I am a frequent walker along the trails of the first two of Newton Lake Park’s three lakes in Haddon Township, New Jersey. These two bodies of water are bounded on the east by Cuthbert Boulevard and on the west by Lees Lane. This story is about a hill on the heavily wooded south side of the easternmost lake (its geolocation is 39.90563, -75.06668). This hill has long been a favorite of the young bicycle posses that regularly run through this part of the park, as well as the constant stream of daily walkers.
For years, the trail below the hill has often become a broad, muddy mess as rainstorms wash more of its bare earth surface downward. This process was accelerated by the daily grinding of bicycle tires and hikers’ boots. This is a photo of that trail before this construction project started.
In March 2024, work crews and machinery were on site to excavate the surface of the hill, terrace that excavation with a buried cellular support system that was filled with stone-laced dirt, and then covered with a layer of dark topsoil.
These are the cells that were buried beneath the topsoil in hopes they would stop the hill’s surface from eroding any further.
After the topsoil was laid over the hill’s surface, it was sprayed with a seeding mixture and then covered with tough green plastic netting. But heavy rains and winds in the first couple of months rolled the plastic covering away.
Bicycle riders pushed the netting back further as their wheels began to dig a central path.
Subsequent heavy rains finished washing away the seed and the topsoil, exposing the cellular erosion prevention structure below.
By the beginning of spring 2025, the hill’s erosion had become severe.
Aside from failing to prevent erosion, the exposed cells now seem to present a potential tripping hazard on the incline.
Meanwhile, the wind, walkers, and bikers scrunched and dispersed the loose plastic netting into tangles of leaves and debris across the entire hill. (I tripped in these twice.)
The bottom line: Today, a little over a year after the erosion control project was installed, it has become a complete failure, and the hill runoff now creates a bigger, muddier mess than it did before.
