NYC Needs Runways, But 'Ghost Airport' Quiet by Chris Hawley - msnbc.com

Read original...

Could turning Floyd Bennett Field into a commercial airport help ease congestion?

A National Park Service hangar emblazoned with the name Floyd Bennett Field glows orange at sunset March 11 at New York City's "ghost airport" in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Two airports sit less than five miles from each other, their wide-open runways tracing big Xs along the same stretch of Atlantic shoreline.

At John F. Kennedy International Airport, air traffic controllers herd a procession of airliners in what has become a chronic choke point in the nation's air transport system.

At nearby Floyd Bennett Field, things are more laid back. Recently, the one-man control tower, John Daskalakis, leaned against a pickup truck with a portable radio as an ancient C-54 cargo plane lumbered toward Runway 24 for takeoff. Cyclists and joggers hung out on the taxiway to watch.

As planners lament the lack of space for new runways in a region plagued by air delays, Floyd Bennett's wide, inviting runways sit just across Jamaica Bay within a federally protected park.

The old airfield opens a few times a year for special flights, but most of the time it sits idle — its hangars, runway and control tower intact but off-limits to air traffic.

The perfectly preserved former Navy base was once frequented by Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart. Today, in the cavernous Hangar B, aviation buffs gather to restore old airplanes and swap stories. Some of them wonder whether turning Floyd Bennett into a commercial airport is a realistic, achievable way of easing congestion in New York.

"That would be a dream — that would really be something," said Dante Dimille, a volunteer. "This would make a great civil aviation field again."

Some experts say it's not unthinkable: a new traffic-control system being installed by the FAA could enable planes to fly into Floyd Bennett without conflicting with those headed to JFK. But others say it would be too costly to realign and lengthen its runways. And getting the airport back from the National Park Service, which now controls it, would be near impossible.

"Physically, it would work, with limitations," said Thomas Chastain, an airport planning consultant. "Practically and politically, I don't see them ever using Floyd Bennett Field again."

Too close to JFK?

Still, he said, it's a tantalizing prospect.

New York desperately needs more runway space. JFK and LaGuardia airports in New York, plus Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, together handle about 3,500 flights per day, and passenger demand is projected to increase from 104 million to 150 million by 2030.

In bad weather, the number of flights that air traffic controllers can put on each runway drops. As a result, nearly one-third of flights in New York were delayed or cancelled in 2009, according to a November report released by U.S. Department of Transportation.

The three main New York airports have nine runways between them but haven't built a new one since the early 1970s. Meanwhile, 17 other major airports have added runways just in the last decade, including Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield, Boston Logan and Washington Dulles.

In January, a report commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the region's airports, said any expansion would be difficult. Three of the five options it recommended would require filling in parts of Jamaica Bay to build runways at JFK.

Floyd Bennett has four existing runways, the longest of them 6,000 feet. But it has space for an 8,500-foot runway, longer than any at LaGuardia.

But experts with the Regional Plan Association, which wrote the study for the Port Authority, decided that the distance between such a runway and JFK would cause airspace conflicts.

"We dropped that early on," said Jeffrey Zupan, one of the authors. "It's just too close to Kennedy."

But not everyone believes that's an obstacle.

A new satellite-based air traffic control system, known as NextGen, will soon allow airplanes to make better use of tight airspace, said Paul Freeman, head of flight testing for ITT Corp., which is building the system.

"That's not really a valid excuse anymore," said Freeman, who in his free time runs a website about defunct airports. "We're working on technology that will really free up a lot of the traditional limits of air traffic control. It definitely would allow something like a Floyd Bennett Field to be active again."

Frozen in time

Floyd Bennett wouldn't be the first New York-area airport to close and reopen. Newark airport closed in 1939 after LaGuardia was built, only to reopen in World War II. Flushing Airport in Queens closed in the 1970s, later reopened and then closed for good in 1984.

Floyd Bennett Field was built between 1928 and 1931 and quickly became the preferred launching site for record-setting flights by Hughes, Earhart, Wiley Post and other aviation pioneers. The airport sported unusual innovations, like a turntable for rotating aircraft and tunnels under the tarmac that passengers used to reach their planes.

The Navy took it over in 1941. Most of the airport closed in 1971, though the New York Police Department still uses a corner of it as its helicopter base.

Unlike other airports that have been ripped up to make way for housing developments and shopping malls, Floyd Bennett remains frozen in time.

The hangars are rusting and missing some windows but still standing. The old terminal is being restored and will reopen as a museum later this year. Runway 33 is now a road, but the others are mostly untouched. The Park Service even mows the grass between the runways, part of an effort to accommodate migrating geese.

In 2007, the Park Service opened the old runways for a fly-in of World War II fighter planes, biplanes and a modern Air Force C-130 cargo plane.

In Hangar B, Dimille and other volunteers with the Historical Aircraft Restoration Project show off their collection of old planes to school groups and aviation buffs. A hulking Boeing Stratofreighter, one of only two such airplanes still flying, looms over the other planes like a condor in a nest of sparrows.

The Stratofreighter and a former Navy C-54 cargo plane dubbed "The Spirit of Freedom" are owned by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation, which keeps them at Floyd Bennett under an agreement with the Park Service.

One March afternoon, the C-54 took off, beginning a summer of visiting airshows around the country. A dozen aviation enthusiasts turned out to take pictures of the takeoff.

