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Celebrating 60+ Years of Environmental Leadership
For over 60 years, the Tenafly Nature Center has fostered a wide-reaching understanding and appreciation of nature, through leadership in open-space preservation and education programs focused on nature, science and the environment. Please consider making a donation to support TNC. Help us celebrate our past to preserve our future!
Before Tenafly Nature Center
Here is an article from our Spring 1987 newsletter that will give you a sense of what Tenafly and the surrounding areas were like in the 1930’s.
TNC Timeline
  • The Spark of an Idea

    1959

    1959 –
    Mayor Robert Shull conceives the idea of an organization to combine the ideas of youth museums, nature parks, and wildlife sanctuaries. The steering committee is created to study existing nature centers and find out if Tenafly is interested in implementing a nature center facility.
  • 1960s

    1961 –
    Tenafly Nature Center Association, an organization which embodies all three ideas, is formed.
    1962 –
    The Tenafly Nature Center Association is established as a non-profit, and is known as “A Green Island in Tenafly”. The Center is a “living workshop” on 64 acres where all features on the property can be used for educational purposes and the community can be involved with the development of the nature center. As one of the first programs offered, two Yale class of 1916 graduates, Little and Chism, came to give a presentation about hiking the Appalachian Trail (the Little Chism Trail later named in their honor).
    1964 –
    First trails are marked with plastic squares and cleared/raked for use.
    1965 –
    Boy Scouts in neighboring areas help clean around Pfister’s Pond.
    1966 –
    The Redfield Building Visitors’ Center is completed and plans for on-site nature library are put in place.
    1967 –
    “Youth Conservationist of the Year” award given to TNC. An area of land adjacent to TNC is considered as a site for a nuclear anti-missile base.
    1968 –
    A Turtle Sanctuary is constructed. Today this space serves as a site for TNC’s Nature Day Camp and Forest School. There is still a pond today that is home to many amphibians including spotted salamanders.
    1969 –
    Full-time Naturalist-Director hired with grants from Borough and the Tenafly Board of Education

    A Green Island in Tenafly

  • The Fight for Lost Brook Preserve

    1970s

    1970 –
    Tenafly High School biology teachers put together a guide for all Tenafly Nature Center trails, identifying specimens and locations for every plant.
    1972 –
    Borough of Tenafly begins efforts to purchase 274-acre “Palisades Woodland” Sugar maples are tapped for maple syrup, and serve as a demonstration space for programs.
    1975 –
    Live animal exhibitions offered with raccoons, opossums, flying squirrels, chickens, pigeons, Canada geese, guinea fowl, turtles, snakes, frogs, toads, salamanders, fresh & saltwater fish, and a red-tailed hawk.
    1976 –
    Generous State, Federal, Local and Private groups and Citizens raise $9.35 million to purchase 274-acre tract (Blankman-Green Acres) adjacent to the TNC known today as the Lost Brook Preserve Tenafly purchases the land with the help of The Palisades Interstate Park Commission, The Nature Conservancy, and The Jewish Community Center.
    1979 –
    Donn Fahnstock creates a carved trail map that Kiwanis Club volunteers install.
  • 1980s & 1990s

    1980 –
    Endowment Fund begins with 16 subscribers and the Yellow Trail floating dock is first installed as an Eagle Scout project
    1981 –
    A severe outbreak of Gypsy moths and drought takes a toll on the ecology and biodiversity of the center.
    1982 –
    Blankman-Greenacres land was renamed as the Lost Brook Preserve.
    1983 –
    First 5K & 10K “Raccoon Run” through Tenafly
    1988 –
    Named after Tenafly resident, Dr. Joseph DeFilippi Bird Watching Shelter and White Trail boardwalk are built.
    1990s –
    First Art Show & Raffle; First Annual Fund Drive
    1990-
    1996 –
    Educational programs continue to be in high demand for schools and the public. Guided trips to places like Cape May, NJ, Delaware, the Pacific Northwest, and Central California are led by the then Executive Director.
    1997 –
    Tenafly Nature Center rebrands and adopts a new logo highlighting the native wood duck that can be found nesting on Pfister’s Pond.
    1998-
    1999 –
    $68,000 is raised and the Education Pavilion with a fireplace is built for outdoor classes. Since then this structure has acted as the primary teaching space for the over 1,100 programs TNC teaches annually.

