Environmental Reports at Matawan Aberdeen Public Library

Significant reports were written about the environment of Aberdeen Township and Matawan Borough back in the 1970s in the wake of the founding of Earth Day and the Environmental Protection Agency. Both reports remain available in the reference section of the Matawan Aberdeen Public Library, in case anyone wants to do a retrospective study comparing the municipalities today with thirty plus years ago. Sounds like a worthy thesis project for a budding environmental scientist.

• Aberdeen Township Natural Resources Inventory 1979, edited by H Gray Multer, was written by members of the Environmental Geology Class at the Department of Earth Sciences at Fairleigh Dickinson University. It spells out the little details of hydrology and surface water runoff patterns of the local watershed, among other things. Multer passed away last October at the age of 82, according to the FDU website. He was the founder of the Dept of Earth Sciences at the College at Florham, as well as the founding director of the school's marine laboratory in St Croix, Virgin Islands.
  

• Environmental Index 1975 was prepared by the Matawan Borough Environmental Commission. You'll want in particular to look at Appendix 2 Map B, which identifies the seven open spaces evaluated in Appendix 3. The report points out that the borough's then-present 31.5 acres of parkland was less than half what was required for the borough's 9,136 pop (1970). NJDEP thought that 8 acres of parks per thousand of population were the baseline need, or 72.95 acres as of 1975. As of 2000, Matawan's projected population of 13,000 would need 103.95 acres, a deficit of 72.45 acres.