Henry David Thoreau says, “A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”
Our Walden Pond, Topanemus, is Freehold’s sanctuary. In one year a public online petition calling for restoration received close to 2,000 signatures. The comments from the community were extraordinary. Public support for sustained natural restoration is well documented.
Rosa says the pond is “pretty much Freehold’s only lung. We must educate ourselves and all, especially teens and children so they don’t take it for granted.”
It is hard to believe Rosa’s pond sits in the shadows of Route 9. Neighbors resonated a common chord; the pond is a retreat, an oasis of life, Walden transcendence. This theme repeated over and over again, public sentiment is heartening.
People spoke of the years of family memories. Anthony wrote, “I’ve gone to school and live in Freehold for 60 years. The pond stands as the major landmark to ‘The Freeholds,’ the pond and the wildlife should be preserved.”
The sun is shining on us and our hopes are with the turtles. Please support Lake Topanemus restoration plans, and like Rosa says, don’t take the pond for granted.
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours” ― Henry David Thoreau.
Joseph J Ferdinando
Freehold Township
