After a late summer hiatus, our Freshkills Park Talks lecture series resumes next Monday with a talk by Dr. Steven Handel, Director of the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology (CURE) at Rutgers University.  CURE’s research and practice focuses on ‘ecological services’ provided by patches of native habitat in urban and other degraded areas, and how to ensure the sustainability of those services with relatively low maintenance costs.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/16677482]

Reflections on e-waste from Annie Leonard, who previously made the viral sensation “The Story of Stuff.”

(via The New York Times Green Blog)

Visitors on the Freshkills Park tour are always excited when we mention that there are deer on-site, but they rarely experience a sighting; deer can be shy when large vehicles and groups of people are on the approach.  But there have, in fact, been a number of sightings. 

The New York City Urban Field Station is a brand new office, laboratory and residence for visiting and resident urban ecology research activities and researchers, located in Fort Totten Park in Bayside, Queens.  The facility is a physical base for The New York City Urban Field Station program, launched in 2006 by the Parks Department and the U.S.

One of the most spectacular sights for visitors to the Freshkills Park site these days  is the installation of final cover on Landfill Section 6/7, the East Mound.  Final cover (also called the landfill cap) is composed of a series of layers of soil, synthetic textile, plastic and grass and is complemented by construction of adequate and sometimes elaborate drainage systems and basins. 

There’s no contest—no other season matches autumn for colors and shapes at the Freshkills Park site.  The grasses and trees are at their highest (or they’ve been mowed, leaving strong contrasts of height and texture), and the reds and golds really stand out among the golden browns and vibrant streaks of still-thriving greens. 

Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe broke ground on the second project in the development of Freshkills Park, the $6.5 million renovation of Schmul Park.  (The 28-acre Owl Hollow Fields were the first project.)  An 8-acre park in the Travis neighborhood, Schmul Park will serve as a community gateway into the larger Freshkills Park. 

Landscape architecture and urban design firm James Corner Field Operations, designers of the master plan and early projects for Freshkills Park as well as of the High Line, have garnered another high-profile commission: designing a new nine-acre park on Seattle’s waterfront. 

The Sarnia Solar Project, an 80-megawatt (MW), 950-acre solar field operated by Enbridge, Inc. in Ontario, Canada, is the largest operating photovoltaic facility in the world.  A 20 MW section of the site, formerly farmland, has been commercially operating since last year, with the additional 60 MW, $300 million addition having come online at the beginning of October. 

MillionTreesNYC is seeking volunteers to help plant 20,000 trees at parks throughout the five boroughs this Saturday, October 23rd.  Spots are still available at two sites on Staten Island, Clove Lakes Park and Wolfe’s Pond Park, as well as at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx. 

Chasing Sanitation: Falling in Love with New York’s Strongest is a series of portraits and interviews with New York City Sanitation workers produced by writer Lisa Dowda and photographer Liz Lignon over the past two years.

Sanitation Workers – they’re not saints.

Sneak Peak was a huge success!  About 1800 people joined us at the Freshkills Park site on Sunday to make and fly kites, canoe in the creeks, walk the site with an expert, ride a pony, pet a goat, make a bag or a birdhouse, learn about composting and recycling and energy efficiency, receive a free bike helmet or fitting, enjoy the fun music, cool crafts and awesome food and generally celebrate the potential of this fascinating and amazing site. 

New York City has seen a surge in recreational access to urban waterways over the last 15 years.  There are active canoeing and kayaking outings in the Hudson River, the Bronx River, Jamaica Bay, even Superfund sites like the Gowanus Canal and the Newtown Creek. 

We’ve been eager to host a kite-flying event at the Freshkills Park site since the very beginning of this project.  The grassy, open landfill mounds soar above the surrounding landscape, not only making them high points with incredible views, but also providing access to some prime wind conditions. 

One of the things we’ve learned over the course of this park project is that the Freshkills Park site has been a part of many, many people’s careers: Sanitation workers, engineers, equipment manufacturers, scientists, policymakers, designers, artists, philanthropists—we are constantly astonished to discover a new realm of expertise on this site with which we’re so familiar. 

We’re thrilled to be able to exhibit Mierle Laderman Ukeles‘ work The Social Mirror at Sneak Peak this Sunday!  The piece is a 12-ton, 28-foot long 1979 Department of Sanitation collection truck outfitted in mirror glass.  It made its debut in the 1983 New York City Art Parade and was last publicly exhibited at the 2007 Armory Show.

This week we’re featuring some of the awesome offerings we’ll have on hand at this coming Sunday’s Sneak Peak at Freshkills Park.  First up: The King of Falafel & Shawarma, Fares “Freddy” Zeidais.  Freddy’s already high stock rose even more this past weekend, when he WON THE VENDY CUP at the 2010 Vendy Awards on Governor’s Island (the annual street vendor awards ceremony held by the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center)! 

New York Magazine runs a great feature on the ecological diversity of New York City.  Not only does it recap the higher profile wildlife sightings throughout the City—coyotes on Manhattan’s west side, wild turkeys on Staten Island—but also makes larger points about the depth and rarity of many of the City’s ecological resources, not just in spite of urban development, but in some cases, because of it.

Landscapes with the Fall of Icarus is a two-week performance installation by artist Paul Lloyd Sargent for the the Mobile Literacy + Art Bus (MLAB), a collaborative project of art and architecture students at Syracuse University. From 2007 to 2008, the team converted a 1984 Recreational Vehicle into a mobile classroom, digital photo lab, gallery space, and community center for use by the Syracuse City School District and the greater Syracuse Community. 

We’ve been hard at work putting together the first open, public event EVER at the Freshkills Park site, which will take place Sunday, October 3rd!  ‘Sneak Peak at Freshkills Park‘ will not only be a chance to see the site’s hills and wetlands in all their autumn glory, it will also be a hybrid kite festival/street fair/series of special site tours!