Saddle River (Passaic River tributary)

The Saddle River flows south through much of Bergen County, New Jersey. The river runs through densely populated suburban areas for much of its course. The river takes its name from the river near Saddell in Argyll and Bute in Scotland.[1]

Map of the Passaic/Hackensack watershed.

The headwaters of the Saddle River are in the piedmont terrain of Rockland County, in southern New York state. Streams from this area flow south, forming the Saddle River at their confluence, two miles south of the New York state border, in the town of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

From its feeder streams in Upper Saddle River and the source in Airmont, New York, the Saddle River continues south for 16.3 miles, passing through the towns of Saddle River, Waldwick, Ho-Ho-Kus, Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Paramus, Fair Lawn, Rochelle Park, Saddle Brook, Lodi, Garfield, and Wallington.

The Ho-Ho-Kus Brook, a major tributary, joins the Saddle River at the Dunkerhook area of Saddle River County Park. Their confluence marks the border of four Bergen County towns: Ridgewood, Paramus, Glen Rock and Fair Lawn.

The terminus of the Saddle River is at Garfield and Wallington, where the waterway empties into the Passaic River. The Passaic River drains at Newark Bay and via Arthur Kill and Kill van Kull to the Atlantic Ocean. The northern part of the Saddle River watershed drains an area between the Ramapo River watershed to the west, and the Hackensack River watershed to the east.

Fish species in the Saddle River include largemouth bass, pickerel, bullhead catfish, sunfish and different varieties of trout. Most of the trout are stocked by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, although the uppermost reaches of the river and some of its tributaries hold wild brown trout. These wild trout are threatened by increased residential use of lawn fertilizer which contributes to algae and weed growth.