Oyster Restoration in the Bronx

Today I got to start off my morning by donning hip-high waders and walking waist-deep into the Soundview Bay. The early morning sun cast ripples of light all across the water. Behind me is the shoreline and the wooded patches of Soundview Park. 

Katie and I in our fashionable hip-waders.

This scene is everything but rural; ahead of me the skyscrapers and buildings of Manhattan are reflected in the calm waters. To the right, trucks move in and out of warehouses, and overhead planes cross the sky from nearby LaGuardia Airport. In spite of all these signs of development, this spot is inherently beautiful. Since I moved to New York City I have found that my old definition of “beautiful” is constantly being challenged and expanded. Prior to my move, “beautiful” meant natural and undisturbed; yet on my daily runs through Central Park I am constantly overwhelmed by the beauty of man’s creations mixing with the natural world. Here at Soundview, the bay is anything but natural and undisturbed, but it still possesses a raw, natural beauty.

Can you imagine getting to start your day out with this view?

While I admire the scenery, Katie, another seasonal research assistant, lowers the water probe into the water. Oysters, once abundant in New York and throughout the Mid-Atlantic have largely been depleted by over-harvesting and habitat depletion. As part of this project Katie has been helping to build reefs and seed them with “spat”. This is in hopes that native oysters will also attach to these reefs as well. Katie explains to me that recruitment is one of the more threatening issues that oyster populations in this region face. When an oyster attaches to a reef they attach on top of each other and over time this builds up the reef. 

As we wade through the muck Katie also points out a spider crab and moon snail. It is amazing to think that amidst the chaos and development of Soundview there is a whole ecosystem of organisms that we can’t even see under the water! With our work at Soundview finished, Katie and I haul our waders back to the truck and head back to the office.  

Soundview wildlife, spider crab (top) and moon snail (bottom). Photos from: http://naturalsciences.org/microsites/education/treks/coastal/pages/Spider-Crab.htm and ://www.seashells.org/sharkeye.htm

Native Plant Garden at NYBG

Today I took a break from the Bronx River to work with Jody Payne, curator of the Native Plant Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. NYBG has always had a Native Plant garden but recently the Leon Levy Foundation gave a gift to completely redesign and rebuild to garden. Jody was offered the opportunity to become the curator of the Native Plant Garden and to help redesign and replant the garden. 

I first got a glimpse of the project back in May when I toured the garden as part of NYC Wildflower Week. At that point, the garden more resembled a construction site than a garden at one of the most famous Botanical Gardens in the US. As part of the project the entire space was renovated, graded to make it accessible to everyone and expanded to 3.5 acres. The different sites within the garden; from dry shade to wet meadow were design to hold different collections of plants with the interest of planting the right plant in the right place.  

One challenge of planting in a construction site is working around the construction, Jody shows me where they have to stop plantings so that nothing will be damaged from by the ongoing construction crews. Even though the project is vast, simple tasks around the garden for general maintenance are still important so I help weed amongst some river birches, Betula nigra while Jody’s head gardener John rigs up a complicated weave of hoses and sprinklers.  

Field Work in the Bronx Forest

The incessantly busy streets of Manhattan are eerily empty at quarter to 7 as I yank open the creaky door of our giant pick-up truck and hoist myself into the passenger seat. Today is our first official day of field work with the Alliance, and Ferdie and I are eager to get an early start before the July humidity descends upon the city.

At our field site we meet up with Valerie Francis, the director of conservation at the Alliance, and the rest of the Bronx River Alliance Crew. Our first task is to clear part of the knotweed from a section upstream, so armed with machetes, weed whackers and trash bags, we begin to slowly take back the shoreline.

 Bronx Alliance member expertly handling a weed whacker along Bronx River bank.

