The Ramapo Saltbox in Torne Valley marked the the Winter Solstice at sundown on Sunday.

The shortest day of the year has arrived which means a long night.

While many Britons celebrated the warmest Winter Solstice on record at England’s famed Stonehenge at Tuesday’s sunrise, the Ramapo Saltbox in Torne Valley hosted a gathering of its own Sunday at sundown to mark the occasion. Continue Reading

Arcadis began preparation for continuing environmental remediation work in Torne Valley at the site of a former sand quarry. Torne Mountain is seen in the distance. / Photo by Geoff Welch

Before Torne Valley was a Superfund site, parts of it were used as a sand quarry, with the sand deposits part of the valley’s natural aquifer — now classified by NY state as a principle aquifer and used as a major regional water supply. Back in the 1950s, pockets of the valley were dug through along Torne Brook for natural resources. Those sandy areas eventually became a graveyard for paint sludge brought in from the former Ford Motor Company plant in Mahwah, NJ.  Continue Reading

The day of the long shadow is here. Winter Solstice. The celebrated shortest day of the year, where sunlight skims low over the sky in the northern hemisphere, the earth’s axis teeters away from the sun and into the longest night and winter we go. Continue Reading

Chuck Stead presents his interdisciplinary Recovery Narrative PhD dissertation to the public at Ramapo Town Hall. / Photo by Geoff Welch

The long story of life in the shadow of Torne Mountain made its way to the Ramapo’s Town Hall when environmental educator Chuck Stead presented his doctoral dissertation to the public last week. An interdisciplinary recovery narrative, Stead’s story is also a history of Torne and Western Ramapo that traces industrial impact on the area’s community and uses ecotoxicology and memoir to weave together a complex story of Ford Motor Company’s toxic legacy in and around Torne Valley. Continue Reading

Turtle clan Chief Vincent Mann from the Ramapough Lenaape is given a friendship gift while Chuck Stead and Chris St. Lawrence look on / Photo by Geoff Welch

The sun shone bright and hot Sunday as people from across Ramapo, and beyond, gathered to celebrate the huge new medicine garden in Torne Valley. Covering half an acre, the Ford Motor Company built a large, raw-post and fenced-in garden that will feature Sweet Grass for basketry and smudging as well as herbs and other native plants. Continue Reading

Blunt Mountain mint, Pycnanthemum Muticum, transplanted from the Harmony Hall Herb Garden to the Saltbox Environmental Research Center in Torne Valley by volunteers Nathan and Angela.

The slow, steady work by hand and machine to clean up Torne Valley is bearing fruit. The story of how 55 gallon drums of paint sludge trucked from the long-closed Mahwah automobile factory and dumped in the valley are now legendary. Continue Reading