Freshkills Park Blog

Hi, my name is Melody Simon and I am a high school intern at Freshkills Park. I attend the New York Harbor School and I am a senior in the aquaculture program there; doing aquaculture for 3 years has made my previous love for animals and the environment turn into something I am passionate about.

Every day, I look around up in awe as I walk along the streets of this majestic city: New York, NY. Manhattan is practically synonymous with “skyline”; the iconic towering buildings serve as a testament to the creativity and dominance of mankind.

Ashley Frenkel is the Community Engagement Coordinator at Freshkills Park. An educator by training, she’s taught in all five boroughs including her birthplace of Brooklyn and her hometown of Staten Island. Ashley has a passion for interdisciplinary and collective learning and believes that at the intersection of art, science, history, and math we can learn to take new perspectives and honor the creativity, self-expression, and experiences of ourselves and others.

The Fresh Kills landfill closed 20 years ago and in marking the anniversary, we decided to imagine a fast forward to 20 years in the future, 2041, when all 2,200 acres of the park are open to the public. What follows is an aspirational imagining:

The 2020 pandemic highlighted the critical need for parks and open space and the need for more equitable access to open space all across NYC.

Freshkills Park, an icon of transformation in New York City, is thrilled to be participating in Jane’s Walk in 2021. The self-guided tour below will introduce you to New York’s largest new park project in over a century and trace through the history of Fresh Kills as a wetland, a landfill, and today, an emerging public park.

With the formal start of Spring next week, many of us are excited for our parks to be in full bloom.  Now is an exciting time to get out and experience parks as they transition out of winter and begin to wake up.   

In 2013, the United Nations proclaimed March 3^rd World Wildlife Day to mark the signing of The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES.  Signed on March 3, 1973, CITES is an international agreement intended to ensure that the international trade of plants and wild animals does not threaten their survival. 

Freshkills Park Alliance joins the chorus of Staten Island organizations in honoring Betsy Dubovsky, President of the Staten Island Foundation.  Her legacy of leadership, characterized by empathy, strength, and a dedication to all the people of this community, is felt everywhere. 

Batteries work on positive and negatives, much like our daily lives work on batteries.  Today is National Battery Day, and while the origins are not definitively known, February 18th commemorates the birth of Alessandro Volta, the “father” of the battery. 

Birdwatching has increasingly become a new hobby for many. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this has been particularly true, as it is an activity that can be safely done outdoors.

Did you know that recording the birds you see and keeping a checklist can contribute to the scientific community?

The Freshkills Park Alliance (FKPA) is the conservancy partner with the City of New York in its work to develop Freshkills Park. As the park build out continues, the Alliance makes the park visible to the public through interdisciplinary programs and advocacy, welcoming visitors to experience the site now before it is fully open to the public and ensuring its continued transformation and accessibility.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every aspect of our daily lives. Our outdoor spaces, including our urban parks, have seen huge increases in usage while also facing budget cuts that have limited maintenance staff and operations. This fall, volunteers supported Freshkills Park by removing invasive species and planting a biodiversity garden at Schmul Park.

Friends, Colleagues and Partners of the Freshkills Park Alliance,

On behalf of the Board of Directors at the Freshkills Park Alliance, with both sadness and gratitude, we are announcing the resignation of Nancy Hechinger from the Board.  She was a founding member of the Board in 2006 and has been an active and energetic contributor and source of support to the Freshkills Park Alliance ever since.

The National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) represents perhaps one of the largest and most comprehensive animal censuses on the planet. The power of this incredible survey is attributed to the tens of thousands of volunteers that participate every year.

We are in the middle of the holiday season and as the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold.  Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans produce about 25% more waste than normal, which adds up to about a million pounds a week. 

As the colorful warblers, flycatchers, and tanagers move south to escape the blustery winters of the northeast, the first few weeks of fall bring a rush of cool air and changing leaves. However, this change of season also brings in some very unusual waterfowl to our area.

This fall, a new pollinator garden was planted at Schmul Park in the Travis neighborhood of Staten Island. Schmul Park was Freshkills Park’s first capital project, designed by James Corner Field Operations and completed in 2013.  Schmul Park is also soon to become a neighborhood entrance to the 22 acre North Park Phase 1 which is under construction and scheduled to be complete in 2021. 

Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP announced on Juneteenth (the annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States) that the Parks Department would be renaming 10 park spaces throughout the five boros to honor the Black experience in New York City. 

It was yet another busy Fall at Freshkills Park this year. While we were unable to host our annual Discovery Day, we were excited to welcome back small groups for outdoor programming that included the necessary safety precautions.  Participants experienced the landfill-to-park transformation through nature walks, birding, photography tours, and kayaking.

It is no secret that NYC agencies, like the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) have suffered significant budget cuts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, parks and open spaces are experiencing larger crowds because people need to get out of their apartments and parks are a safe place to social distance.