I never considered myself a big fan of nature and the outdoors, but as I get older I see myself enjoying it more and more. As a NYC native, you would be surprised to hear that I had never been to Randall’s Island before. I was not too stunned to visit the island on the coldest day of the week, but that did not stop me from enjoying the views on the trip. I could not help but think about how beautiful it would look once flowers blossomed and the trees were full. I took many pictures of the urban farm, the Hellgate bridge, the East River, and the Salt Marsh.
I was most surprised to learn that the Island used to be separated into two islands, Randall’s and Ward’s that were conjoined using landfill. Also that 20% of NYC is built on top of landfills! Getting to see the Salt Marsh also stood out to me because of its appearance during the low tide. I would love to go back during high tide to see how the salt marsh as well as the shorelines fill up from the rivers.
While I did not catch pictures of the many bird species on and around the island, I greatly enjoyed the bird watching and seeing multiple duck and geese species in the river. I reached out to both the Feminist Bird Club and NYC Audubon about upcoming bird watching events and am still awaiting a response, but I look forward on visiting the island again for these events. Overall, the trip to Randall’s Island opened my eyes to various ways to create a more sustainable environment as well as the effects of the climate on the land.
Who knew that beavers are some of the best architectural and engineering professionals in the animal kingdom? I attended the NYC Parks educational beaver event in Staten Island, which took place in Long Pond Park and led by a trio of rangers. The entire event consisted of walking throughout the Park and visiting the large pond, where the main ranger, Vin, provided an extensive education of beavers. Long Pond Park was the site of a beaver lodge several years ago, and Vin said we may see remnants of it. He started off with a preface of how, compared to the past prior decades, NYC has a lot more different wildlife now, such as hawks, eagles, whales, and seals. Just in Staten Island, there has been a significant increase in the number of deers and in the future we will start to see many coyotes, which have been spotted more in other boroughs over the recent years.
Education started off with the history of the North American Beaver. Unfortunately, they were almost exterminated due to the fur trade. Around the 1600s, immigrants arrived in North America and beaver fur was highly sought after because beaver numbers in Europe were declining. These people would trap beavers, bring the fur back to Europe, and become rich. Vin pulled out a sample of real beaver fur and had the group feel it; it was incredibly soft, luscious, and dense. It was so dense that every square inch of fur has 70-150 thousand hairs. The only other animal that exceeds this amount of hair per square inch is the sea otter! Vin went on to discuss other reasons why beaver population declined, such as how NYC’s wetlands worsened through dumping chemicals into waterways, and this not only impacted beavers, but NYC wildlife as a whole. On top of that, beavers can be exterminated because they may damage properties and flood basements.
Nonetheless, he explained that there are a lot of ecological benefits to beavers. For example, streams can overtime carry sediment from one location to another, but where beavers dam a stream, they create a new pond that forms habitats for fish, frogs, turtles, insects and the ponds become nursing grounds. The sediment is prevented from being carried across the stream and the water quality becomes cleaner at the site of a dam through filtration. Dams and ponds also protect beavers from predators because they don’t want to go into these waters to catch them, unlike by river banks. Another ecological benefit is that these ponds allow for the fish to flourish and become a new food source for other animals. Interestingly, out in the west, beavers help in slowing the spread of wildfires from their pond creations.
The group eventually walked over to a large pond, where Vin explained how Beavers build their homes on the water. Their lodges can be over 20 feet long and 6 feet above the water, which have underwater entrances so predators can’t get inside. Impressively, these structures have air vents to let warm air out at the top, have multiple rooms, such as where babies are nursed in, a bathroom, food room, and they may also have non-related guests living in the same lodge, such as muskrats. Beavers are apparently engineering geniuses! They even use the frozen ponds as refrigerators, as they are able to go underwater to collect their food.
At the end of the nature walk, I asked Vin: “Despite the fact that we did not see any beavers today, or any remnants of their structures around the large pond we stood at, let’s say that today they showed up, how long would they stay in one spot?” Vin stated “it can be for their whole lifetime that they stay here. We actually did have beavers in historic Richmond Town, but unfortunately they kept flooding the area, so the department of environmental protection took them. So, unfortunately beavers can be relocated depending on the situation.” It’s clear that human conflict is one of the main challenges of having beavers thrive in an environment.
Our recent field trip to Randall’s Island proved to be extremely educational and eye-opening to the environmental issues that specifically affect New York City. Most concerning to learn was the reality of the city’s sewer system, which combines our waste with rainwater in such a way that heavy precipitation events result in an overflow of the system and thus dumping raw sewage into our waterways instead of the designated treatment plants. About 25 million gallons of sewage are dumped into the NYC waterways every year from 490 combined sewage overflow canals, most of which are situated on the East River. As a New Yorker, it is immensely discouraging to find that one of the biggest and most prominent cities in the world can have such an outdated and inefficient sewage system. With over 7500 miles of sewer pipes, replumbing the entire city is not a feasible project; instead, the city is concerned with increasing greenery to store rainwater so the runoff doesn’t overflow the sewers. This includes rain gardens, which are planted areas that collect runoff from streets, and infiltration basins, which store rainwater below ground. After contacting Christopher Girgenti, the Director of Environmental Programs at Randall’s Island, I learned that Randall’s Island is special in the fact that there are no direct CSOs on the island, and instead the island has a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. In this system, sewage goes directly to wastewater treatment plants while stormwater is directly released into surrounding waterways instead of combining with sewage. Girgenti also highlighted the island’s freshwater wetland which “absorbs about 40 acres of runoff from the Island’s center and catchment basins, reducing the impact of flooding and capturing water on the island.” The island also has a vegetated path with a dry well underneath the soil that absorbs runoff to reduce flooding during wet weather events. In these ways, Randall’s Island helps manage rainfall during storm events without contributing to NYC’s CSO system.
