Wanaque WMA (Green Turtle Lake)
Passaic County, NJ

40 acres
average depth: 13 feet
deepest point: 20 feet

Directions:

Tappan Zee Bridge; US 87 west; at the little mile marker 31.3 exit at exit 15A; set odometer to 0; turn left on Route 17 at the light and travel 1.4 miles to green mile marker 10 37 and exit just behind a tan building to get onto Rt. 72 west; at 4.4 miles you pass the main route to Sterling Forest, Route 84; then pass Ringwood Manor and set odometer to 0. Pass Long Pond Historical Ironworks District; at 1.2 miles pass East Shore Road; turn right onto Awosting Road and proceed 0.5 of a mile and turn right in to the entrance. Drive 0.5 miles on a gravel road to Turtle Lake.

Geology:

The 40 acre lake is fed by a tributary of Hewitt Brook and has an average depth of 13 feet (maximum of 20 feet).  The outflow heads into the Wanaque River.

Trails:

Don't yet know much about this area. Only there a short while.

Fishermen are notorious litterers. Management at Cranberry Lake in Westchester County banned all fishing after fishermen continued to ignore the posted warnings that their littering would lead to their banishment. They often leave their beer cans, their food containers, their worm containers, their lure packages, their fishing line and bobs, and sometimes their hooks.

Some bastard of a fisherman left a small fish with the fishing hook still in the fish. My dog quickly devoured the fish and I was left with a long drive back home to my local veterinarian and a big vet bill for the removal of the fishing hook. Of course, if a raccoon or a opossum or a coyote ate the little fish, they would have most likely died from the complications following a fishing hook being lodged in their system. The thoughtless fisherman also left another bigger set of weights and hooks. Do people ever think of how their litter might be killing wildlife or damaging people's beloved pets? It is probably useless to remind people, but littering is not only unsightly and lessens the enjoyment from the natural area, but can also do real damage to living creatures. Is it really so difficult to carry out your garbage? From personal experience I know it is not difficult, so litterers must get some type of base satisfaction from temporarily ruining a beautiful place for others -- in that way it resembles vandalism. Sometimes I will even take out other people's garbage, but often there is just too much garbage to handle by myself. And, of course, because of the constant tax revolts we never have any money to keep our parks clean. What a mess we are forced to endure from the selfishness of our fellow man and the selfishness of the political system that cannot even keep our parks clean.

Came back five days later and started cleaning up some of the mess. It's a hell of a lot of garbage. While I was cleaning up one of the kids of a fisherman drops his empty potato chip bag. I pick it up. So typical, eh?

There is an old road going along the east side of the lake. There is a high road and a low road so to speak along this eastern side. The western side is a little tougher gettilng around. Looks like you have to go back to the entrance road and then up toward Awosting Road and take a trail on the western side.

PLANT LIST:
Patrick L. Cooney

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Amelanchier arborea (shadbush)
Betula alleghaniensis (yellow birch)
Betula lenta (black birch)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Castanea dentata (American chestnut)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Lindera benzoin (spice bush)
Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Ostrya virginiana (American hop hornbeam)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Populus deltoides (cottonwood)
Populus grandidentata (big toothed aspen)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Pyrus malus (apple tree)
Quercus alba (white oak)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Sassafras (sassafras) Acer rubrum (red maple)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs:
Alnus serrulata (smooth alder)
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
Chimaphila maculata (spotted wintergreen)
Clethra alnifolia (white pepperbush) 8/13/01
Comptonia peregrina (sweet fern)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Euonymus alatus (winged euonymus)
Gaylussacia baccata (black huckleberry)
Hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Lyonia (maleberry)
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry)
Rubus sp. (Blackberry)
Rubus hispidus
Salix discolor (pussy willow)
Sambucus canadensis (common elderberry)
Spiraea tomentosa (steeplebush)
Spiraea alba var. latifolia (meadowsweet) 8/13/01
Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry)
Vaccinium angustifolium (low bush blueberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (high bush blueberry)
Viburnum acerifolium (maple-leaf viburnum)
Viburnum dentatum (arrowwood viburnum)

Vines:
Amphicarpaea bracteata (hog peanut)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Vitis labrusca (fox grape)

