Richard W. DeKorte Park
(click map to view close-up of DeKorte Park)

Featuring 3.5 miles of walking trails, panoramic views and birds galore, this 110-acre park is the center of New Jersey Meadowlands Commission activities. The park includes the NJMC’s Center for Environmental and Scientific Education, the William D. McDowell Observatory, our Administrative Offices, and the Meadowlands Environment Center, which offers hands-on educational programs for adults and children.

The award-winning park – once slated to be a garbage dump – contains six distinct visitor areas which feature native plants, recycled materials and sustainable techniques that support the agency’s environmental mandate. Roughly 60,000 people visited DeKorte Park last year, including about 15,000 schoolchildren.

DeKorte Park, like the entire Meadowlands District, is located along the Atlantic Flyway, one of three major routes used by migratory birds in North America. More than 270 species of birds have been identified in the Meadowlands. A birding checklist, nature guides and event schedules are available at the Meadowlands Environment Center.

To read more about Richard W. DeKorte Park click here.

Home page photo link to this page courtesy of Ernie Fraggetta.

“The 30-square-mile area has undergone a reclamation of remarkable scope and success. Thanks to the work of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, what was once a national shame is now amoung the premier urban wildlife spots in the country.”
- Birder's World
No. 82
(click here to read more)

"The state Meadowlands Commission has led the effort to turn the area into a wildlife preserve. A 6.5 -acre piece of DeKorte Park, called the Kingsland Overlook, was the first landfill to be capped and turned into parkland in New Jersey."
- The Record
January 8, 2010
(click here to read more)

Birders World judges found “the 110-acre refuge – once slated to be a garbage dump – to be “among the premier urban wildlife spots in the country.”  Yes, in the entire country.”
The Observer
January 20, 2010
(click here to read more)