Daskalakis listened on his radio as the old cargo plane rumbled to the end of the runway and called for takeoff clearance from controllers at JFK. He had filed a special flight permit with the FAA a few days before.

The huge, piston-powered engines roared. The Spirit of Freedom surged forward, past the joggers and the cyclists and the geese. Then it raised its nose skyward.

For a moment at least, Floyd Bennett Field was an airport again

Executioners Sing! New Documents Reveal Full Extent of Park Goose-icide by Stephen Brown - The Brooklyn Paper

Read original...

New documents reveal that the massacre of Prospect Park geese (like this guy) was part of a massive operation that may have been the biggest extermination project ever.

The 250 geese and goslings that were massacred in Prospect Park in July were only the tip of the goose-berg, new documents reveal.

Federal agents rounded up a total of 1,676 geese from 19 locations in the city and Nassau County — apparently making last summer’s operation the largest intentional waterfowl extermination in city history.

The birds were thrown into crates and hauled to JFK Airport, where they were gassed, bagged, and discarded, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The goose-filled Dumpsters were then hauled to an incinerator in Garden City.

In Prospect Park, the July 8 “culling” was done under cover of darkness — and the records indicate that officials knew their efforts would be controversial.

“JFK ops will also coordinate your arrival each day to avoid any unwanted attention,” Laura Francoeur, the chief wildlife biologist for the Port Authority, wrote in an e-mail explaining protocol for the operation.

Of course, unwanted attention is what the feds got after visitors to Prospect Park noticed that hundreds of molting geese and baby goslings had vanished overnight.

Within days, the truth was revealed: that the animals had been swept up in citywide operation meant to clear the skies of geese — the same waterfowl that caused the crash landing of a US Airways flight in the Hudson River in 2009.

That harrowing incident led federal officials to kill 1,235 geese from sites within five miles of both city airports that year.

But this summer, the radius was expanded to seven miles, though federal officials exceeded that distance when they corralled geese in Prospect Park.

City, state and federal officials insisted that the culling of the goose population — which had grown to around 25,000 in the city — was necessary to reduce risk to aircrafts.

But the wide array of government agencies involved likely did not comprehend the passion of many parkgoers for the Prospect Park waterfowl. Immediately after the culling, hundreds of Brooklynites were outraged, and organized a vigil in memory of the geese.

Later, it was revealed that city officials — concerned about issues of liability — had discussed the possibility of a 30-mile goose kill zone.

And recently Tupper Thomas, Prospect Park’s top administrator,confessed that she was aware that the goose massacre was imminent, but said nothing publicly because she felt it was not her place.

Despite all these revelations, the feds remain tight-lipped about the details of their goose eradication plan, which, records show, could encompass nearly the entire city.

All 19 locations visited by Wildlife Services agents last summer remain a mystery, but documents from the Port Authority — the agency managing the city’s airports — do reveal a few of the sites in addition to Prospect Park:

• In Nassau County, agents exterminated geese in Valley Stream and Hempstead Lake State Park.

• In Brooklyn, agents killed animals at the Fountain Avenue and Penn Avenue landfills.

• In Queens, agents slaughtered geese in Alley Pond Park, Little Neck Bay and Fort Totten.

• Animals on Rikers Island and Randall’s Island were also swept up in the culling.

Some saw the stunning scale of the goose massacre as evidence that the policy needed to change.

“It is certainly the largest waterfowl [massacre] we know of,” said Patrick Kwan, the New York State director of the Humane Society of the United States. “It’s an example of why we need transparency. For 1,600 geese to be killed without New Yorkers knowing what was going on or being able to consider alternatives … it’s not the most effective, efficient or humane method.”

But gassing is the method favored by the city — and it is possible that it will be expanded to include the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge next year.

The chief of resource management at the Gateway National Recreation area, Dave Avrin, said a study was underway to determine how to control the goose population in the area. Previously, Jamaica Bay, which is part of a National Park, was off-limits to Wildlife Services.

“We are going through an Environmental Impact Statement at this time,” said Avrin. “One of the alternatives is to cull them next year, another is not. We’ll determine which one at the end of the process.”

Jamaica Bay's Revival Begins with Mollusks by Gary Buiso - YourNabe.com

Read original...

Oysters, plants cleaning the plumbing like Ty-D-Bowl

Troubled Jamaica Bay is going from stinky to stunning!

Pilot projects using natural water cleansers such as oysters, and improvements to the sewer system are yielding tangible results, according to a report released by the city on Monday and — more important — those who live and play along the 39-square-mile bay.

“In the past, we would observe a plume of discolored water atop Paerdegat Basin [one of the bay’s inlets], and people would be driven from their patios because of the horrendous smell,” said John Wright, a board member of the Sebago Canoe Club. “We are very pleased to see the progress.”

The bay, part of the National Park Service, borders Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau County, and includes approximately 142 square miles of meadowland, marshes, dunes and forests and open water — habitats that support 91 species of fish and 325 species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals.

Humans, such as Wright, and his 220-member club will also be the beneficiaries of a cleaner bay, but there is still a long way to go before it’s as clean as it could be.

To that end, the Department of Environmental Protection has tweaked its Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection plan, focusing on upgrades to the wastewater treatment plants that dump approximately 300 million gallons of treated wastewater in the bay every day.

That water has a high concentration of nitrogen, which results in poor water quality that allows harmful algae to thrive. The algae diminish the bay’s oxygen, killing wildlife.