After clearing the knotweed we start up our plot work joined by more Alliance members. I was initially overwhelmed by how much work we had ahead of us, but now I’m surprised to find that with the hard working crew we’ve breezed through our plot work. Each plot is marked on four corners by flagging, and with a pin oak Quercus palustris in the center. The tree signals a different treatment; either a control site (knotweed is left alone), a cut site (knotweed is cut to the ground) or a dig site (knotweed is dug out and the roots are removed).

 White PVC piping to lay out the boundaries of our 2 x 2 meter plots.

Later Ferdie and I will return to do some data collection to see what vegetation has seeded in and how much knotweed has grown back. As we wrap up, the crew relaxes and rehydrates by the truck; although the work they do is exhausting, they maintain a playful and fun attitude. I can tell that for them the work they do is more than a paycheck-- they operate as a family and they believe in the Alliance mission and their own duty to restore the Bronx River. I am really looking forward to getting to work with such a welcoming and warm group of people and learn from their experiences in the field, comparing it with my own fieldwork from the past.

Bronx River Alliance and Shoelace Park

Having gotten to warm-up my plant ID skills yesterday with Jessica and the NYBG interns I am ready for my first day with the NRG and my supervisor Ferdie Yau. 

I toss my backpack in the back of the huge pick-up parked outside of the office. The fancy buildings of 104^th and 5^th Ave. seem like a comical backdrop for the beat-up monster of a truck we are climbing into. As Ferdie expertly weaves our truck in and out of New York City traffic the truck transforms to a sporty racecar. He explains to me that we are headed up to the Bronx to meet up with some members of the Bronx River Alliance.

The Parks seal on our trusty all-terrain vehicle.

Started in 2001, the Alliance’s mission “serves to protect, improve and restore the Bronx River corridor so that it can be a healthy ecological, recreational, educational and economic resource for the communities through which the river flows.” They achieve this with river clean-up and restoration projects, as well as education and outreach.

Beatiful Bronx River with visible knotweed creeping along the bank. Photo from:

http://bronxriver.org/?pg=content&p=abouttheriver&m1=11&m2=15.

When we arrive at the Alliance office in the Bronx we meet with Elaine Feliciano and Robin Kriesgerg. I am immediately drawn to Elaine. She has a very warm, welcoming way about her and I can tell from talking with her that she is passionate about and driven by the Alliance’s mission. Elaine has been at the Alliance for nine years, almost from the beginning of the organization, and she clearly knows her stuff. As we begin our tour of the Bronx River and the areas managed by the Alliance, she can point to an oak and tell you when it was planted and who planted it with her.

The purpose of our tour today is to help the Alliance create a map to prioritize areas for restoration. The Bronx River spans 23 miles, a huge area, and the Alliance staff is small. They need to be organized and methodical in their approach to get stuff done. Our first stop is Shoelace Park. As we tour the park there are people stationed on benches, dogs out for their daily jaunt around the park, and children playing on the jungle gym, though this park doesn’t resemble the beautiful, manicured parks of Manhattan. The river’s natural beauty is masked by steep erosion tumbling into the water and the tall knotweed that obscures any view of the river.

Locals enjoying the trails along the Bronx River. Photo from: http://bronxriver.org/?pg=content&p=abouttheriver&m1=11&m2=15.

This park represents the intersection of two of my growing interests in horticulture and ecology. Along the river, the Alliance is primarily concerned with ecological restoration. This involves controlling the knotweed, replanting with native trees, and controlling the erosion and storm water overflow. The second part of the work for this park is concerned more with the function and aesthetic considerations, so plantings have more of a landscape architecture or horticultural purpose than ecological.

This park reminds me a lot of the way Lynden Miller, describes Central Park and Bryant Park before they were taken over by Lynden Miller, redesigned and replanted.

I greatly admire and appreciate Lynden’s projects but they are mostly finished projects-- the gardens have been planted and have been given the infrastructure to continue to beautify the space for years to come.

