Tag: Environment

Emerald Ash Borer Discovered in Prospect Park

October 27, 2017

Today, the New York State Departments of Agriculture and Markets (DAM) and Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed the first-ever discovery of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) in New York City in Prospect Park.  Of an initial survey of 10 suspected trees in Prospect Park by Prospect Park Alliance—the non-profit that cares for the Park in partnership with the City, three were confirmed to be infested by this invasive pest by a Cornell University researcher. 

Prospect Park Alliance has removed three trees to date that succumbed to this infestation, located along the Ocean Avenue perimeter of the Park, and additional affected trees in this area will be removed over the winter. NYC Parks, DEC, DAM and Prospect Park Alliance are taking immediate action to limit the spread of infestation and protect New York City’s more than 51,000 ash trees.

“The Emerald Ash Borer infestation was detected in Prospect Park thanks to vigilant monitoring of the tree population by Prospect Park Alliance arborists, a year-round tree crew committed to the protection and preservation of the Park’s 30,000 trees,” said John Jordan, Director of Landscape Management for Prospect Park Alliance. “The Alliance will continue to monitor ash trees in the Park, and will work closely with New York City Parks Department, USDA and DEC to continue tracking and responding to this infestation.”

EAB is a non-native species of beetle whose larvae kill trees by burrowing into the inner bark and thus interrupting the circulation of water and vital nutrients. EAB-infested trees are characterized by thin crowns, sprouts on the trunks of the trees, and the signature d-shaped exit holes adult beetles leave on trees’ bark. EAB only affects ash trees, which constitute roughly three percent of NYC’s street trees. EAB has been present in New York State since 2009.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently awarded a $75,000 Urban Forestry Grant to the Prospect Park Alliance to conduct a tree inventory of Prospect Park. The inventory will include an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 trees in the landscaped areas of the park, representing about half of the total population. The tree inventory will include an invasive insect, pest, and disease detection survey by incorporating the USDA Forest Service early pest detection protocol (IPED).

Help support Prospect Park Alliance’s work to sustain the Park’s 30,000 trees by donating a commemorative tree; becoming a member or making a donation to the Alliance.
 
Additional information about EAB is available on the DEC website.

c. Elizabeth Keegin Colley

Make the Most of Fall Foliage in Prospect Park

October 16, 2017

Fall in Prospect Park is a magical season as the Park lights up in a stunning display of red, orange and yellow foliage. We’ve got you covered with ideas for foliage walks, favorite foliage from Alliance arborists, free nature activities, and some gorgeous fall photography; all to inspire you to get out and enjoy this glorious season in the Park:

Fall Foliage Walks
Prospect Park Alliance has suggested some of the favorite routes through the Park to check out the stunning fall foliage, from the Peninsula up Lookout Hill, from the Nethermead, the Lullwater and beyond.

Facts about Foliage
Why does an oak tree blush red while the ginko glows gold? According to Prospect Park Alliance arborists, the answer is in the very leaves themselves. Plus, the arborists let us in on their favorite fall foliage spots in the Park.

Fall Foliage Slideshow
We’ve rounded up some of our favorite fall foliage photos from past years on Instagram! Take a look to get inspired, then head out to the Park and take your own. Make sure to hashtag your pics with #ProspectPark.

Fall Nature Events in Prospect Park
Want to learn more about the exciting changes the Park experiences during the fall? Join the Prospect Park Alliance for Nature Exploration programs at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, fun for all ages. 

Victor J. Blue for the New York Times

The New York Times Highlights Alliance’s Woodland Restoration Efforts

October 6, 2017

The New York Times gave a fond farewell to Eyebrows, Lily Belle and Swiss Cheese, and the important work these Green Goats performed to help Prospect Park Alliance restore two woodland areas that were hard hit by Hurricane Sandy and other severe storms. This month, the Alliance Natural Resources Crew and volunteers are planting over 20,000 trees, plants and shrubs throughout the Vale of Cashmere, one of the two restoration sites. These native species will help build a healthy forest habitat for birds, wildlife and humans alike. 

Read The New York Times article, and learn more about the Alliance’s work to restore the woodlands.