The city — compelled by law by the state to do so — announced that it would invest $115 million to improve the overall water quality and mitigate marshland loss in Jamaica Bay, the bulk of the money going to the installation of new nitrogen control technologies at the four wastewater treatment plants located on the bay. The money, along with $95 million taxpayers previously committed, will reduce nitrogen in the bay by nearly 50 percent by 2020.

Agency commissioner Cas Holloway said the mayor has made the restoration of the bay “a special priority” in the effort to improve harbor water quality throughout the region.

“We are on track to achieve the goals outlined in the [plan] that will substantially improve the overall quality of the bay’s ecology,” he said.

The report notes that the city has already planted 1,000 eelgrass marine plants as part of a $350,000 pilot program to evaluate the potential for establishing small beds, which are seen as beneficial to fish and mollusks; and restored 10,000 oysters to help filter excess nutrients from the water.

'Field' for Dreamers -Developers, Environmentalist Clash over Future of Floyd Bennett Field by Stephen Brown Courier-Life - NYPOST.com

'Read original...

The battle between developers and tree-huggers is underway at Floyd Bennett Field, where builders want more recreational facilities and bird-lovers insist on bringing back natural habitats.

That became clear Tuesday night, when about 75 people met at the former airport to help write the Gateway National Recreation Area’s management plan, a document that will set the agenda for the national park over the next 20 years.

“Things like trails, walking along beaches and bird-watching have gotten short shrift for too long,” said John Tanacredi, a professor of Earth and Marine sciences at Dowling University, who noted that Floyd Bennett was no different than the Grand Canyon or Yosemite parks, where Mother Nature prevails. “There should be the same principles about preservation of the environment.”

Other, high-powered individuals envision a park that will cater to large quantities of people attending big attractions.

“I’d like to see Floyd Bennett Field used for more events, such as family reunions, cultural celebrations, bicycle rental facilities, kite shows and major trade shows,” said Borough President Markowitz. “How about a high-end antique fair? … Why not set up a drive-in movie? We could even use Floyd Bennett for the East Coast version of Burning Man!”

But using the park for a festival like Burning Man — which attracted close to 50,000 people to Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada in 2008 for a week-long party that culminated with the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy — or any other commercial endeavor would be difficult.

“The law [declaring it a national park] prohibits it from being a commercial space,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Sheepshead Bay), who called the meeting along with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-Brooklyn). The pair of pols also set up a blue-ribbon panel to help determine what should become of the park. “There’s got to be a recreational use, but open space doesn’t mean you have to build something there.”

For years, concessionaires and nature lovers have coexisted on the site where Amelia Earhart took off for her solo trip across the Atlantic and where, since 1972 when it became part of Gateway, nature has been allowed to take its course.

Despite the fact that viewing it using Google Earth clearly shows the man-made runways that intersect upon it, grassland birds like hawks, owls, meadowlarks and kestrels, along with amphibians like eastern box turtles and spring peeper frogs call the park home.

It is also home to the Aviator Sports and Events Center, a year-round campsite, trails, model plane runways, community gardeners, plus operating bases for the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation.

A plan to house a controversial charter school for at-risk youth at Floyd Bennett Field is already on the table.

The consensus may be that the park is in dire need of better funding and care, but some aren’t keen on radically changing its face.

“Don’t displace what is already there,” said Ida Sanoff. “The model-plane people, community gardeners, and environmental people have all peacefully co-existed here for a long time.”

Public Meetings in Brooklyn and Queens on the Future of Floyd Bennett Field...

Public meetings are being held about the future of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, the 1,400 acre unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. 


Floyd Bennett Field is one of New York City's largest public spaces, it provides many environmental, recreational, and cultural benefits to the people of Brooklyn and beyond, but its full potential has never been realized. 

The National Park Service is now drafting a plan to shape Gateway's future, and Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Anthony Weiner have formed a Blue Ribbon Panel to provide recommendations about Floyd Bennett Field for this plan. 


Be sure your voice is heard by the people creating the plan for Gateway's future and your elected officials.   

Please join this important conversation.

Click on image to enlarge...

Questions? Contact Maya Borgenicht with the Regional Plan Association at maya@rpa.org or 917.652.6359.

For more information, go to www.rpa.org/floydbennett.

Public Meeting in Brooklyn and Queens About Floyd Bennett Field Improvements

Brooklyn Meeting

Date: September 21st

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Location: Aviator Sports - Hangar 5 - Floyd Bennett Field

Queens Meeting

Date: September 27th 

Time: 6pm - 8pm

Location: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center

Obama Cabinet Member Takes Tour of Jamaica Bay by Ivan Pereira - YourNabe.com

Read original...

U.S. Rep. Anthony Wiener (from l.), U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Park Ranger Dandelion Dilluvio remove an invasive vine in Jamaica Bay during Salazar's visit to the ecosystem. Photo by Christina Santucci

The U.S. secretary of the Interior paid a visit to Jamaica Bay Monday and borough elected officials said they hope his trip will have a positive impact on the future of its environment.

This is the first time Ken Salazar visited the 31-square-mile ecosystem and got up close with its fauna and flora, according to U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills), who accompanied the secretary during the tour.

“There are a lot of, ‘Oh, wow,’ moments when you visit Jamaica Bay,” the congressman said.

Salazar, who was touring several Gateway National Recreation Area sites, including the Statue of Liberty, walked the path of the bay’s wildlife refuge and took a boat tour of the bay along with park rangers, Weiner and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica).

