For more than 60 years, the Greenbrook Sanctuary has served as an unparalleled refuge of natural beauty and wonder for city dwellers and suburbanites in search of a landscape without cars, without noise and without the flat grayness of concrete.

Located in Bergen County, New Jersey, the 165-acre Greenbrook Sanctuary is administered by the Palisades Nature Association and is situated less than five miles north of the George Washington Bridge. Throughout its six-decade history, the sanctuary has been the place to go for people who love the peace of nature but simply cannot find it in a city park or a greenery-filled rooftop.

"We're close to the metropolis," says naturalist Nancy Slowik, Greenbrook's director. "Folks come here to get away. This is a place where people have the opportunity to unplug." The nature preserve has no electricity, so "up until the arrival of cell phones, you never even heard phones ringing here," says Slowik. As its brochure says, Greenbrook is "a sanctuary rather than a park" and it is dedicated to the "protection and appreciation of nature rather than recreation…." This is no day at the beach with watercraft and the smell of grills. This is a place for serenity and quiet.

One of the best features of the sanctuary is its proximity to densely populated urban areas. It's close and reachable by anyone who wants to visit, either by car or by city bus. It should be noted, however, that Greenbrook is a closed nature preserve, meaning that membership is required before setting foot on the grounds. Greenbrook's staff and volunteer leadership have kept membership prices low—$35 per year for individuals and $45 per year for families—in an effort to ensure that the sanctuary is open to any and all people who want to experience it.

"It's clearly affordable," Slowik says. "We try to keep it that way by generating more memberships, not raising prices." Greenbrook has approximately 1,900 members, and 40 percent of those are family memberships.

The Sanctuary Experience

Once that membership has been secured, visitors can experience the preserve from dawn to dusk daily. Because Greenbrook is what's known as a passive-use sanctuary, no potentially damaging activities are allowed on the grounds. No bikes, no dogs, no picnicking, no recreational sports and no camping. And that suits Greenbrook members just fine. It's easy to wile away a day at the sanctuary by hiking, honing photography skills or just taking the time to clear one's head and stand 370 feet above the Hudson River, contemplating life in the city across the water.

Greenbrook offers 17 trails with uninterrupted views of the river as well as views of the George Washington Bridge and the skyline of northern Manhattan. It's these views that truly stand out for most visitors. "The cliff edge is our calling card," Slowik says. "The view spreads from the tip of Manhattan to the Bronx to Yonkers. It's pretty breathtaking."

Wildlife also gives the cliff's edge its spirit. "Folks come to see the bald eagles and the peregrine falcons," Slowik says. "Ravens are a recent addition. They're nesting on the cliffs alongside the peregrines. The sanctuary really gives people an opportunity to see wildlife up close and not behind bars and in cages."

Visitors also marvel at the double cascade waterfall, a feature people usually only see in the movies or on exotic trips to the tropics. Closer to ground level, there is a pond and a bog and trees and wildflowers to study, as well as hundreds of wild creatures beyond the hawks and eagles. Wild turkeys roam the landscape. Butterflies dance delicately from flower to flower while frogs give basso profundo tone to their rhythmic calls. This is a place where you can lie on your back and look at the clouds, imagining what it would be like to never go to another board meeting again.

"This is a really important place to people," Slowik says. "And once they find us, they're fiercely protective of the sanctuary." So much so that Slowik says her volunteer staff hardly ever has to reprimand people for misuse of the preserve—members do it for them, eager to make sure that their refuge stays safe and sound.

Natural Education

Greenbrook also serves as an educational resource, offering nature programs to its members each weekend, with some workshops or programs offered during the week. Offered through the Palisades Nature Association, all events are conducted by professional naturalists. This past summer, for example, Greenbrook members were able to take part in a workshop on nature photography, early morning bird walks and mid-morning dragonfly walks. Members were recruited to help with the local butterfly count and are gearing up for a fall wildflower walk along the shore trail. There's even an annual photography contest.

For people who cannot attend the classes, there are also self-guided tours of the sanctuary. Visitors are given detailed brochures, directing them along paths past certain important trees and letting them know what kind of plant life and wildlife they may spot along the course of their journey. And if visitors see anything rare as they're exploring the sanctuary, they are encouraged to report it to a staff member, again adding to the sense of proprietorship enjoyed by Greenbrook members.

Local school districts benefit from Greenbrook as well, enjoying workshops and classes hosted by the sanctuary throughout the year. "Although we primarily offer adult education, we do some programs for local school groups in New Jersey and New York City, including the Bronx and Manhattan," Slowik says. "The kids will come out to the sanctuary."

A Place for Research

Beyond the value Greenbrook offers its members and local schoolchildren, the sanctuary is also a place of great importance for researchers keen on studying a natural habitat free from the collateral contaminants of urban or suburban settings. The preserve has six distinct habitat types: mixed oak forest, cliff edge, pond, ravine, meadow and wetland forest. More than a dozen different types of trees fill the acreage, from oak, hickory and black elm to beech tree, tulip trees, sweet gum and tupelo. More than 20 different species of fern flourish there as well. During the spring migration, it is possible to spot 80 species of birds in a single day, including 20 different species of warbler. Small mammals such as red foxes, flying squirrels, weasels and deer also call the preserve home. This type of diversity means that researchers have an incredible rich palette from which to study the health and well-being of New Jersey's flora and fauna.

"Because this is an interstate park, you can see trends here," Slowik says. "We maintain inventories of breeding birds. We do butterfly counts. We maintain amphibian egg counts." Researchers from colleges, universities and museums across the region come to Greenbrook to conduct studies alongside Greenbrook's volunteer staff. "We did a survey of small mammals with the New York Natural History Museum," Slowik says, "and a mushroom survey with the New York Mycological Society."

In the future, Slowik says she would like to see Greenbrook become even more of a destination as a field station for monitoring the health of region's natural resources.

"We would like to continue to expand our role as a metropolitan resource," Slowik says. "Even outside of Greenbrook, we do field work monitoring flora and fauna of the New Jersey Palisades." And there is still much to learn at Greenbrook. "This sanctuary is a living, breathing entity. It moves, it grows. And we monitor it."

Slowik sees a bright future for the sanctuary. In the face of increased competition from other nature preserves and wildlife groups, Greenbrook continues to stand as a leader. "When we first started, there were hardly any nature groups," she says. "Nowadays we have more competition from other nature and environmental organizations."

Slowik believes Greenbrook will remain at the top of the pack, in part because of the dedication of the men and women who volunteer their time to the success of the sanctuary. "Our board is completely volunteer," Slowik says. Currently, there are 14 members and dozens more individuals who work as volunteer staff. "We have a wonderful volunteer group here," says Slowik, who has been with Greenbrook herself for 18 years. "I couldn't get things done without them. They're terrific."

One visit to Greenbrook Sanctuary and it becomes easy to understand how so many people could become so dedicated to 165 pristine acres of land. From the soaring promontories to the sight of a cliff-side eagle's nest to the roar of the waterfalls and the cricket chirps of the bog, the sanctuary is a place where people can forget the pressures of their every day lives. There are no car horns, no heat from the subway grates, no shouts, no smell of diesel fuel, no traffic jams. It's just people and birds and trees and animals—just how it was when the land was first settled, just how it began so many years ago. It's the perfect place for peace and quiet. In fact, you can almost hear the silence now….

Liz Lent is a freelance writer and teacher living in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.