Herbs:
Achillea millefolium (yarrow)8/13/01
Actaea alba (doll's eyes)
Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed)
Antennaria sp. (pussy toes)
Apocynum androsaemifolium (spreading dogbane)
Aster cordifolius (heart-leaved aster)
Aster divaricatus (white wood aster)
Baptisia tinctoria (yellow indigo) 8/08/01
Bidens comosa (beggar ticks)
Boehmeria cylindrica (false nettle)
Centaurea maculosa (spotted knapweed) 8/08/01
Conyza canadensis (horseweed) 8/13/01
Cypripedium acaule (pink lady's slipper)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace) 8/08/01
Desmodium paniculatum 8/13/01
Elatine
Epifagus virginiana (beech drops)
Erigeron annuus (daisy fleabane) 8/08/01
Eupatorium rugosum (white snakeroot)
Euthamia graminifolia (grass-leaved goldenrod) 8/13/01
Galium asprellum (rough bedstraw) 8/13/01
Geranium maculatum (wild geranium)
Hieracium paniculatum
Hydrocotyle americana (water pennywort)
Hypericum mutilum (dwarf St. Johnswort) 808/01 8/13/01
Hypericum punctatum (spotted St. Johnswort) 8/13/01
Impatiens capensis orange jewelweed) 8/13/01
Lepidium virginicum (wild peppergrass)
Lespedeza hirta (hairy bush clover)
Lespedeza japonica (Japanese bush clover)
Lindernia dubia (false pimpernel) 8/13/01
Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower) 8/13/01
Lobelia inflata (Indian tobacco lobelia) 8/13/01
Lycopus virginicus (Virginia horehound) 8/13/01
Lysimachia ciliata (fringed loosestrife) 8/13/01
Lysimachia quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
Lysimachia palustris (water purslane)
Maianthemum canadense (Canada mayflower)
Medeola virginiana (Indian cucumberroot)
Medicago lupulina (black medick) 8/13/01
Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot) 8/08/01
Monotropa uniflora (Indian pipe)
Myriophyllum spicatum (spicate water milfoil) grows throughout the lake
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Plantago major (common plantain)
Polygonum arifolium (halberd leaved tearthumb)
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Polygonum hydropiper (water pepper) 8/08/01
Polygonum hydropiperoides 8/13/01
Polygonum sagittatum (arrowhead tearthumb)
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil)
Prunella vulgaris (self-heal) /13/01
Saururus cernua (lizard's tail) 8/08/01
Scutellaria galericulata (marsh skullcap) 8/13/01
Scutellaria lateriflora (maddog skullcap) 8/13/01
Solanum nigrum (black nightshade 8/13/01
Solidago bicolor (silverrod)
Solidago juncea (early goldenrod) 8/08/01 8/13/01
Sparganium androcladum (burreed)
Symplocarpus foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Triadenum virginicum (marsh St. Johnswort)
Trifolium pratense (red clover) 8/08/01 8/13/01
Verbena urticifolia (white vervain) 8/08/01
Veronica officinalis (common speedwell)
Viola spp. (violets)

Rushes:
Juncus tenuis (path rush)
Juncus effusus (soft rush)

Sedges:
Carex intumescens type (sedge)
Carex laxiflora type (sedge)
Carex lurida (sallow sedge)
Carex lurida type but saw off (sallow sedge)
Carex stricta (tussock sedge)
Eleocharis spp. (spikerush)
Scirpus atrovirens (dark-green bulrush) 8/13/01
Scirpus sp. (umbrella or nut sedge)

Grasses:
Echinochloa crus-galli (barnyard grass)
Leersia oryzoides (rice cut grass)
Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stilt grass)
Panicum clandestinum (deer tongue grass)
Panicum dichotomiflorum (panic grass)
Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little blue stem grass)

Ferns and Fern Allies:
Equisetum arvense (field horsetail)
Lycopodium obscurum (tree club moss)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula (hay-scented fern)
Onoclea sensibilis (sensitive fern)
Osmunda cinnamomea (cinnamon fern)
Osmunda claytoniana (interrupted fern)
Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas fern
Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern)
Thelypteris noveboracensis New York fern