Park experts explained to Salazar how Jamaica Bay’s environment is closely tied to the nearly 400 species of birds, fish and other wildlife that populate the area. The ecosystem serves as a home to many of the animals during their migratory patterns, according to Barry Sullivan, the superintendent of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

“It’s unbelievably important to the ecosystem, not just for the city ... but also for the entire Atlantic coast,” he said.

Leaders and environmentalists say the bay’s importance to the area means it should qualify for more preservation projects.

Its saltwater marshland has been dissipating for decades and more than 70 percent of the ecosystem has been lost. Over the last 10 years, city, state and federal governments have been providing funding, planning to stop the decay and restoring some of the lost marshland.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been restoring several sections of the marshland, including Elders Point West. In the winter, the city announced it was dedicating $100 million over the next decade to enhance its wastewater treatment plants around the ecosystem so the facilities discharge less nitrogen, which causes the plants to decay.

Dan Mundy Jr., a member of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers, an environmental group that has been advocating for protecting the bay, said projects are coming along well.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The results for the sites of growth are doing very good so far,” he said.

Weiner said he thinks Salazar’s visit will help bring more funding and attention to the environment since the secretary has had a hands-on experience with the bay.

“So much about the [restoration projects] is about oiling the squeaky wheel. This is not a well-known park,” he said.

Additional photos from the Rockaway Wave...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Visits Gateway NPS at Jamaica Bay Visitors Center with Rep Weiner and Rep Meeks...

Click here to view these pictures larger

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar visits Jamaica Bay Visitor Center and walks West Pond Path with Congressman Anthony Weiner and Congressman Greg Meeks on Monday, July 26th...


View full screen slideshow...

Jamaica Bay Landfill to Become Nature Park - Channel 12

Read original and watch video...


The Jamaica Bay landfill is slowly being turned into a nature preserve with many family activities.

The park will feature fishing, a sail boating school, bicycle paths, an amphitheater area and ample parking for visitors.

The project is costing approximately $200 million. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has transformed the landfills over the past 10 years in to a lush habitat covered with more than 30,000 shrubs and trees.

Pennsylvania Avenue/Fountain Avenue Restoration Annual Tour – July 20, 2010

This year's tour was entitled “Rolling Hills Tour 2010” and it provided sweeping vistas and panoramic views of Jamaica Bay from the soon to be parks which have been remediated from the former landfill sites.

In my estimation when completed these parks will provide the communities and people of New York City with beautiful new natural areas for relaxation and outdoor activities.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Click here for full screen slide-show and view photo captions...

The tour participants met at the Brooklyn Sports Club and attended a pre-tour power-point presentations of the history and present state of the cleanup and restoration by the Citizens Advisory Committee and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

After the presentation, the participants broke up into groups and boarded vans for the trip to the facilities at the parks on Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue.

Penn Park is scheduled to open for public use by 2012 and Fountain Park will follow in 2014.

The parks are the highest spots on Jamaica Bay within New York City, with the Penn Park elevation at 87 feet above sea level and Fountain Park reaching a height of 128 feet above sea level. The parks encompass a total area of 440 acres.

There have been over 40,000 plants, shrubs and grasses planted at the site by DEP, including eight varieties of trees which had been extinct to the area by the mid 19th century. The plant species have been specially selected to be indigenous to the area's climate and seasonal conditions.

During the restoration process DEP has trucked in over 4 million cubic yards of gravel, grading material, sub-soil and top soil. The top-soil is a special mixture of sandy loam produced in the site to complete pre-planting. There are over 25 miles of roadways and trails throughout the sites.

The parks will have many public amenities including an amphitheater at the Fountain Park site for community events such as concerts, a bay fishing pier, a boat launch for non-motorized boating (kayaks, canoes, etc.), sail boating classes, rest areas for open air observatories, gazebos for shade and bicycles paths extended into the parks from the present bike paths along the Belt Parkway .

There will be areas set aside for overnight camping for nature study.

Parking lots will be able to accommodate between 350-500 vehicles. There will be refreshment courts and ample restrooms throughout the parks. Both parks will be accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Media attending the tour included Agnes Green of the Spring Creek Sun, WNYC Radio reporter Matthew Schuerman,  Channel 12 News and a photographer from the Wall Street Journal.

The major contributors to the tour were the Brooklyn Sports Club and Tacfield Associates, LLC.

Charles Park Still Waiting After All These Years by Bryan Yurcan - Queens Chronicle

Read original...

Parents of the tennis students say the courts, shown below, are dangerous due to sea shells scattered about them and cracks in the pavement PHOTO BY BRYAN YURCAN

After years of hearing promises and placating answers, Howard Beach residents that have long made use of Frank M. Charles Park finally thought federal funding would became available to fix the park’s dilapidated tennis courts, baseball fields and make other improvements. Some residents say has not yet happened, though a representative from Gateway National Recreation Area said the money is in hand and on its way.

Local residents have long accused Gateway, which the park sits in, of ignoring the upkeep of Charles Park.

But in March, a community meeting was conducted where National Parks Service officials announced an appropriation of $200,000 that would be spent immediately on park repairs. Officials also vowed to form a new partnership that would ensure the community’s only green space no longer plays second fiddle to other priorities.

But those who use Charles Park regularly and live in the community say that has been just another in a long line of empty promises.

“This park is the only green space we have in this community,” said Dorothy McCloskey, director of the Friends of Charles Park Committee. “I think the National Parks Service can do a lot better. There’s a great deal of property that’s been neglected for a long time, and it’s a shame.”

