Behold! On this huge desolate lot, there once was a house. Now that house is gone and a large amount of old and rusted furniture remains. And in the picture below MEVO volunteers are removing not the first, but the second refrigerator out of the lot. There’s even a washing machine in the whole mess.

Now consider this. Think of all the pollutant’s inside these appliances, made in the 1950s, which are going into our water, and ruining the atmosphere slowly, but steadily. And this can go…

With summer fast approaching, MEVO is getting warmed up for what will be an awesome volunteer season. Be a part of it this summer, and make your mark by helping preserve the environment of Mahwah and other communities in Bergen County. You’ll be doing trash clean ups, tree/flower planting, invasive plant removal, trail construction, even some scenic hikes at the Ramapo Reservation. And make sure to stay tuned, for more news about MEVO’s tire removal competition, set to take place this summer…

Volunteers of all kinds! Trail work is coming to Emerson, New Jersey. On Saturday, May 25th, MEVO will be heading to Emerson to ramp work on the trail project it has started there. For while a trail exists in Emerson, it is in a sorry state.

MEVO will improve the trail by making a more noticeable and clear path to it, as well as make it easier to walk on (said to be one of the most important things for a trail). In addition, water bars to stop erosion and stepping stones to prevent…

Observe: several farmers, sweaty, standing on top of one awesome community garden built, and a job well down. This is just one garden down for MEVO’s Farm to Live program, with many more to go. Because that’s what Farm to Live does— it BUILDS gardens, anywhere it can. The food from these gardens is given to local hunger organizations and pollution from the wasteful grass lawns that these gardens are built on is stopped in its tracks. In short, Farm to Live is building a local sustainable…

Y’all hear that, boys? Sounds like the sound of growing season just around the corner. We here at MEVO have started our seedlings last month: 544 to be exact, and with many more seedlings to be expected along the way. Some of what we’re growing is: eggplants, ground cherries, peppers, collards, broccoli, and cauliflower. Many, many more seedlings are due to arrive soon. We hope we are as excited as we are.

So come volunteer for MEVO this summer and have the chance to work with us!…

Well…this is an awkward situation. But let’s get the facts straight.

Yes, this is a toilet bowl. Yes, it is filthy and MEVO found it dumped in the middle of a forest. And yes, unfortunately illegal dumping such as this has happened all over Northern New Jersey from the 1950s to the early 1990s.

However, MEVO arrived to remove this toilet, and will work to remove other types of pollution every chance it can. So join the MEVO movement! We have a summer internship program, available…

Hey guys, you know what’s awesome? Seed Saver’s Exchange is!

Seed Saver’s Exchange (or SSE) preserves all types of seeds for future generations to grow. They have a facebook page explaining what they do (https://www.facebook.com/seedsaversexchange?fref=ts) and they have helped give MEVO 50 packets of seeds for….free.

And 50 packets of seeds adds up to 3,850 seeds total for MEVO. That is very generous, and MEVO will…

MEVO would like to present one of it’s LEGEN-(wait for it)-DARY Volunteers, Emma Spett! Located in black, the third person on the right, Emma is MEVO’s Volunteer Coordinator; she also server from April 2010 to August 2012 as MEVO’s Earth Crew Program Coordinator. One of our longest serving leaders and our most dedicated volunteer, Emma has volunteered a total of 1,640 hours to MEVO and over 50 different volunteer events, including the one pictured here at Stag Hill.

Emma Spett, we at…

Consider this a birthday card for Earth Day, the holiday turning 43 years old today, officially being older than most (if not all) the volunteers who have been around to make MEVO such an awesome place to be. However, this old timer still has a lot to teach us, and while some aspects of the world Earth Day came into being in no longer exist—the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan, and disco to name a few—others, like the beauty of nature, the pollution and waste that damage it, and, of course, the…

They say inspiration comes from all places, especially the @Jolly Rovers Trail Crew. So MEVO has adopted the Trail Crew’s Bucket Brigade, to combat a large demand for a lot of woodchip mulch into MEVO’s garden. For you see, for MEVO’s container gardens woodchip mulch is good for smothering out weeds around the containers and for putting in walkways that won’t get muddy. But how do we move these large amounts of materials a far distance? Well, we recommend a bucket brigade. Simply, we fill up…

