Central Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, May 9, 2001

COMING SOON TO CENTRAL PARK: BIODIVERSITY AWARENESS DAY

Photo by Malcolm (Cinema) Pinckney

Parkies gathered at the Belvedere Castle Tuesday, May 8 to spread the word about Central Park's next big event: Biodiversity Awareness Day this Saturday, May 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Alex (Oiseau) Brash, Chief of the Urban Park Service delivered the announcement.

We know how large the earth is. It's 7,913 miles in diameter. And we know the distance between Earth and the sun: 93 million miles. But we don't know how many species are alive on planet Earth. On Saturday, New Yorkers will devote themselves to the vastness of natural life. Families will search for evidence of a wide range of species in the ecological treasure chest of Central Park. This Biodiversity Awareness Day, Parks, the Urban Park Rangers, the Central Park Conservancy, and the American Museum of Natural History will pay tribute to the creatures of salt marshes, forest residents, native wetlanders, and émigrés too.

The Great Lawn will be ringed with information stations where live and stuffed specimens can be viewed. Kids will research a spider, a moth, or a fungus, then find it with an expert as their guide. On Saturday, the bio book will meet all five senses as scientists, Rangers, and kids plunder the park for nature's bounty. They will trap turtles in turtle pond, inhale the scent of pines in the Arthur Ross Pinetum, and cock their ears for warblers. Novice birders will enjoy a special treat-a guided tour by North America's bird authority, David Allen Sibley, who has just published a definitive field guide to the birds of North America.

PARKS' VOLUNTEER HORSEMEN

Since their founding in April 1996, New York City's Parks Mounted Auxiliary Unit, Inc. has grown as an organization. Yesterday, May 8, 2001 they held their fourth annual open board meeting in the Arsenal Gallery. Jay (Hughie) Entwhistle, President of Parks Mounted Auxiliary spoke as did Inspector Richard (Bronco) Gentles, Director of Parks Enforcement Patrol who serves ex officio on their board.

The organization, recently granted 501(c)(3) status, counts 110 active participants: 75 saddle-ready and the balance in training. Last year, they completed 5,000 hours of volunteer service, a contribution that enabled PEP and Parks as a whole to do their job even better. As volunteer PEP, they provide bodies for our horses, constitute a presence at large events, educate the public, and model civic participation for New Yorkers and visitors to the city. They join their knowledge of horses and their affection for parks in an organization that is uniquely helpful to Parks operations.

This year, with an eye to the future, Parks Mounted Auxiliary leapt into the information age launching their new website. You can visit it at www.auxparksmtd.org or through a link in Parks' own website.

A MONUMENT TO FATHER DUFFY IS REDEDICATED

With Mayor Rudolph (Eagle) Giuliani; General Joseph A. Healey, Co-Chair of the Coalition for Father Duffy; and William T. Kenny, Co-Chair of the Coalition for Father Duffy, Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern rededicated a monument to Father Duffy, the military chaplain who achieved fame serving the Fighting 69th during World War I.

In the field with Father Duffy was a soldier whose poem, Trees, ranks as Commissioner Stern's favorite celebration of nature. By some accounts, Joyce Kilmer was the preeminent Catholic American poet of his time. With a wife and two children, he would not have been required to serve in World War I. But he enlisted nonetheless, and with Father Duffy's help, he was transferred into the Fighting 69th.

On the frontlines, Kilmer wrote. He wrote until his death in 1918, on which occasion Father Duffy said, "God rest his dear and gallant soul." As Father Duffy's words brought comfort, Kilmer's gallant poetry helped bring ritual to the battlefield deaths of his comrades. At one funeral service, with a trumpeter sounding Taps, Father Duffy recited one of Kilmer's newly written poems.

The words of Kilmer and Father Duffy, who recorded their experiences from the battlefield, urge us to reflect on our history. The purpose of the monument to Father Duffy is likewise to incite reflection. On Wednesday, May 2, New Yorkers commemorated Father Duffy, the Fighting 69th, and reinvested Father Duffy Square with their memory. With this act, and with the historical sign unveiled, they educated others-especially theatre-goers on line for half price tickets in Father Duffy Square-about the city's history.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Wednesday, May 11, 1988)

PARKS ARBOREAL STARS GET ROYAL TREATMENT

All trees are equal, but some trees are more equal than others.

From the fables Eastern Cottonwood atop the Queensboro Bridge, to the 141-year-old Weeping Beach in Queens (the progenitor of all weeping beeches in this country), New York City is graced with truly special arboreal specimens.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"True creativity often starts where language ends."

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center