McCloskey said the talk during the March meeting of an increased communication between Gateway and the community has not come to pass.

“They feel like they are not answerable to the community,” she said. “We have been trying to improve this park for years.”

Dave Taft, coordinator of the Jamaica Bay unit of Gateway, said the money is in hand and on its way.

“We do have the money, and the park is exploring the best way to spend it,” he said.

Taft added that Gateway is looking at improvements to the ballfields, and will soon be putting out a bid to renovate the tennis courts. He said Gateway is also going to be removing dead trees from the park.

Meanwhile, McCloskey is skeptical the money will be seen anytime soon.

She said current Superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area, Barry Sullivan, is set to retire this month, and McCloskey feels the transition period during which a new director is brought in will only delay the receiving of the $200,000.

“We haven’t seen a dime of that money and I don’t know when we will,” she said.

Parents of children who use the park for recreation activities said the longer the park is allowed to fall into disrepair, the less safe it will be for kids.

“It’s dangerous, quite honestly,” said Jean Trotta, whose daughter takes tennis lessons at the park. She pointed out the array of broken seashells scattered across the tennis courts as one hazard faced by kids and adults alike.

“I’ve never, ever seen this park in good condition,” she said.

A comment from Congressman Gregory Meeks’ office could not be obtained as of press time. Meeks’ district includes Charles Park.

Frank Gulluscio, who is head of the South Queens Democratic Club and a longtime Charles Park advocate, called the neglect of the park on the part of the NPS “simply atrocious.”

Gulluscio agreed with residents who said playing in the park could become dangerous if it continues to not be kept properly.

“You take your life into your own hands running the fields in there,” he said.

Ultimately, Gulluscio believes the greatest tragedy of the park is the potential of what it could become if it received the proper care from the NPS.

“It should be a shining star for the National Parks Service to show what they can do in the middle of a city,” he said. “That is not currently the case.”

Displaced Black Landowners Fight to Reclaim Georgia Land by Shaila Dewan- NYTimes.com

Read original...

HARRIS NECK NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Ga. — When the managers from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service talk about this 2,800-acre preserve of moss-draped cypress, palmetto and marsh, they speak of endangered wood stork rookeries and disappearing marsh habitat, dike maintenance and interpretive kiosks.

But when the members of the Harris Neck Land Trust talk about it, they speak of injustice, racism and a place they used to call home.

In 1942, Harris Neck, a thriving community of black landowners who hunted, farmed and gathered oysters, was taken by the federal government to build an airstrip. Now, the elders — who remember barefoot childhoods spent climbing trees and waking to watch the Canada geese depart in formation — want to know why they cannot have it back.

The Harris Neck Land Trust, formed by the former residents, their descendants and a handful of white families who owned land but did not live on Harris Neck, is asking Congress to return the land. The Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that the land is a crucial part of the national refuge system.

On its face, the quest of the former residents pits the goal of environmental conservation against that of righting a historical injustice. But it is also a conflict about two ways of life — one that tries to protect natural resources from human encroachment, the other demonstrating that humans can live in harmony with nature.

To the former residents, the suggestion that they cannot coexist with the wildlife on Harris Neck is absurd. “Wildlife was a part of us all of our lives,” said Kenneth R. Dunham Sr., 80, who was a child when the federal government gave Harris Neck families two weeks to leave before their houses were bulldozed and burned. “In my back door, I could hear the wild geese coming. We left food in the field so they would have something to eat.”

Harris Neck was deeded by a plantation owner to a former slave in 1865. Black families who settled there built houses and boats and started crab and oyster factories. But the community, many descendants suspect, was too independent for the comfort of McIntosh County’s whites.

During World War II, when federal officials were looking for a site for an Air Force base, the county’s white political leaders led them past thousands of uninhabited acres to Harris Neck. The government condemned the land and ordered the families to clear out with the promise, some residents recall, that they could come back after the war. Blacks received an average of $26.90 per acre for the land, while whites received $37.31, according to a 1985 federal report. In 1962, the wildlife refuge was established.

Trust members do not imagine that they can recreate their old way of life, but their plan for the land is meant to be similarly low impact. It includes solar energy, cutting-edge sewer treatment and organic farming. Most of the acreage would remain wild and open to the public.

But a little more than a tenth of the land would be developed — each of about 70 families would get four acres, with design requirements and a strict covenant that the land, now worth $100,000 or more an acre, could not be sold. There would be an eco-lodge and a convention center, which the county now lacks.

Transferring federally protected land is, of course, no easy matter. Representative Jack Kingston, a Republican who represents the area, has been generally supportive of the trust’s efforts but has tried to caution its members on the political difficulties. “Environmental advocates can be formidable adversaries,” he wrote in a May 25 letter to the trust.

Environmental groups, for the most part, have yet to voice opposition. Deborah Sheppard, executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper in nearby Darien, was hesitant to address the issue, saying that her organization had not taken a position. “This is not the traditional question that’s posed to environmental groups, and to the extent that people aren’t being responsive, it’s probably that they don’t know how to weigh in,” she said.

As a local resident, though, Ms. Sheppard said she was familiar with the history of Harris Neck and sympathetic to the former residents, displaced from land whose status as a wildlife refuge has helped drive the construction of million-dollar retreats nearby.

“People continue to suggest that people from Atlanta with money can live here in an ecologically sound way — why can’t people with experience hunting and fishing and living off the land live in an ecologically sound way?” she said. “Those people are rightly suggesting that they have a historic capacity to interact well with their natural resources. And the rest of us haven’t.”

