Canadian landfill to be world’s largest pollinator park

Honeybee (Apis mellifera), photo by macropoulos via flickr

City planners in Guelph, Ontario have approved a master plan to transform a 200-acre decommissioned landfill into the world’s largest pollinator park.  The former Eastview Road Landfill, which operated as a municipal dump from 1961 to 2003, has been capped and outfitted with a methane capturing system that converts landfill gas into usable energy.  Filled land, which constitutes about half the site, will host some recreational amenities but primarily shrub and meadow plantings that provide habitat for pollinator species such as bees, butterflies, bats and birds.  These species are surprisingly vital to food production: pollination research suggests that three out of four flowering plants require animal pollinators in order to produce seed and fruit.

Pollinator populations have been in decline in recent years.  Honeybees, in particular, have experienced what beekeepers call “colony collapse disorder“; other causes for decline include pesticide misuse, light and air pollution, hive destruction and farming practices that destroy habitat.

In conjunction with non-profit group Pollination Guelph, the city is developing a plant palette with a wide enough range of blooming seasons to accommodate both early and late pollinators.  Other park amenities include toboggan runs, a trail network, demonstration gardens, basketball and volleyball courts, soccer and football fields, a natural ice rink and a playground.

Return on investment in habitat corridors

Aerial views of the square natural areas targeted in the study, and the linear habitat corridors established between them.

Habitat corridors are planted or wild strips of land between natural areas that encourage wildlife to migrate from place to place and, in turn, to help fertilize a broader range of places through the seeds they carry on them or digest.   A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that the establishment of habitat corridors between existing natural areas–and the resulting migration of wildlife between those areas–can increase biodiversity not only in connected sites, but also in habitat adjacent to those sites.  In the study, conducted in South Carolina in conjunction with the USDA, the biodiversity spillover effect was found to extend beyond the boundaries of the connected natural areas by as much as 30%, resulting in a 10-18% increase in plant life–particularly native plants–in the larger area.  The findings suggest that investments in habitat connections can pay off on a scale even beyond their designed ambition.

The master plan for Freshkills Park includes the establishment of habitat corridors around the bases of each of the site’s four landfill mounds, connecting to three large adjacent natural areas–the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, the Staten Island Greenbelt and Arden Heights Woods–as well as expanding biodiversity in the Freshkills Park site, itself, and in the general vicinity.

(via Scientific American)

Nature Find

Nature Find is an online tool provided by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) to aid in finding local nature or nature-related amenities.   Users plug-in a zip code, and the software locates nearby events, city parks, science centers, zoos and other wildlife-related happenings.

(Via Lifehacker)

National parks need a climate change plan

Density of large trees in Yosemite National Park has declined over the past several decades; climate change is partly to blame. Photo by Zach Schrock

The National Parks Conservation Association has drafted a 53-page report describing “a potentially catastrophic loss of animal and plant life” in national parks due to climate change. The report urges the National Park Service to develop an overarching plan to better manage habitat and population shifts.

Among the ideas proposed is one that is shared by the Freshkills Park master plan: wildlife corridors that enable animals to migrate across parks uninhibited.

(via LA Times)

Meadowlands nature blog

A Question Mark butterfly photographed at DeKorte Park in early July.

We recently discovered that our neighbors at the New Jersey Meadowlands keep a nature blog full of amazing photos of the bird and insect life that lives within its 8,400 acres of wetlands and open space.  Lots of these photos have been taken at the 110-acre Richard W. DeKorte Park, part of which, like the Freshkills Park site, was once a landfill.

Green roofs for the birds

A rendering of the rooftop aviary proposed by BAM

Ballistic Architecture Machine’s (BAM) concept for a green roof installation, called Biornis Aesthetope, is an aviary for migrating birds proposed for the 70,000 sq ft rooftop of Goldman Sachs in Lower Manhattan.  Ornithologists at Harvard and Cornell Universities provided BAM guidance on the resting and nutritional needs for 12 species of birds, including diurnal raptors, songbirds and owls, whose migration paths along the Atlantic Coast Flyway bring them through New York City regularly. The structure is essentially a park for birds: a layer of mesh creates topography for perching and resting and is filled with an array of soil types, water sources, plants and insects.