Lucy Gardner

New Goat Crew Arrives on Lookout Hill

August 15, 2017

As you may have “herd,” the Prospect Park Alliance Natural Resources Crew received some new additions this July. Four new goats, Lily Belle, Eyebrows, Horatio and Swiss Cheese, have arrived on Lookout Hill, a patch of woodlands and one of the highest points in the Park, located behind the newly restored Wellhouse. Like previous goats that have resided in Prospect Park, these four are tasked with clearing vegetation from wooded areas plagued by invasive species in order to make room for native species that will be planted by Alliance staff next fall. These goat, however, are also part of a new research project with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

Although the goats are just arriving on the scene, Prospect Park Alliance’s Landscape Management team has been hard at work in this location for nearly a year. Lookout Hill was selected for restoration because of the severe damage storms such as Hurricane Sandy have inflicted on the area, similar to the Vale of Cashmere. The restoration work in both areas is made possible through $1.2 million in funding from the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Assistance Grant Program for Historic Properties, administered by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Eighty trees on Lookout Hill were either damaged or destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, leaving room for sun-loving invasive species to take over, damaging the ecosystem. According to Mary Keehbauch, the Alliance’s Natural Resources Crew foreperson, the ultimate goal is to “diversify native plant species in a sustainable way.” This means removing the invasives and replacing them with native species without using chemicals or other methods of removal that might harm the local environment.   

In October 2016, a team of Alliance staff partnered with the USFS to perform an initial assessment of the health of the Lookout Hill woodlands. The team was trained by Dr. Rich Hallett, a USFS research scientist, in the protocol for mapping, monitoring and recording the health of forested areas. Throughout the Lookout Hill restoration, the Prospect Park Alliance Natural Resources Crew will continue to monitor the health of the area, and the data collected will be part of a larger effort by the USFS to survey and protect urban forests. During their time in the Park, Lily Belle, Eyebrows, Horatio and Swiss Cheese will be rotated throughout five plots within the area. The health of these “goat” plots will be compared to “goat-less: plots, where Alliance staff will be clearing manually.

The results of this study will help determine the effect that goats have on urban woodlands restoration, and help the Alliance in the future care of the Park’s 250 acres of woodlands. Over the past three decades, the Alliance has invested more than $15 million to restore and revitalize the Park’s woodlands, which were previously in severe decline, including the planting of more than 500,000 trees, plants and shrubs.

Anecdotally, the new herd seems to be nothing short of goat superstars. These goats are younger and less domesticated than previous Prospect Park goats, making them particularly voracious. “They’ve cleared it like champs,” said Keehbauch, “you must come and see them.”  

Prospect Park Alliance

Goats Return to Prospect Park!

May 16, 2017

Back for a second year, Prospect Park Alliance’s beloved herd of goats has returned to the Park as part of the Alliance’s woodland restoration efforts. “It is great to have the goats back to continue their important work,” said Mary Keehbauch, the foreperson of the Alliance’s Natural Resources Crew, which oversees woodland restoration in the Park.

Throughout the Park, storms like Hurricane Sandy felled or damaged over 500 trees, enabling invasive weeds to thrive and overtake the woodlands—harming this fragile ecosystem. In the Park’s northeast corner, where over 50 trees were damaged or destroyed, goats will be working alongside Prospect Park Alliance staff to restore the woodlands, continuing their work from last year. 

“Woodland restoration has always been an important focus for the Alliance,” said Sue Donoghue, Prospect Park Alliance President. “These goats provide an environmentally friendly approach to our larger efforts, and help us make the Park more resilient to future storms.”

Prospect Park Alliance received $727,970 in funding from the National Parks Service through the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Assistance Grant Program for Historic Properties, administered by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The grant not only funds woodland restoration, but historic preservation work in this landscape, known as the Vale of Cashmere. The Alliance also received an additional grant for work later this summer on Lookout Hill, for a total of $1.2 million in funding.

Goats are prodigious climbers and aren’t picky eaters: they have four stomachs and can consume 25 percent of their bodyweight in vegetation each day. They devour the weeds down to their roots, forcing the plants to use all their energy to grow new shoots, only to be eaten by the goats once again. The goats keep eating until the plants do not have enough energy to grow back at all. When their work is complete, Prospect Park Alliance will plant new native trees and shrubs—red and white oaks, spicebush and service berry—which will help bring back important habitat for birds and other wildlife

The goats, contained behind construction fencing, are provided by Green Goats, a goat farm in Rhinebeck, NY, that specializes in landscape restoration. Of the four-goat crew, only one is from last year’s herd—Max, a black pygmy goat. The other three—named Cinnamon, Swirl and Unicorn—are toggenburgs, a Swiss breed of goat known for their productivity.

Later in the summer, the herd will move to another woodland area of the Park, Lookout Hill, to help restore storm damage in this section of the Park. The goats will eat all the invasive weeds that have overtaken these areas, so that the Alliance can plant new native trees and plants to beautify the landscape and bolster natural habitat for birds and other wildlife, ensuring the Park is more resilient against future storms. 

 

Francisco Davila

Alliance at Work: Wintertime with the Arborists

February 16, 2017

In these cold winter months, some aspects of Park maintenance go into a state of hibernation, and many Alliance staff members wait patiently and plan for the upcoming spring season. Not so for arborists Francisco Davila and Christopher Gucciardo, who take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by the winter.