Complicating matters is that the former residents are themselves, in a way, endangered. They are Gullah/Geechee, descendants of West African slaves who became some of the nation’s earliest black landowners. Their distinctive culture, preserved for years by isolation on the coastal barrier islands, has been threatened by development to such a degree that in 2006, Congress designated a Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor stretching from North Carolina to Jacksonville, Fla.

But without access to the land that sustained the Gullah way of life, there are few options for preserving it. Some official ideas were detailed in a letter from Cynthia Dohner, the regional director of Fish and Wildlife, who proposed, in lieu of returning the land, an “annual homecoming day” at Harris Neck and the chance to collaborate on an “interpretive kiosk.”

Evelyn Greer, 82, recalls the forced move out of Harris Neck in vivid detail: residents lugging furniture by hand or mule cart, leaving jars of preserved food and livestock behind. On the morning their house was to be demolished at 6 a.m., she and her mother woke early to retrieve a treasured phonograph and its two records. On the path, her mother froze.

“I heard the fullness in her voice,” Ms. Greer recalled. “She said, ‘We in plenty of time, but we’re too late.’ ” The house was in flames.

The family moved into a barn owned by the white man her mother worked for.

Now, Ms. Greer and other trust members meet monthly to pray, sing and mull their next move. There will be a meeting with a congressman who is friends with President Obama, and another with a Georgia Department of Natural Resources employee. Two longshoremen were in the room at a recent meeting — maybe the A.F.L.-C.I.O. could do something. “The Return of Our Land,” read an agenda. Then, pointedly, “Community Meeting No. 49.”

Mr. Dunham rose to deliver encouragement. “We’re going to move on, and we’re going to come on in spite all,” he said to amens and mm-hmms. “Won’t that be a happy time, when we all get to heaven? I’m talking about Harris Neck, now.”

Finding Life in Dead Horse Bay by Ava Chin - Urban Forager - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Read original...

Spreading a net in Dad Horse Bay, you never know what. Photographs by Ava Chin for The New York Times

“They don’t call it Dead Horse Bay for nothing,” said Jarad Astin, walking across the bottle-strewn beach in flip-flops with a seine net over his shoulder.

We were there for BioBlitz , a 24-hour survey of Jamaica Bay on June 11 and 12 by scientists, professors, amateur naturalists and families. The goal of the field study, sponsored by Brooklyn College and the National Park Service, was to collect and identify as many species of animal, plant and marine life as possible. Our group, one of many working throughout the area, was attempting an accurate assessment of marine creatures, but at the beach of Dead Horse Bay, near Gerritsen Inlet, all we saw were discarded wine, juice and syrup bottles, mugs, film reels and other assorted trash.

The three of us — Tumpa Mira and Beni Mfitidi, two Brooklyn College juniors, and me — marveled at the former landfill as we followed Mr. Astin, our leader and the live animal coordinator for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

Under Mr. Astin’s direction, Ms. Mira disappeared with a dragnet toward a patch of water-grown grasses, while Ms. Mfitidi helped him unroll the 25-foot-long seine net.

“It’s like standing on a mattress,” Mr. Astin said, making his way thigh-deep into the waters of Dead Horse Bay, holding one end of the net, while Ms. Mfitidi held the other.

“O.K., hold it nice and tight,” Mr. Astin instructed. “Ready? 1, 2, 3 — go, go, go!”

Good morning, little green crab. (Photo right)

They dragged the net toward the shore, and in a final scooping motion, lifted it out of the water. The first attempts brought up only seaweed, but on the third try, there were bits of comb jelly, a few mud snails and several tiny Atlantic silversides in the net.

I fished out a piece of sea lettuce (a k a Ulva lactuca) about the size of a square of origami paper, floating in the water like a piece of green cellophane. “Is this edible?” I asked.

“Most kelp and seaweed is edible,” Mr. Astin said. “But you wouldn’t want to consume any from around here.”

Jamaica Bay houses four wastewater treatment sites, and the Department of Environmental Protection is working to improve the ecology, according to agency officials, by initiating measures to cut nitrogen-discharge levels and increasing the number of water- sampling sites. Still, the combination of pollution, the proximity to Kennedy Airport and the fact that we were on former landfill made the eating prospects unattractive.

I headed down the beach to where Ms. Mira stood with a dragnet in a grassy estuary, knee-deep in water. Earlier, Mr. Astin had shown us how to bring up samples from the bay floor using arm motions like an Olympic curler’s, which I tried to mimic with my own net. Ms. Mira caught several slippery Mummichogs (minnows), but I was bringing up only sea lettuce and mud snails.

Suddenly, through the water, I saw the scrambling motion of a small crab near my waders and nabbed it with my net.

I was worried it was an Asian shore crab — the wildly successful invasive, of which we didn’t need a living specimen. But to my delight, back on shore, Mr. Astin confirmed it was a female European green crab, or Carcinus maenas (also nonnative and invasive), which he did want. She was about the size of a silver dollar and blowing bubbles in his hands.

A catch of tiny silversides. (Photo right)

Half an hour later we regrouped, marveling at a horseshoe crab Mr. Astin had found crawling around the water’s edge. “This one’s in pretty good condition,” he said, holding up Limulus polyphemus as it made slow crawling motions in the air. Ms. Mira and Ms. Mfitidi wanted to know if it could bite.

