Forest Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, June 18, 2002

GREENBELT CELEBRATES NATIONAL TRAILS DAY

National Trails Day, a nationwide celebration of urban and rural trails is celebrated each year on the first Saturday in June. This year National Trails Day fell on Saturday, June 1 with over two thousand events planned across the United States.

The Greenbelt Conservancy organized a National Trails Day project in collaboration with the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, volunteers from the Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks Program, the New York - New Jersey Trail Conference, and representatives from the New York City Urban Park Rangers. The group worked from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in and around the Greenbelt's High Rock Park. Volunteers spent the day maintaining and beautifying several portions of the Greenbelt's rugged trail system and planted a native species garden at the entrance to the High Rock Park.

The Greenbelt boasts over 30-miles of marked trails, which traverse lush forests, meadows and landscaped parks. The Greenbelt is located in the center of Staten Island and covers over 2800 acres of nature's rugged beauty. Some trails are level and offer an easy to moderate hike or stroll, while others, such as the Blue Trail, which ascends Todt Hill, offers hikers more of a challenge.

Since the Greenbelt's trail system is so expansive, the Greenbelt Conservancy and Parks Department staff rely heavily on volunteers from the community, organizations, scout troops, and corporations such as Goldman Sachs, to help maintain the lovely trails that are the Greenbelt's lifeline to all that nature has to offer.

The Greenbelt Conservancy invited community members to join Greenbelt staff and the Goldman Sachs and Trail Conference volunteers to do hands-on work in the Greenbelt. There were six separate projects going on simultaneously throughout the day, one of which was the construction of a much-needed foot bridge on the Yellow Trail near Southwest LaTourette Park. Each project had a designated leader who had expertise appropriate to the task. Tools, glove, insect spray, sun-screen and trash bags were made available through a Goldman Sachs grant given to the Greenbelt Conservancy. Breakfast, lunch and beverages were provided for all volunteers. Over fifty adults and approximately ten children participated in the Greenbelt's National Trails Day event, which the Greenbelt plans to expand and make a yearly event.

James Sattler, representing Parks on the Mayor’s Anti-Graffiti Task Force, led a two-day interagency blitz cleanup project along a busy commercial section of Webster Avenue in the Bronx. Focusing on a two-block long embankment wedged between Parkside Place and Webster Avenue, the task force, drawing upon resources from six different city agencies and the New York Restoration Project, removed hundreds of pounds of garbage and debris which had been dumped on the DCAS-owned land. For years the embankment has been an eyesore in the community and was a favorite location for illegal dumping.

The project was particularly challenging due to the extremely steep topography of the embankment. To meet this challenge, crews from the New York Restoration Project, equipped with climbing harnesses, ropes and other technical gear, proved critically important. Lowering themselves from fixed lines above, NYRP crewmembers strategically positioned themselves on the embankment for raking out the vast amount of debris. To ensure that illegal dumping does not return to the area, an eight-foot tall fence was installed along the entire length of the uphill side of the embankment on Parkside Place, where the dumping was originating.

Resources from five other agencies including the Police Department, Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Department of Transportation, Department of Sanitation and Department of Citywide Administrative Services were also vital to the cleanup and demonstrated the benefits of interagency cooperation.

Queens County owes Kings County a load of thanks, a group of students from Richmond Hill, Queens, learned at Forest Park yesterday. If the people of Brooklyn, yearning for greenery some 90 years ago, had not acquired the land that is now Forest Park, Queens would be without its third largest park.

The youngsters from P.S. 90 learned this and other fascinating facts about Forest Park as three nature trails were dedicated at the 538-acre park near the Buddy Monument at Park Lane South and Myrtle Avenue under the tall canopy of half a dozen oak tees.

"All you need is love."

Paul McCartney
(b. June 18, 1942)
and
John Lennon
(1940–1980)

Know Before You Go

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