A swampy, forested nature preserve on the Hackensack and Maywood border – a serene departure from the heavily developed areas that surround it – is becoming the focus of a decidedly agitated dispute among its neighbors.

Residents on the Hackensack side of Borg's Woods claim that misguided preservationists have been repeatedly damming the brook that chortles through the 14-acre wetlands. They argue that the group is trying to increase the habitat for waterfowl and wetlands creatures but is instead creating an acrid, mosquito-infested pool that is flooding basements and encroaching on their back yards.