“It can’t hurt you,” Mr. Astin said, noting the knot of barnacles on its hard shell before turning it over. A handful of slipper limpets (Crepidula fornicata) lined the bottom. “These are hitchhikers,” he said, prying off the limpets with a knife, revealing their yellow eggs.

Before we started packing up, Mr. Astin made one last survey of the bay’s grassy area with his dragnet. “Whoa, look at this,” he said, suddenly pulling his net out of the water.

He held out a large blue crab, with a single pincher waving in the air . “He’s lucky I’m not crabbing,” Mr. Astin said, as we admired it. “He’s big enough to be a keeper.”

He showed us the crab’s dorsal side, and the rather phallic apron- flap, shaped like an upside-down T (a male), before tossing it into the water.

Suddenly, something jerked in the net, and Mr. Astin fished out another, much smaller, crab. Turning it over revealed the triangular-shaped apron of an immature female. “I think we broke up a couple — sorry, guys,” Mr. Astin said.

By the end of the morning expedition, we counted silversides, killifish , amphipods (the roly-polies of the sea), tiny Atlantic herring, fairy shrimp, mud snails, common periwinkles, a hermit crab, pipe fish (related to seahorses, but elongated like inchworms) and my European green crab, among others. Our total was 42 species.

Each BioBlitz helps the Park Service discover species of animals, plants, fungi and marine life, but while we found nothing unusual that day, it seemed enough to contribute an accurate assessment for the survey.

In our small tank filled with living specimens — including feathery barnacles waving come-hither like slow-moving showgirls, and fairy shrimp treading water — I watched my scrappy green crab trying to eat its neighbors. It seemed particularly keen on nabbing one of Ms. Mira’s minnows. If it survived the weekend and quarantine, it would become a part of the Children’s Museum.

When all the species are tallied, experts at Jamaica Bay expect to have counted nearly 600 from the BioBlitz.

No dead horses, but lots of other stuff.

Brooklyn College and National Park Service Score Big with BioBlitz - Brooklyn College

Read original....

For 24 consecutive hours, volunteer students and residents, led by wildlife experts, hiked around the wetlands surrounding Floyd Bennett Field in this year's BioBlitz, counting and identifying hundreds of animal and plant species that call the New York City area home.

The June 11-12 wildlife census was organized by Brooklyn College and the National Park Service. The NPS oversees the entire 26,000-acre Gateway National Recreational Area, which stretches from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens along the Brooklyn and Staten Island shorelines to Sandy Hook, N.J.

Professor of Geology John Marra, who helped organize the event, said that the partnership between the College and the NPS made perfect sense. "The Park Service has the facilities, and the College has the scientific interest and the labor.

"While we are helping the NPS monitor what they have," he added, "we are also providing good research education for our students."

"For us, the BioBlitz has two objectives," said Barry Sullivan, NPS's superintendent for the Gateway region. "The first is to sample the biodiversity that we have here within the boundaries of New York City. The second is to get citizens out and involved in counting and recording plants, animals and other creatures."

Sullivan added, "If Teddy Roosevelt were still alive, he would be here with us today." Roosevelt was a noted conservationist who established five national parks during his terms as U.S. president (1901-09).

President Karen Gould kicked off the event on Friday afternoon. She said she was "very proud" of the College's partnership with the National Park Service. "It is a way of engaging the real world in learning," she noted.

The final species counts for this year's event should be completed within a few weeks, according to Assistant Professor of Geology Rebecca Boger, who also helped organize the event. "We're very pleased with the results," she said. "Our initial species count was over 500, and we expect the final tally to pass 600."

Previous tallies from the 2009 and 2007 BioBlitzes have shown that the Gateway area shelters more than 330 species of birds. That figure is more than all the kinds of birds found in Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks combined and is nearly half of all the 700 bird species that inhabit North America.

A number of other institutions, including the Brooklyn Children's Museum, New York City Audubon Society, Hofstra University, College of Staten Island, American Museum of Natural History, New York Aquarium, Fordham University, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Environmental Protection Agency and New York City Mycological Society, supported this year's event.

Marathon BioBlitz Makes Eco-History in Jamaica Bay by Shavana Abruzzo - YourNabe.com

Read original...

Nature Lovers Record Plant, Animal and Marine Life

More birds flock to Brooklyn — naturally!

The borough’s prime location on the eastern Atlantic seaboard draws more than 300 species a year — even more than in Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, according to the National Parks Service!

Blue herons, Savannah sparrows and egrets were among the 500-plus types — and still counting — of plant, animal and marine life located and identified during a 24-hour BioBlitz, coordinated by the agency and Brooklyn College inside Gateway National Recreation Area’s rich ecological kingdom.

Professional and amateur scientists teamed up with birders, students, families and volunteers for the marathon biological and educational treasure hunt at Jamaica Bay, making eco-history by venturing into the grasslands, salt marshes, woodlands, and waters of Floyd Bennett Field, Plumb Beach and Dead Horse Bay to document living critters before returning them to their natural habitats.

“You think of Brooklyn and you think of concrete, but many people don’t realize that our thriving salt marshes are like a nursery that support a variety of animals,” said Gateway Acting Public Relations’ Officer Jennifer Wolff, whose agency provided permits for the fabulous forage after receiving clearance from the Department of Conservation.

Among the hefty haul were crab spiders, Eastern box turtles, spring peeper frogs, tadpoles and toads, and organisms called plankton which drift in the water column of oceans, seas and fresh waters. Plus, abundant plant life, from wildflowers, brushes and sedges to a bounty of hardwoods, including honey locusts, oaks and maples trees, said Wolff.

