visit to Wave HIll, 2002

Learning More about the Urban Forest at Wave Hill

July 25, 2002

In late July, our small Enchanted Garden work team journeyed up to Wave Hill to learn more about the Forest Project Summer Collaborative Program. We met with a few dozen high school students from around the Bronx, who get the chance to work in the forests at Wave Hill and Riverdale Park. Under the direction of John Jordan, these young foresters are trying to keep these forests healthy and diverse. We learned how many invasive trees such as Norway Maples and Mulberries are making inroads into these forests, and the native Tulip and Oak trees are not faring as well.

This summer, these students are fixing the paths in these two parks, by adding woodchips and creating log borders, as a way of reminding people to stay on the designated trails. They also have been planting new saplings throughout these parks: red oaks, tulips, sugar maples are just some of the species that are native to northeastern forests that they are planting and nurturing. A good part of their time is spent removing invasives such as mugwort, ragweed, porcelain berry, honeysuckle, and alder. We could see that this group has made enormous progress this summer, but that there will be plenty of work to get done in future years!

Taking a break

Fahaam and Mr. Thoman learn about the mapping project currently going on, in which the students are mapping out the types of trees growing in designated quadrants.

This information is being inputed into a data base, and a comparative analysis is being made of the forests in Riverdale and Inwood Parks.

Abdus is contemplating what kind of relevance this visit has to our garden (right!) While we share the problem of intrusive mugwort, ragweed, and Japanese knotweed, we have not had an infestation of Norway Maples. That is the kind of problem we may encounter later as our own forest gets more established. For now, we are contending with black locust, cottonwood, and mulberries, which are all very hardy, drought tolerant trees often found in vacant lots.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with Wave Hill. While many Kennedy students work in this program, Wave Hill has assisted the Enchanted Garden in creating our own forest by Kennedy.