What is so exciting to me is to see a park like Shoelace with the potential to have the same transformation--and for me to get to be a part of that process! Robin is quick to keep my feet on the ground; when I express my excitement to her she reminds me that projects in Manhattan receive much more money and publicity than their neighbors in the Bronx. A harsh reality, but I am excited to be a part of the team tackling this challenge.

Our next stop is Muskrat Cove where we actually get to see some other Alliance crew members working out in the field, planting trees on a bank where they have just removed the Japanese Knotweed. As exciting as it is to see the crew in action we quickly become discouraged when we come across a plot that was planted only a month ago. When the crew removes knotweed they put down a black fabric to block light and suppress growth of the knotweed. While this method is temporarily effective, in this plot knotweed has wasted no time growing in and around the holes cut to plant trees. Because knotweed grows via rhizomes, once it has established itself, it is hard to stop.  Additionally, at each site where the water comes up the bank it washes away the fabric and the knotweed takes over.

Bronx River crew member standing over a recently cut "knotweed cemetery".

Crew members spreading out black fabric "geotextile" to block light and hopefully prevent Japanese knotweed seeds from germinating.

Before we head back to Manhattan Ferdie wants to check on some plots he has set-up for knotweed research along the Bronx River in the Bronx Forest. Before we have even put the truck in park a girl and two men knock on our window and ask us to call the police. Two men with knives just ran through the park and robbed one of the men in front of us. As Ferdie calmly gets the full story and contacts the police, I marvel at yet another aspect of urban ecology that I have not encountered up until this point.  Armed robbery in the Forest, go figure, I guess I have a lot to get used to. After contacting the police and cautiously driving through the forest with one eye on our plots and another eye out for the alleged robbers, Ferdie and I wrap up the day. Back at the NRG office our tank of a truck is returned to its rightful spot in front of the ornamental wrought-iron gates of the Central Park Conservancy.

Our neighbors, the regal gates of the Central Park Conservancy.

First Day in the Big City

 Today was my first dive into urban ecology in New York City. Since I had some down time before my position with the Natural Resources Group officially began, I decided to work with some of the other people and projects around the city involved with urban horticulture/ecological projects.

Patch of green along the Bronx River.

One of these people is Jessica Schuler. Jessica is the Manager of the 50 acre forest at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Throughout my job search Jessica was an amazing and generous contact. She is currently working on a project with some of the NYBG interns on a long term monitoring project in the forest to examine changes in forest composition and structure over time.

 The way this monitoring works:

Several 10 x 10 m plots have been set along transects throughout the forest. At each plot all the understory vegetation and canopy trees are identified. Cover is estimated for understory vegetation, leaf litter (decaying vegetation on forest floor), mineral soil, and coarse woody debris (fallen dead trees or branches) along a 5 m diagonal line, the DBH for all trees greater than 15 cm DBH.

Are you tired yet?

While I have done similar fieldwork projects in the past, this site presents new challenges.

The NYBG forest is filled with invasive plants, many of which are a product of the forest’s proximity to the NYBG grounds. On early seed collection trips botanists and plant collectors would often gather seeds from exotic trees without realizing the invasive potential of these plants. In the NYBG forest Alianthus altissima, the tree of heaven, Phellodendron amurense, amur cork tree and Aralia elata, Japanese Angelica Tree are such plants. As part of the NYBG forest management plan, herbicides have been applied to some of these trees in an effort to suppress their growth in the forest.

Opposite compound leaves of the Tree of Heaven; the large quantity of seeds in the center allow this tree to have prolific growth in many environments. Photo from: https://www.nysdot.gov/divisions/engineering/design/landscape/trees/is-vegetation

Fortunately there are still native species throughout the forest including the prickly Rubus alleghensis and Rubus hispidus. The prickly trunks and leaves of the Aralia and the constant threat of poison ivy (Toxidendron radicans) means we have our work cut out for us.

Fruit and leaves of the Allegheny blackberry, the fruits of this native plant are an important food sources for wildlife. Photo from: http://www.nps.gov/plants/pubs/chesapeake/plant/1269.htm.