This was my first time ever visiting Randall’s Island Park. It is an amazing place to visit and enjoy the scenery. It is only a short drive and bus ride away. This is an great destination to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. My overall impression of the environment is that there is a lot of sustainability happening within the island. From the huge growing urban farms to the coastline restoration project to the salt marshes.
It was very interesting to learn the different ways that people are making changes to adapt to more environmental friendly methods. A salt marsh is a type of wetland found next to salty water bodies. The salt marshes found on Randall’s Island have tide flow into and out from the Harlem River, which feeds into the New York Harbor. There are two low tides and two high tides, where it floods the marshes. daily. With extremely high rates of photosynthesis, salt marshes are one of the most productive natural systems on the planet. The salt marshes are one way the park is using its resources to help facilitate dynamic habitat with distinct zones. There are different zones in the salt marsh due to the elevation in relation to the tides. Incorporating different plants used to build salt marshes based on their tolerances to salt water. This creates a unique ecosystem with specialized plants and animals that can survive in salt water. Some plants found in the salt marshes are cordgrass and salt meadow hay. These plants help stabilize the soil and reduce runoff. I have reached out to Randall’s Island Park Alliance Office through email and have yet to receive a response.
Many Americans tend to imagine the harmful effects of climate change as hitting hardest in far away, remote locations—but the necessity of implementing resilient infrastructure is no secret to New Yorkers.
Set apart from yet coexisting with the bustling streets of the island of Manhattan lives Randall’s Island, a park-filled, borderline verdant land of a bit over 500 acres that’s just isolated from the city by the Harlem River, from Queens by the East River and from the Bronx by the Bronx Kill.
Here, authorities and advocates are experimenting through a new program that will see the salt marshes—which once lined the majority of the greater New York area with wetlands, forming a protective buffer from storm surges and erosion—return once again to Randall’s Island’s meager coastline.
Erosion is already evident in much of the shoreline, exposing the roots of doomed trees as the tide creeps ever closer to a sidewalk.
The island, along with its 433 acres of parkland, is managed by the Randall’s Island Park Alliance. It boasts its extensive programs that, in the summer time especially, bus hundreds of city kids to the island to learn about urban ecology, local wildlife and engage in sporty activities.
“Our restored waterfront areas offer natural flood and erosion control, actively clean air and water, provide nurseries for fish, and are sources of food for resident and migrating birds,” a statement reads on Randall Island’s website.
“As a public park that is also an island in the middle of New York City, the Island has enormous potential as a resource for research into issues such as water quality and the success of restoration work in urban environments.”
Cordgrasses, shrubs and seaweed populate the expansive field that sits below the towering Triborough Bridge. The exposed mud is concealed at high tide as seawater rushes in from the Harlem River—and while it may look desolate, it remains one part of an environment that has one of the most robust track records on Earth as a biodiverse and carbon-sequestering ecosystem.
You would be remiss to let the off season fool you. I am glad we had the chance to see the farm, a 40,000 square foot space featuring over a hundred raised beds, two greenhouses, four rice paddies and a fruit tree orchard. Even in the present season, it was impressive to sense/envision the emerging transformation as we come into spring. Beyond the annual output of 3,500 pounds of food, the prudent consideration of the Park Alliance to design the farm to foster parallel learning along with growing filled me with satisfaction. It is perhaps easy for some to overlook the value of outdoor classrooms but it is precisely these sorts of supplemental learning environments especially in cities that incite meaningful, lasting implicit connections and a more personal relationship with the nature of our consumption. As we become increasingly detached from the realities and paradoxically reliant on a complex global food network, programs like Edible Education hosted by the farm alliance that addresses fundamental concepts like soil biodiversity, urban ecosystems, resilient agricultural strategy, composting even healthy eating will inhabit the front lines towards reclaiming a sense of ownership over our nutrition and better stewardship of our miracle planet.
It was a blessing to hear that the program persevered over COVID. The first harvest of the 2021 season yielded, “50 pounds of produce including carrots, chives, spinach…” Ciara Sidwell. Looking forward on March 25@ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm the alliance is putting up an exciting event featuring an award-winning Venezuelan Chef and three-time winning contestant of Chopped (Food Network), Adrina Urbina who will be hosting an interactive cooking demo to make a Shaved Veggies Salad comprised of ingredients harvested from the Urban Farm. The farm clearly has a promising future, I wish the alliance decades of success to come.
