NEW YORK—New York is famous for its skyline, towering above waters on all sides. It is easy to forget that the skyline is not only towering above the waters, but is also rooted in them.
It seems, though, that along the way New Yorkers have turned their backs on the water surrounding them. As the city evolved, natural habitats disappeared, negatively affecting human beings, damaging the quality of water and the air.
“The goal is to reunite New Yorkers with the waterfront,” said Department of City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden in the 2010 Waterfront conference. The conference featured a preview of the City’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, to be published by the end of the year.
A year-long effort, the plan gives recommendations that focus on better utilizing the water for economic uses, sports, and recreation. Another facet of it is to protect and restore natural habitats in the area.
The ecological system surrounding New York is not only the jurisdiction of the city. Even though the Waterfront plan relates to ecological restoration, with some projects on the way or completed, another restoration plan engulfing the entire Hudson-Raritan estuary, stretching below Staten Island and to New Jersey, is in the works and awaiting funding.
Since 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey facilitated the development of another plan, the Comprehensive Restoration Plan (CRP). This plan’s goal is to protect and preserve habitats that still exist and restore habitats that have been lost.
Over the years, 80 percent of the wetlands in the region have disappeared, water and sediment have been polluted, the oyster reefs and eelgrass habitats have disappeared completely, and public access to the waters of the estuary has been limited.
The ultimate goal of the plan is to restore the variety of habitats in the estuary, in order to provide society with increased benefits from it. It took about 10 years of work to create the CRP. The commendations were published only last year. The plan features short-term goals for 2015 and long-term goals.
According to Lisa Baron, project manager for the Harbor Program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, even though some restoration projects were and are carried out by different authorities, there is a lack of overall coordination of effort that will benefit the estuary as a whole.
That is exactly what the plan is trying to achieve, Baron said, by acting as a program to coordinate and guide the various efforts.
“The biggest hurdle is to bring the money,” Baron said, adding that federal funding is scarce and there is a need to leverage all of the possible sources in order to promote the plan.
Currently, 350 restoration sites are being evaluated. Out of which some are just conceptual, some are planned in greater detail, and some are already being implemented or are finished.
In Jamaica Bay, for example, in an effort to increase water quality, two pilot projects of restoring eelgrass and oyster reefs were created. The project is supposed to expand next year. In Elders Point East, in Jamaica Bay, marshland was recreated. Restoration of Elders Point West had been approved and it will be built with dredged materials from the city’s harbor.
Currently, the CRP was not approved “as is” by any authority, said Baron, adding that a lot of effort is being put in to figure out the small details. It is key that all the people and agencies involved will rally behind this plan, so that it will be possible to get federal funding for one comprehensive plan, rather than advocating for funding for smaller-scale plans that may be contradicting themselves or duplicating efforts.
Even though the goals of the restoration plan are long term, New Yorkers do not need to wait in order to enjoy the nature of the city’s waterways. The city has 49 launches and landings in all five boroughs for water sports. New Yorkers can also enjoy the New York City Water Trail that connects 160 square miles of rivers, bays, creeks, inlets, and ocean suitable for kayaks, canoes, and open water rowing craft.
“Novice and experienced paddlers alike can enjoy skyline panoramas, riverside parks, bird sanctuaries, tidal marshlands, and boundless vistas of one of the world’s premier harbors, all from a prime sea-level vantage,” invites the city’s parks and recreation department.
It seems, though, that along the way New Yorkers have turned their backs on the water surrounding them. As the city evolved, natural habitats disappeared, negatively affecting human beings, damaging the quality of water and the air.
“The goal is to reunite New Yorkers with the waterfront,” said Department of City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden in the 2010 Waterfront conference. The conference featured a preview of the City’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, to be published by the end of the year.
A year-long effort, the plan gives recommendations that focus on better utilizing the water for economic uses, sports, and recreation. Another facet of it is to protect and restore natural habitats in the area.
The ecological system surrounding New York is not only the jurisdiction of the city. Even though the Waterfront plan relates to ecological restoration, with some projects on the way or completed, another restoration plan engulfing the entire Hudson-Raritan estuary, stretching below Staten Island and to New Jersey, is in the works and awaiting funding.
Since 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey facilitated the development of another plan, the Comprehensive Restoration Plan (CRP). This plan’s goal is to protect and preserve habitats that still exist and restore habitats that have been lost.
Over the years, 80 percent of the wetlands in the region have disappeared, water and sediment have been polluted, the oyster reefs and eelgrass habitats have disappeared completely, and public access to the waters of the estuary has been limited.
The ultimate goal of the plan is to restore the variety of habitats in the estuary, in order to provide society with increased benefits from it. It took about 10 years of work to create the CRP. The commendations were published only last year. The plan features short-term goals for 2015 and long-term goals.
According to Lisa Baron, project manager for the Harbor Program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, even though some restoration projects were and are carried out by different authorities, there is a lack of overall coordination of effort that will benefit the estuary as a whole.
That is exactly what the plan is trying to achieve, Baron said, by acting as a program to coordinate and guide the various efforts.
“The biggest hurdle is to bring the money,” Baron said, adding that federal funding is scarce and there is a need to leverage all of the possible sources in order to promote the plan.
Currently, 350 restoration sites are being evaluated. Out of which some are just conceptual, some are planned in greater detail, and some are already being implemented or are finished.
In Jamaica Bay, for example, in an effort to increase water quality, two pilot projects of restoring eelgrass and oyster reefs were created. The project is supposed to expand next year. In Elders Point East, in Jamaica Bay, marshland was recreated. Restoration of Elders Point West had been approved and it will be built with dredged materials from the city’s harbor.
Currently, the CRP was not approved “as is” by any authority, said Baron, adding that a lot of effort is being put in to figure out the small details. It is key that all the people and agencies involved will rally behind this plan, so that it will be possible to get federal funding for one comprehensive plan, rather than advocating for funding for smaller-scale plans that may be contradicting themselves or duplicating efforts.
Even though the goals of the restoration plan are long term, New Yorkers do not need to wait in order to enjoy the nature of the city’s waterways. The city has 49 launches and landings in all five boroughs for water sports. New Yorkers can also enjoy the New York City Water Trail that connects 160 square miles of rivers, bays, creeks, inlets, and ocean suitable for kayaks, canoes, and open water rowing craft.
“Novice and experienced paddlers alike can enjoy skyline panoramas, riverside parks, bird sanctuaries, tidal marshlands, and boundless vistas of one of the world’s premier harbors, all from a prime sea-level vantage,” invites the city’s parks and recreation department.