After spending a day balancing on fallen tress, contorting my body around the ominous looking Aralia spines and learning lots of new plants I am exhausted. The subway ride home lulls me to sleep as images of Aralia and Toxidendron flash each time tops of my eye lids sneak down to meet the bottom lids. 

Urban Ecology and Native Plant Restoration in the Big Apple

Today I found myself feet from the Bronx River Parkway, knee deep in Japanese knotweed, working to the soundtrack of whizzing traffic and the Metro-North. The only wildlife sighted was a few walkers and bikers who emerged from the trails and seemed about as surprised to see us as we were them.

Bronx River in Bronx forest with a healthy dose of Japanese Knotweed along the bank.

As an environmental studies major and an ecology and botany enthusiast my studies up until this past year have involved old growth forest in rural Western Pennsylvania or field work in areas of Maine with so few residents that the township is given a number rather than a name (imagine having T4R16-WELS as your mailing address). From the jungles of the Amazon forest in Ecuador to the mountains of Vermont I always assumed that ecological fieldwork was limited to sites untouched by humans or sites that had long ago been abandoned by people.

 Tree canopy walk in Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador.

Old white pine plantation near Augusta, ME.

 Yet here I am in the Bronx River Forest, part of a research site with the Natural Resources Group to test the effectiveness of different methods of Knotweed removal.

 Forested areas along the Bronx River. 

While the Bronx Forest is far from the old-growth areas I am accustomed to, this swath of land is a forest ecosystem just the same. It plays a vital role as a wildlife habitat and fish passage, and as a place for urban dwellers to learn about and fall in love with the plants and peace of the forest.

My first encounter with Urban Ecology was at the Woody Plants Conference at Swarthmore College where I heard a speaker, Patrick Cullina, the Vice President of the Friends of the Highline. The theme of Mr. Cullina’s talk was that nature perseveres and that despite our best efforts, eventually nature will take over where we leave off-- what a humbling and encouraging thought! I love thinking that we are not the almighty powerful destroyers of the planet but rather just passing through, a small part of the universe, the planet’s the environment, and over time all traces of our existence will be replaced by the natural succession of the environment. Having heard Mr. Cullina speak I made sure to visit the Highline next chance I got and was blown away by the sheer beauty that a relatively small number of species of rather ordinary plants can achieve.  I was inspired to see that the park was exceptionally well used; at points it was difficult to get through the narrow passages due to the high volume of visitors. This project exemplifies the interaction between people and the environment. It creates a space for people who might not otherwise seek out nature and informs them about natural ecosystems and their value.

 View of grasses and plantings on the Highline.

The Highline is an impressive urban horticulture project in the Meat Packing District of New York City. Historically the highline was an elevated rail line, was built in the 1930s.  In 1999 Friends of the Highline formed to protect the historic structure from threat of demolition. Friends of the Highline work  with the city of New York to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated, public park. The Highline is an exciting and educational horticultural project. The plantings emphasize the importance of native plants and in many cases mimic natural ecosystems and successional stages. 

And thus began my journey into the urban horticulture/ecological scene in New York City. Inspired by what I learned of this project I did some research on other projects and the people involved with them in NYC. My first contact was Marielle Anzelone, Founder of Drosera. A botanist and conservation biologist, Marielle is responsible for the Native Plant Garden at Union Square and the expanding annual Wildflower Week in NYC. Marielle kindly encouraged me and put me in touch with other ecologists and horticulturalists at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, the New York Restoration Project and al smaller firms such as Alive Structures. These organizations all focus on native plants and ecology in an urban setting.

Suddenly what had seemed like a small niche project in the city had opened my eyes to an ever-widening circle of inspiring people and projects.

I signed on to become a part of this incredible movement by moving into a closet sized apartment on the Upper East Side and beginning a research assistant position with the Natural Resources Group.