“Our job is year-round,” says Francisco Davila, Arboriculture Supervisor for Prospect Park Alliance, “and every season brings its own set of tasks.”  Prospect Park Alliance arborists have a big task set for them in the care and maintenance of the Park’s more than 30,000 trees, which represent more than 200 species. This is Brooklyn’s last remaining forest, and it is an important wildlife habitat that supports more than 250 species of birds, and countless other creatures.

So what exactly does an arborist do during this chilly time of year? “During the winter we focus on tree pruning and assessments. Since trees are without leaves, winter does provide us the luxury to very quickly spot issues such as cracks, rubbing branches and of course dead limbs. Winter is also a great time for us to scout and plan the future of our canopy by selecting planting sites for our Commemorative Tree Program.”

During this season, it isn’t uncommon to happen upon Davila and his crew taking down tree limbs or removing a tree altogether. So why are they doing this? “Being in a historic park such as Prospect Park we have a lot of beautiful mature trees. We are never happy to remove trees but when we do, it’s because of warranted reasons,” said Davila. When his crew or a Park visitor spots a damaged or unhealthy tree, they assess the situation, “we try to evaluate the tree’s integrity and potential risks to determine if we are going to remove it. The same goes for tree limbs. In making these decisions, overall safety always comes first.”

One of the most fun aspects of winter work for an arborist? “The new views you get from the canopy,” says Davila. “Since the trees have lost their leaves, when you are climbing you get new vast unobstructed views. It’s awesome.”

The life of a city tree is never an easy one, but the Alliance arborists work year-round to keep these Park residents happy and healthy, so next time you take a walk in the Park, look up! You might just see an arborist taking in the view.

Learn more about the Commemorative Tree Program.

Bianca Nelson

Restoring Prospect Park’s Evergreen Trees

December 14, 2016

There are many ways to contribute to Prospect Park—you can volunteer your time, donate or become a member of the Prospect Park Alliance, or even buy a ticket for a ride on the Park’s historic Carousel. The newest way to make a difference in Brooklyn’s Backyard? Plant an evergreen tree! 

This year, the Alliance has launched a commemorative evergreen tree program, allowing individuals to donate these hardy year-round species to the Park. Prospect Park is home to 30,000 trees of more than 150 species, the vast majority of which are deciduous, meaning that they lose all their leaves for part of the year. These deciduous species get plenty of attention for their flowers, fruits and fall foliage, but this new program shifts the focus to an oft-overlooked set of species.

“The Park needs evergreens for a variety of reasons,” says John Jordan, Director of Landscape Management at the Prospect Park Alliance. “They give winter interest and they provide habitat for a wide variety of species. Furthermore, many of the previous evergreen species planted in the Park (such as Austrian pines and Northern Hemlock) have been dying out, and we do not want to lose the evergreen presence.”

While Prospect Park Alliance arborists are still determining which species of evergreens will come to the Park, two that are likely to be included are the white pine (Pinus strobus), a native to eastern North America that can easily live to be 200 years old, and the American holly (Ilex opaca), whose berries attract a variety of songbirds. 

“The program is a great way to give back to the park and to help us maintain a diversity of tree species,” says Jordan. “A diverse forest is a healthy forest.”

Ready to gift the Park a commemorative evergreen? Take a look at a map of proposed locations, and contact us for more information.

Return of the Goats

August 18, 2016

This week, the Prospect Park Alliance welcomed back the herd of goats that are helping to restore woodlands in the Park’s northeast corner. The goats, which first came this past May, did such a great job chomping and chewing their way through the large number of weeds that had overtaken the area, that the Alliance sent them home to their farm in Rhinebeck, New York, until there was more for them to eat.

The first person to greet their arrival was Mary Keehbauch, the foreperson of the Alliance’s Natural Resources Crew, which oversees woodland restoration in the Park. “It is great to have the goats back to continue their important work,” said Mary. Sadly, the herd is returning a bit smaller, with Raptor and Skittles staying in Rhinebeck. “We will miss them, but their absence just reflects how productive the goats were in removing weeds during their first stay in the Park.”

What is it like to work with goats? According to Mary this earth-friendly approach has been a learning experience. “Each day the crew (which is also performing restoration work), first checks the goats, bringing them fresh water and herding them to the area that needs the most grazing. We secure them in the area having learned the hard way that the goats want to be where ever we happen to be working. They treat us as if we are an extension of their group. It’s sweet, really.” At the end of the day, the goats are returned to their overnight pen with fresh water and enough forage to last until the morning.  

