Winter brings plethora of activities to Capik
Councilman promotes use of park for hiking, cross country skiing
BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Sayreville Councilman Stanley Drwal looks at a satellite map of the Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve during a walk through the snowy tract Monday.

There’s nothing quite like it, at least not in Sayreville.So says Councilman Stanley Drwal of the 571-acre Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve on Bordentown Avenue. Walking along the preserve’s snow-covered landscape Monday afternoon, Drwal said there are parts of the tract that throw even him for a loop.

“If you get back into the woods, you won’t actually know where you are,” he said. “You don’t see anything — there’s no landmarks.”

That undeveloped aspect of the preserve, which Drwal noted had once been threatened to be mowed down to make way for development, is one of the features that has brought patrons back to the park.

“The citizens are really happy to see this preserved,” he said. “If you keep it as forests, you don’t have to worry about [more] houses.”

Drwal, who returned to the area in 2000 after spending 24 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel, said rumors the borough had once considered allowing development such as a golf course on the preserve served as the impetus for him to get involved in politics.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want to see something like this ruined,’ ” he said. “Nobody really has [something] like this in the area.”

At the beginning of his term on the council last year, he led the effort to bring back the Citizens Conservation Corps, which employs local teens and last year worked to clean and improve the Capik preserve.

Looking over the snowy terrain Monday, Drwal noted how the light-to-moderate hills in the park are perfectly suited for cross country skiing, an activity he routinely participates in.

He said a number of hikers, some who take their dogs to the park, have commented positively on the preserve and how it has improved.

“Whenever I’m out here, I talk to a lot of the people that walk,” Drwal said. “Most of them are happy that this is a lot cleaner.”

The Conversation Corps, a borough-funded group that also includes adult volunteers working to maintain public lands, removed eight garbage trucks full of trash last year and planted thousands of new trees in the preserve, according to Drwal.

This year, the Conservation Corps, which begins work on March 12 and runs through early fall, plans on planting even more trees.

Recently, hunting permits were issued to 45 people to help curb the swelling deer, rabbit and fox populations at the preserve. Despite initial concerns, Drwal said the hunters and other preserve patrons have been able to cohabitate peacefully.

“They’re all really safe because they want to preserve that ability to hunt,” said Drwal, who is also a hunter. “They’re very careful, but chances are you might not even see them.”

He said that in addition to the Conservation Corps’ cleanup efforts, the preserve will get a paved parking lot at the entrance, and a local photographer will design trail maps of the preserve that will be placed at the entrance. There have also been talks with local schools to bring children in for educational field trips, and with Scouts for camping and hiking activities, something Drwal said was very popular on these grounds years ago.

To further increase safety at the preserve and to help eliminate illegal dumping, Drwal said state Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is from Sayreville, was trying to acquire guard rails to be placed at key access areas along surrounding roads.

All in all, Drwal said that as more people have decided to make use of the nature preserve, illegal activities such as vandalism and the use of all-terrain vehicles have been reduced.

“People who do illegal things don’t like to do them when there’s somebody around,” he said.

Drwal said the ultimate goal of everyone involved in the preserve is to work together to promote the natural resources, and enhance the ability to participate in low-impact activities that do not disturb that natural habitat.

“We’ve proven even the hunting worked out,” he said.

Though Drwal has often found himself at the preserve in his free time, and has made its preservation a driving force in his term as councilman, he said he still occasionally discovers a new path to explore.

“You still come across a lot of trails you didn’t know were there, and it’s really different depending on the time of year,” he said. “Just the thought they were even thinking of [developing] it scared me … it would be gone forever.”