    Increasing Education and Upgrading Facilities

  • Extending TNC's Impact

    2000s & 2010s

    2000 –
    A waterless composting restroom is installed at the upper left end of the parking lot.
    2001 –
    Tenafly Nature Center Celebrates its 40th Anniversary and The Borough of Tenafly renews the Nature Center’s lease.
    2005 –
    With the Lost Brook Preserve added the borough signs a lease with TNC granting full stewardship of 380 acres, officially recognizing the care TNC had been providing since 1976.
    2006 –
    TNC Education Director works to organize regional Nature Program Co-operative.
    2009 –
    Boy Scout Nick Cytowicz of Tenafly Troop #25 upgrades the campfire ring area, adding new recycled benches, a storage shed, and a rain barrel for added fire safety measures.
    2010 –
    A nor’easter cuts all power and topples over 200 trees, including two that fall onto the front of the Redfield Building. Thankfully nobody is injured and all animals are relocated to staff homes.
    2011 –
    Tenafly Nature Center celebrates its 50th Anniversary, honoring Alpine Mayor Paul Tomasko with special honorary chairman, Aiden Quinn.  Plans are unveiled for a New Education and Discovery Center to be built along E. Clinton Ave.
    2012 –
    The borough extends TNC’s lease for the Lost Brook Preserve to 24 years. Tenafly Nature Center rebrands and adopts a new acorn logo. More than  200 trees are felled by Hurricane Sandy.
    2013 –
    TNC Programs reach over 20,000 people each year through almost 1,000 educational programs
    2014 –
    A town referendum votes down facility plans proposed by the nature center, leaving the organization challenged by its current facility.
    2016 –
    A trail inventory assessment was completed and the website was updated so that it was now mobile friendly.
    2017 –
    The 15 year old backyard wildlife habitat is renovated and renamed the Butterfly and Pollinator Garden. TNC opens its seasonal Butterfly House outdoor exhibit, where visitors get up close with native butterflies and learn about life cycles.
    2018 –
    A generator is installed at the visitor’s center so that even when power is out the animal ambassadors can stay safe.
    2019 –
    Dendrometers, devices that measure tree growth over time, are installed. The main trail undergoes a major redesign to alleviate decades of weathering and erosion. TNC Programs reach over 30,000 people each year through over 1,500 educational programs
  • Adapting For a Stronger Future

    2020s



    2020 –
    When others are closed during the pandemic, Tenafly Nature Center remains open and a 1-way system is devised to keep community members safe and healthy both physically and mentally. New funding sources and strategies are implemented to stay solvent throughout this historically difficult time, including the opening of a Forest School. Despite the global pandemic TNC education staff still provide 1,100 programs for over 12,000 people throughout the year.
    2021 –
    Tenafly Nature Center celebrates its 60th anniversary through a series of activities and events that are altered to keep everyone safe and healthy as the global health crisis continues! Phase one of the Pond Preservation Project was completed and Pfister’s Pond was hydroraked with support from the borough of Tenafly. A new aviary is built for TNC’s three resident raptors with additional space, allowing TNC to adopt three additional non-releasable raptors. The Bellflower Faerie Trail art installation is opened along the Red Trail.
    2022 –
    New pavilion constructed on footprint of old aviary so that our forest school, public programs, scouts, and camp groups could have a covered space to utilize in cases of inclement weather.
    2023 –
    Eastern side of the main trail was refurbished after it sustained extensive damage the prior year due to Hurricane Ida
    Today TNC employs 6 full-time staff, 18 part-time staff and 5 seasonal staff (with 84% of the staff being educators)