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Sheehan gives voice to watershed
(by K. Darius Amos - January 03, 2008)
Staring through last Saturday’s drizzle and into the overcast sky, Bill Sheehan spotted a bird in flight. Standing aboard a pontoon boat on the Hackensack River, he then used a pair of binoculars for a closer look and confirmed the fowl’s species.
Soon, the bird flew out of sight, leaving the safety of the Meadowlands and disappearing behind the traffic of the Route 3 bridge in Secaucus.
Sheehan, captain of Hackensack Riverkeeper, has grown accustomed to seeing nature interact with humans and the modern age. Throughout his years of watching over the environment, Sheehan has seen both the positive and negative influences that the human species can have over the pristine lands of the Hackensack River Watershed.
In spirit of promoting the positive and eliminating the negative, Sheehan and the Hackensack Riverkeeper have spent the last decade as an advocate to nature, an opponent to harmful developers, and a teacher to all.
“We don’t go after every potential adversary; we concentrate on the big ones, the ones that can have a big impact,” Sheehan said, commenting on the mission of Hackensack Riverkeeper.
“We never discourage good things; we always encourage others to do good.”
Sheehan has been doing good things for as long as he can remember, but his service started to captive others in the fall 1994. Already a volunteer with New York Baykeeper, Sheehan started offering mini boat trips along the Hackensack River to friends and other interested residents. He packed no more than half a dozen passengers onto his personal watercraft for each tour, hoping to dispel the “evil” myths about the New Jersey Meadowlands that any of them had heard.
“I started getting a lot of media coverage, and more people wanted a tour,” said Sheehan, whose tours steered away from old and abandoned dumping sites and uncovered the natural side of the Meadowlands.
As the boat tours grew in popularity, Sheehan floated under the name HEART and earned his U.S. Coast Guard license along with his “captain” title. With additional insurance, Sheehan had the opportunity to take more tours and take more passengers onto the water.
“I was getting more people involved in the Meadowlands, and it was the start of something real,” Sheehan said.
“I had know idea what I was getting into.”
Getting into the Meadowlands
What happened to Sheehan two years and dozens of tours later changed his life and the lives of others. But even more significant, Sheehan’s decision to apply for and obtain the Riverkeeper trademark would change the face of the entire stretch of the Hackensack River and the wetlands within the watershed.
Government officials here and throughout the state took notice of Sheehan’s project and the Hackensack Riverkeeper moniker. Still sailing with his personal vessel, Riverkeeper was awarded a grant in 1998, which was used to purchase the organization’s first pontoon boat – the Robert Boyle.
“I went from a six-person boat to a 28-foot pontoon boat that seats 15 people comfortably,” Sheehan said.
In 2002, Riverkeeper would add a second pontoon boat, which was purchased using funds received from a settlement between the City of Bayonne and Baykeeper. The addition of the second boat created a need for another Riverkeeper captain, and Sheehan asked once-part-time employee Hugh Carola to fill that need.
“With two boats, we could now take 30 people out on the water. We were already involved with advocacy, going from Trenton to Lyndhurst, then going out on the water. It’s important to teach, but the principal is to stop the pollutants,” Sheehan said.
With a second captain now leading the cruises and tours, Sheehan was freed to fight court battles and appear before boards and developers.
Winning through advocacy
Standing under a steady rainfall last Saturday in Secaucus, Sheehan rolled his head to the right and nodded toward the East Rutherford and the Xanadu development.
“I had a lot to do with that project,” he said, recalling the days when the Mills Corporation eyed areas of Carlstadt along the Empire Tract for development. The land in 1996 was wetlands, and Mills Corp. hoped to fill the area and build a mall.
“I told them they should rethink that plan, but they were committed to build,” he said.
The application was pushed and pulled until 2002, when Sen. Donald DeFrancesco assumed the role as acting governor. With Sheehan’s guidance, DeFrancesco pledged the state’s intention to protect wetlands and make “peace with the Meadowlands when other leaders have failed.”
“After he took office, the developers knew that they should re-think their idea.”
The Mills Corp. eventually looked to Sheehan for guidance and took the advice he gave it in 1996 – construct their project near the Continental Arena in the Meadowlands. The Xanadu project is currently underway – at the Meadowlands.
Sheehan is a major proponent for the Meadowlands. His sword for defending the wetlands is and has always been advocacy.
“[The Riverkeeper] is the voice of the Meadowlands. We’re always ready for a good fight, but we also want to work with officials,” he said.
Sheehan and the Rivekeeper often maintain informational booths during environmental programs throughout the area, and the group makes appearances at boat shows and large government conferences, such as the annual League of Municipalities meeting in Atlantic City.
“We want to talk to them and have dialogue. I might not agree with some of them but we go into their space and have respect for them,” he said. “We’ll have a bigger impact that way than most groups do when they stand outside with signs and call them names.”
Eyes to the future
Sheehan and Hackensack Riverkeeper are not only focused on protecting the Meadowlands. The watershed extends north through Hackensack and Bogota, touches on areas in Old Tappan and River Vale and into Rockland County, N.Y.
“We still have many fish to fry,” said Sheehan, who added that another goal is to establish a Riverkeeper substation in New York, where the watershed begins.
“I want to maintain a presence up there. We’re not a flash in the pan. We want to be part of the long-term solution.
“This is real life. I want Riverkeeper to last long beyond the time I’m around. When I go, I don’t want to take the organization with me.”
But Sheehan isn’t going anywhere today. In fact, Hackensack Riverkeeper is only growing and gaining more ground and respect as an environmental organization. According to Sheehan, the Riverkeeper was even selected by Bruce Springsteen as the official fundraising organization for an upcoming concert.
Sheehan said when he started the organization 10 years ago he never envisioned it growing into the powerful and influential organization it is today.
“But this is what I hoped would happen.”
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