(via Inhabitat)

This Sunday: Bird-watching tour at Freshkills Park

There are still seats available for this Sunday’s 10 am bird-focused bus and walking tour of the Freshkills Park site.  Our bird tours are held bimonthly and are jointly led by park planners from our office and naturalists from the Staten Island Museum.  They last about two hours and go into the details of the park plan as well.  Lots of birds out this time of year: hawks, turkey vultures, osprey, killdeer, hooded mergansers, ducks, geese and more.  If you’re interested in attending, contact Martha at martha.powers@parks.nyc.gov.

The osprey who have nested at the site are now tending to their nestlings.

Radar to protect birds from wind turbines

Left: Wind turbine radar detection system; Right: Radar map of four-mile detection zones for an installation of turbines. Photo courtesy of DeTect, Inc.

One of the environmental concerns surrounding the recent boom in wind farm development is the potential threat of large-scale bird mortality.  There’s nuance to the degree of potential threat related to factors like scale and siting (i.e., more threat when turbines are sited near migratory pathways, nesting areas and mountain passes, for example), but the risk remains.  A new radar technology in use at the Peñascal wind farm in Sarita, Texas aims to reduce that risk by shutting down turbines when birds are detected approaching.

The technology, developed by DeTect, Inc. and implemented by the Spanish firm Iberdrola Renewables, could be especially useful during inclement weather, when birds have a tendency to fly at lower altitudes.  The system spots birds as far as four miles away and gauges their numbers and  altitude.  After assessing the weather, the system calculates probability of impact and determines whether to shut down the turbines.  Turbines restart once the birds are safely on their way.

There has been talk about the possibility of using part of the Freshkills Park site as a wind farm.  Threat to birds is one of several potential impacts that would require analysis before any large-scale plans could advance, but in the meantime, we’re taking steps to integrate more modest renewable energy sources into each built project.  In addition to a green roof and geothermal heating and cooling, a small wind turbine will be installed to generate power for the Owl Hollow Fields Comfort Station,  in a relatively low-lying area at the edge of the Freshkills Park site.

(via EcoGeek)

Biodiversity building

In a move to increase biodiversity within our urban jungles, the UK Green Building Council (the UK’s equivalent of the US Green Building Council) have put forth some biophilic design recommendations to policymakers, developers and urban planners that could enable wildlife to better integrate with the built environment.  Proposed means to encourage biodiversity in cities include nesting holes built into walls for birds, ledges that mimic cliff faces attracting birds who roost on high perches and green roofs and living walls that mimic grasslands providing valuable habitat for pollinators and other ground dwellers.  These buildings could then become extensions of green space, acting as green stepping stones and allowing wildlife a means to commute.

(via The Dirt)

Bird numbers declining

Nearly a third of the nation’s 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline due to habitat loss, invasive species and other threats, according to a recent report from the Department of Interior.  Birds have been getting a bad rep recently, particularly because of the role of Canada geese in the Flight 1549 incident.  But they perform a valuable role in our ecosystems, acting as pollinators and controlling insect populations, as well as acting as indicators for environmental health (think canaries in coal mines, then scale up).  Their habitat is worth protecting.

The Freshkills Park site provides valuable habitat for a variety of birds. It’s a focal point of avian activity on the western shore of Staten Island and a key layover point on the Atlantic Flyway.  We host bi-monthly bird-watching tours in partnership with the Staten Island Museum, often spotting hawks, turkey vultures, killdeer, geese, ducks, herons and other shorebirds.  Protecting and expanding bird habitat is an important goal that will be interwoven with park development, starting most immediately with a small wetland restoration project in the North Park section of the site.

Photo by visualgrover via flickr