Hey guys! Check out all these seedlings getting watered. We have been starting seedlings throughout the past month in order to get them ready for planting this May. And if you want to join us, and grow some seedlings of your own, but don’t know how to start, check out this step-by-step album. It will explain everything you need to know.…

MEVO’s got Bees! Specifically, Honey Bees. MEVO is going to be building hives and will introduce 20,000 (10,000 per hive) into each new home. And considering a healthy hive can get up to as large as 30,000 bees per hive, we can expect more bees to come. Our hives will be installed at our educational garden at Pony Power Therapies to be used for pollination and honey harvesting, as well as all of MEVO’s other gardens as well.

But how is that going to be done? If you want to learn about…

MEVO’s got Bees! Specifically, Honey Bees. MEVO is going to be building hives and will introduce 20,000 (10,000 per hive) into each new home. And considering a healthy hive can get up to as large as 30,000 bees per hive, we can expect more bees to come. Our hives will be installed at our educational garden at Pony Power Therapies to be used for pollination and honey harvesting, as well as all of MEVO’s other gardens as well.

But how is that going to be done? If you want to learn about…

Who are these awesome volunteers you see here? They hail from New York University and are New York University’s Broome Street Dorm. And they’ve come out to the Bergen Community College Farm for a day of mulching, farm re-designing, and pea planting. These guys are one of our best crews that have ever come out, working hard almost non-stop and getting a LOT of stuff done. Thank you Broome Street Gang for volunteering and making a difference!…

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! This day at MEVO we will be talking about the B Hive Salon’s –Bergen County’s first organic full service boutique salon--Second Annual Earth Week Event. This event will be a Green Fair hosting, among other things: henna tattoos, homemade honey, organic hair chalk and braid bars, Bergen County’s Habitat for Humanity, a new Chevy Spark (that’s right a car), music from Waldwick’s School of Rock, energy saving tips, Bergen S.W.A.N, the Purple Dragon Co-op, and of…

If you are looking to get a job this summer, and like boats as well, look no further than the Greenwood Lake Commission. The Commission is implementing a User Fee program, and is looking to hire a secretary/administrative assistant for it to work in the office in Hewitt, NJ (a part of West Milford) on the weekends during the summer. The pay for this is a stipend of $2,200, and is tax free, though IRS forms do still need to be filled out. Qualifications include working with minimal…

In this photo, MEVO is proud to introduce Mike Salaterski. One of MEVO’s interns and awesome volunteers! The tire he is removing is one of many that need to be banished from Stag Hill in Mahwah New Jersey. And in the coming months MEVO is going to try to remove over 500 tires from the Stag Hill region. These tires leech carinogenic chemicals, heavy metals, and dioxins into the soil, water, forest and animals of Mahwah. Let’s stop this pollution with our own hands, by getting rid of these…

Its spring and MEVO is excited. Not just because of things like April showers and May Flowers but by the Suffren Public Spirit Showcase. MEVO will be participating in this springtime-themed event that’s being held on April 24th from 6-8 pm at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center, at 3 Executive Boulevard in Suffern, New York, Mahwah’s next door neighbor. Over 20 non-profit organizations, MEVO included, will be attending for an evening of fun and refreshments to celebrate the work…

Attention, Attention! Michael Klemens, Professor of Environmental Psychology, will be hosting a lecture called “Economic Stewardship: Encouraging Communities to Protect the Commons” on Thursday April 11th from 6:00-7:30 PM in the Alumni Lounge of Ramapo College. Mr. Klemens is a big name in all things environmental, with over 30 years of research experience, and co-author of the book Nature in Fragments: The Legacy of Sprawl by Columbia Press. The talk will feature how we can make human life…

Attention, volunteers! In less than two weeks, MEVO will be embarking to the wilderness of Emerson, New Jersey for a clean-up in one of the town’s local forests. We hopes that once the area is cleaned up, MEVO can begin construction of a hiking trail through this area. So join us on March 23rd at 9:00 am at Mahwah’s Ramapo Reservation, where we will commute to Emerson to . get. work. done.

And as a final reminder, this Saturday is MEVO’s March Hike of the Month. So be there too, or…