Flat Rock Brook Nature Association was awarded a $4,000 grant from the Community Chest to help fund on-site environmental education programs and provide programming specific to the Englewood Public School District.

Flat Rock Brook educates approximately 6,000 children and adults annually by connecting them to the natural world. Among the programs offered by the Nature Center are field trips and outreach lessons for students in the Englewood Public School District and Englewood on the Palisades Charter School. The Nature Center also offers programming for 7th graders in Englewood and Englewood Cliffs designed to connect these students with their water and learn about the water cycle through intensive study. Grants enable us to make these programs available at no cost to participants. When the school year is out of session, Flat Rock Brook offers a popular, educational summer camp for local area children.

“The Community Chest has been a generous supporter of Flat Rock Brook Nature Association for over 25 years. They have granted over $130,000 to Flat Rock Brook over that time, which has had a significant impact on the quality of our education initiatives” said Stephen Wiessner, Executive Director of Flat Rock Brook. “We appreciate the Community Chest’s continued support of our education initiatives in the Englewood Public Schools and beyond. This is an important investment in the children of our community.”

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Flat Rock Brook is moving forward with an exciting Quarry Pond patio renovation this spring—a project that will ultimately provide a shaded workspace for students attending field trips and summer camp at Flat Rock Brook. Currently, there is no shaded workspace for students to complete studies of water quality and aquatic organisms in the pond. This patio renovation will offer students a comfortable place to immerse themselves in scientific studies and learn to be the STEM professionals of tomorrow.

Our patio renovation will feature a continuation of the blue stone paving that currently welcomes visitors into our Nature Center, seating for students to gather, native plantings acting as borders to the patio space and a retractable awning for sunny summer days. This multi-use space will be renovated up to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), increasing accessibility at Flat Rock Brook.

This project is made possible by the generosity of the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund and Trustee Cynthia Sumner. The Bergen County Open Space Grant is a matching grant and they will match us dollar for dollar up to $7,500.  Through the generosity of donors, we have raised the matching funds and plan to break ground on the project in July.

Seen above, Flat Rock Brook Staff poses with Vice-Chairwoman of the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Mary J. Amoroso. 

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