffs, specifically beneath Riverview Park, and establish a repeatable restoration model.
Create a master environmental-management plan based on urban habitat-restoration practices, then secure funding for invasive plants and trash removal.
Connect current ordinances and planning efforts, Jersey City's Palisades Preservation Overlay District (PPOD) and the Palisades Cliffs Protection and Planning Act, to ecological goals so protection includes the cliff ecosystem as well as skyline views.
More information about the project can be found in the video below. The presentation is roughly the first 22 minutes.
News
Join us for a native bird count session in cooperation with local bird watching groups. Bring binoculars and a love of birds! All experience levels welcome.
More information about the project can be found in the video. The presentation is roughly the first 22 minutes.
Background on how the cliffs were nearly lost to quarrying — and the campaign that saved them.
Resources & Further Reading
Organizations working to protect the Palisades and the Hudson waterfront, and background reading on how the cliffs were formed and saved.