Mary’s history with the Alliance, and the Park, goes back further than the goats. She began working at the Alliance nearly 10 years ago, starting with an internship with the Natural Resources Crew. This blossomed into playing a central role supervising the planting of the new landscape at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, as well as the White Levy Esplanade and Baier Music Island, which serve as wildlife habitat.

After a brief hiatus from the Park to serve as the horticultural supervisor at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Mary returned this year to lead the charge with the Park’s goats. Mary not only ensures that the goats are well cared for and the invasive plants removed, but also oversees the planting of native plant species to the area, which will create important habitat for wildlife, including the Park’s nearly 250 species of birds.

It’s a major challenge, but between Mary, her crew and the goats, removal of invasive species and the full reintroduction of native plants is an attainable goal. And Mary, who considers herself more of a conservationist than a horticulturalist, gets to live her dream. “I figured out a way to live in New York City but still play in the woods all day.”

Learn more about goats at Prospect Park.

PPA Profiles: W.I.L.D. for Prospect Park

July 11, 2016

Mary Beth Artz, one of the founding members of W.I.L.D. for Prospect Park and a lifelong Brooklynite, has always felt a strong connection to the Prospect Park Lake. As a child growing up in Windsor Terrace, her father would take her to the Lullwater to look for tadpoles. This area is still one of Artz’s favorite places in the Park, and she has dedicated herself to improving the health of the animals that call the Lake home.

W.I.L.D., in their own words, is “a group of community members committed to ensuring that Prospect Park is safe and healthy for all animals and plants that call the park’s incredible ecosystem home,” and seeks to accomplish this goal through a combination of volunteerism and outreach around the Lake. Since forming in 2011, W.I.L.D meets regularly to remove trash from the water and to educate park visitors about how improperly discarded trash, such as plastic bags and soda cans, pose a danger to wildlife. Recently, members removed floating debris from the lake, using boats provided by Village Community Boathouse. Artz also conducts solo clean-ups multiple times a week, and represents W.I.L.D. when working with the Prospect Park Alliance on environmental projects.

Most recently, W.I.L.D. joined forces with the Alliance and FIDO in Prospect Park to create and install recycling containers where anglers can responsibly dispose of fishing line, which can seriously entangle fish and birds. Artz advised the Alliance on where these containers should be placed, in order to have the largest positive impact. W.I.L.D. members visit the containers regularly to remove the fishing line, and speak with anglers to encourage them to “clear your gear.”

W.I.L.D.’s dedication has led to partnerships with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, when he was state senator, and the Humane Society, bringing city-wide attention to the Park’s biodiversity. Artz’s care for animals also extends beyond her work with W.I.L.D. She has worked as an educator at the Prospect Park Zoo, and is a devoted owner of several rescue cats.

W.I.L.D. is open to wildlife lovers of all ages—their youngest member is only ten years old. W.I.L.D. also encourages everyone to be an everyday steward of the Park by bringing your own trash bags, and properly disposing of garbage. Every little bit helps to beautify the Lake, and protect the wide variety of animals that call it home.

Join one of their monthly clean ups!

A Greener Lakeside

March 15, 2016

As part of its commitment to sustainable design, the Alliance recycled a significant amount of the construction waste when creating the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, including the soil, which was stored on site and proved to be the perfect growing ground for weeds. While the Alliance added a number of native trees, flowering shrubs, perennials  and grasses to the landscape as part of the project, these plants battle for air, light, water, space and nutrients with the weeds, which if left unchecked could reign supreme.

In a new strategy to combat weeds and ensure the continued beauty and diversity of the landscape, this past year Ronen Gamil, Assistant Gardener for the Prospect Park Alliance, saved seeds from several native grasses and perennials. Ronen harvested and cleaned the seeds after they dried on the plant, and then stored and planted the seeds this winter so they could be exposed to cold weather and better germinate this spring.

Thanks to Ronen, the Alliance was able to cultivate native species with great names and even greater ecological importance, like little bluestem, bee balm, gray goldenrod, foxglove beardtongue, whorled milkweed and sideoats grama (an endangered plant) within the Park. The planting of carefully saved seeds bolsters and even expands the native plants’ range. And the more native grasses present in the Park, the more competition for unwanted weeds. Saving seeds also increases the species’ genetic diversity, and yields better-adapted plants than those grown from purchased seedlings.

Seed saving requires thoroughness, so Ronen’s task is not an easy one. But with spring around the corner, and with it thousands of blooms, it’s easy to justify the hard work that goes into making it all possible. Take a stroll up to the green roof and, thanks to the abundance of native vegetation, it’s easy to forget you’re standing atop a state-of-the-art, and LEED Gold rated skating center in the nation’s largest city.

Swing by the LeFrak Center at Lakeside this spring to check out Ronen’s handiwork on the green roof!