Cleaning Up Burlington Island, NJ
I rarely dedicate an entire write-up to a single cleanup experience, but this one is absolutely worth it! I must share the amazing experience I had in the middle of September volunteering with Spearhead Project Earth on Burlington Island, NJ.
Burlington Island is an uninhabited, 300-acre patch of land sandwiched between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, sitting in the middle of the Delaware river approximately 15 miles north of Philadelphia. I learned about this unique volunteer opportunity from local news articles that describe the island’s history and efforts to clean up the debris that floats downriver and accumulates on the island’s beaches and forest groves.
In just a few tiring but rewarding hours, we were able to not only make an impact by removing more than 230 pounds of recyclables, but see what nature should be like if undisturbed. The island is much like a state park, filled with natural beauty.
Burlington Island: A Brief History
The island is the site of one of New Jersey’s first European settlements. It has changed ownership many times and has been used for agriculture, recreation, and commerce for nearly four hundred years. Key dates:
Beginning in the 1620s, the Dutch West India Company and later Swedes used the island as a trading post and for farming. After 1664, when the area came under English control, the island was used as a frontier trading and military outpost.
Burlington City was given title to the island in 1682. The Assembly of West Jersey stipulated that all rents and profits from the island be used “…for the encouragement of learning and the better education of youth.” This is the first public education trust fund in New Jersey and is one of the oldest in the nation. A board of managers for the fund was organized in 1727. Over the centuries, the trust has been funded with proceeds from land sales, and rents from farming, fishing, and mining.
In 1767, a century before free public education was mandated in New Jersey, money from the trust provided funds for tuition and later, construction of school buildings.
In 1824, the New Jersey Legislature officially incorporated the managers of the Island School Trust fund.
In 1853, with the approval of the Legislature, the board sold the downstream portion of the island. It remained under private ownership until 1953.
From 1900 to 1917, the lower part of the island was a popular picnic ground and bathing area. In 1917 Island Beach Amusement Park was constructed and became a regional attraction. Fires destroyed the amusement park in the 1920s and 1930s, and the southern part of the island was sold to a series of private owners whose ambitious development plans failed to materialize. In the early twentieth century, wells on the island were tapped to provide fresh water when the Delaware became too polluted for use.
Under an agreement signed in 1953, title to the island returned to the city in exchange for gravel and sand mining rights. The mining created a 100-acre lagoon on the site of the first Dutch settlement and fill from river dredging was added to the upper and lower sections of the island.
The Setup and Crossing the River
The volunteer signup process is pretty straight-forward as Spearhead Project Earth is always looking for volunteers to attend cleanups.
The typical schedule consists of weekly excursions, albeit weather- and volunteer group-dependent. On this late summer afternoon, I had the privilege of volunteering alongside five other dedicated individuals and the organization’s seasoned captain, Jarred Colligon.
There are two rally points, one in Bristol PA which is where I sailed from, and the other in Burlington NJ across the river.
For me, the environmental volunteer adventure started in Bristol itself: while waiting for the boat pick up, I put my time & ArcMate litter grabber to good use, and in a few minutes collected a bag of litter in the Bristol Lions Park right near the peer. As with almost all of my cleanups, I recorded it in my three favorite apps for logging litter cleanups: Pirika, Clean Something for Nothing (CSFN), and Clean Planet Project.
The boat ride to cross the river and reach the island took approximately 10 minutes, and the anticipation was palpable, like embarking on a grand expedition! Armed with a sense of purpose and a determination to make a difference, we got a chance to get to know each other, learn about previous cleanup efforts, and admire the views of historic Bristol, before finally reaching the beaches of Burlington Island.
Picking Up and Findings
Once ashore, we spread out, in search of burdensome litter and recyclables. Our gear included gloves, litter grabbers, and large foldable bags. Captain Jarred gave everyone their mission: each person was to fill their individual bag with plastic bottles, glass, and metal cans that were littering the beautiful, tree-covered landscape.
There are several trails on the island, and one of them was within easy access from our landing spot. Alongside either side of the trail and into the woods one does not have to look too hard before stumbling upon remnants of human activity: whether from decades ago when the island was inhabited, or from debris that had floated downriver and washed ashore.
Numbers tell a compelling story: within a couple of hours we collected an impressive 233 pounds of recyclables. It was a testament to what can be achieved when people come together for a common cause. While much of the collection consisted of PET bottles, glass containers, metal, and other items with a notoriously long life, the most notable item for me was a Coke aluminum can from 1991. It was a stark reminder that there is no “away”, and that packaging material in particular does not degrade in nature. Thirty-two years later, this piece of aluminum was bent out of shape, but otherwise pretty much in its same form - and ready to be recycled into a new, usable product.
What made this experience truly exceptional is that the island is accessible only by boat. This isolation lent an air of exploration and adventure to our mission and volunteer effort. There is a unique serenity that comes with being disconnected from the urban rush or suburban highway and transported to a place where nature reigns supreme. As the Indian lawyer and environmental activist Afroz Shah puts it, cleaning up is also catharsis, and connects you to Mother Nature in a surprisingly deep and fulfilling way.
Hike around the Lake
The adventure did not end with the collection of trash. After filling our collection drums to the brim, and loading them all on the pontoon boat, part two of the experience included exploring the island further on foot. While Captain Jarred delivered the entirety of our collection to a recyclables sorting facility in Burlington City, the rest of us hiked around the lake, to the other side of the island. Henry Matthews, one of the more experienced volunteers in the group, gave us a guided tour and more insights into the history of the island.
The scenery was awe-inspiring, with the 100-acre quiet lake glistening in the heart of the island. We saw remnants of ancient and decades-old settlements, beautiful wildlife, from butterflies to snakes, and later on an Eastern Box turtle right in the middle of our trail.
The adventure ended once Jarred picked us all up and brought us back to our starting points of our journey.
Conclusion
Beyond the immediate beneficial impact, and the satisfaction of having removed a large quantity of recyclables from where they do not belong, it was an educational opportunity to immerse ourselves in the unspoiled beauty of nature.
The experience of cleaning up an otherwise inaccessible place, a place that had been forgotten by time, offered a unique sense of fulfillment. It was an adventure, a bond-building opportunity, and a chance to make a meaningful impact on our environment - all rolled into one.
I can confidently say that I would embark on this journey again in a heartbeat. The only downside is that I had to take time off from work, as the cleanups are scheduled on weekdays, but it is clearly worth it: it is not just about cleaning up an island; it's about preserving the soul of our planet, one piece of aged and ancient litter at a time.
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