After the rummage, came the inspection, and participants brought their findings to a temporary on-site science lab set up at Floyd Bennett Field’s Aviator Sports and Recreation Center on Flatbush Avenue. There, huddled over microscopes, they identified specimens brought in from the field with a team of environmentalists, including Gateway Superintendent Barry Sullivan, Science Advisor to the Director of the National Park Service Gary Machlis and Brooklyn College Geology Professor Rebecca Boger.

The excitement only mounted as night fell, said Wolff, because visitors “had a chance to observe moths, nocturnal bats and animals that are much more active at night.”

Jamaica Bay BioBlitz Identifies 516 species...and Counting (U.S. National Park Service) - Gateway National Recreation Area

Read original...

Professor Robert Dickie of Brooklyn College and assistant Nicole Wharf gather silversides at Plumb Beach during Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2010. NPS PHOTO

On June 11-12, nature enthusiasts conducted a 24-hour “wildlife census” for Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2010. About 100 volunteers documented over 500 animal and plant species at Gateway National Recreation Area’s Floyd Bennett Field. Scientists, college students, hobbyists and families crawled through underbrush and waded in saltwater to observe spiders, water birds, algae, horseshoe crabs, fish, frogs, mollusks, plants and fungi, among other species. Results are still coming in and will be updated as scientists receive lab test results.

Brooklyn College partnered with Gateway NRA to organize BioBlitz 2010. Rebecca Boger, professor of Earth and Environmental Studies at Brooklyn College, worked closely with National Park Service Biologist Jessica Browning to recruit researchers and volunteers. Shuttle buses brought volunteers and visitors to programs and field sites throughout Floyd Bennett Field. Many researchers were professors from local colleges, especially Brooklyn College, while many volunteers were college students in a particular field of study.

Gateway Superintendent Barry Sullivan, Brooklyn College President Karen L. Gould and Dr. Gary Machlis, Science Adviser to the NPS Director, blew whistles of red-tailed hawk calls to kick off the 24-hour event. Dr. Machlis then waded into Return-a-Gift Pond with researcher volunteers to collect tadpoles and other acquatic life. He noted the benefits and challenges of preserving nature at Floyd Bennett Field, once a municipal airport for New York City. “This is an extraordinary example of how the Organic Act needs to be acted out,” Dr. Machlis observed. “Preserve this unimpaired for future generations.” He added, “If it was easy, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

For a BioBlitz, the means of gathering data is just as important as the final species count. College students try out their research skills under the guidance of professors. Nature enthusiasts have the opportunity to expand their interests. Volunteer Anne Yen enjoys birding, but volunteered to help collect saltwater organisms because “I like it all.”

Gateway scheduled several interpretation events, such as “Seining at Sunset” and “Junior BioBlitz,” to attract people of all ages. Researchers, too, brought their children. At the closing ceremony, Allison Mass took the stage with one of her children to report her findings on fiddler crabs.

This was the 16^th BioBlitz for volunteer Suzi Zetkus. “I feel lucky to be part of it,” Zetkus reflected, “because I see how it changes people. If kids aren’t getting outside and having the hands-on experience of a horseshoe crab, letting it move in your hand, they aren’t going to love it. They’re not going to save it.”

David M. Quintana, a writer for the blog Lost in the Ozone, volunteered the entire 24 hours of the event. He took over 70 photographs of the event. “I got my merit badge at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge [another section of Gateway NRA],” he recalled. “I would ride my bike down there. I would tell kids that I saw a snowy owl or thousands of snow geese .They thought I was making up stories. You get kids there and half the battle is won.”

Some volunteers were interested in Floyd Bennett Field’s “wild” nightlife. Elliotte “Rusty” Harold signed up for his first BioBlitz because he liked to photograph “cool, interesting insects. This is an unusual opportunity to find nocturnal insects at the park in the hours when it’s normally closed to the public.” Harold brought his own camera and ring flash, for photographing images directly in front of the lens.

At the closing ceremony, several researchers reported their findings, including Paul Sadowski of the New York Mycological Society. He was surprised to find an earthstar fungus, but “the best species to find [at the BioBlitz] is homo sapiens, to raise their awareness about our planet.”

Photos from 2010 BioBlitz at Gateway National Park's Floyd Bennett Field and Environs...

The 2010 BioBlitz was held at Gateway National Park's Floyd Bennett Field, Plum Beach and Dead Horse Bay units in around Jamaica Bay...It was seamlessly coordinated by Assistant Professor Rebecca Boger (Brooklyn College) and Park Ranger Jessica Browning (National Parks Service)...

Click here to view these pictures larger

The 24 hour event began at 3pm Friday June 11th and ended at 3pm June 11th, 2010...It was a fun event which served as a learning experience for the scientists, amateur naturalists and children who participated...There was a total of over 500 species located and identified during the 24 hour period...

Even though BioBlitz 2010, is history, the counting is still going on. Final results should be ready in a few weeks as lab tests come back to us. Below is a *preliminary* count as of the close of BioBlitz 2010:

Species Count as of 2:30 PM, 6/12/2010
Aquatic Plant	60
Bird	47
Bryophyte	10
Fish	15
Herp	6
Mammal	10
Marine Invertebrate	55
Terrestrial Inverebrate	164
Terrestrial Plant	149
*Preliminary Total*	516*