Freshkills Park Blog

Freshkills Park will offer Discovery Day on May 15th from 11am to 4pm. During this free public event, 700 acres of the otherwise closed site will be open for outdoor recreation, providing opportunities to explore and learn about the landfill-to-park project.

Fifteen years ago this week, the final barge of household garbage arrived at Fresh Kills Landfill. To celebrate this milestone, the website’s new interactive landfill-to-park timeline illustrates almost 100 years of changes in the area.

The last barge to Fresh Kills marked the end of 53 years of landfill operations.

The Freshkills Park Development team is seeking a motivated and energetic Seasonal Programming Associate to deliver the park’s seasonal calendar of activities & events.  The Programming Associate will spend time engaging New Yorkers of all ages with hiking, kayaking, canoeing, birding, environmental education, presentations, arts events, and tours – for a one of a kind park. 

The Freshkills Park staff is gearing up for its 2016 season and we cannot wait to welcome our volunteers back to the Park for weed warrior days, special events, and park beautification efforts.  As the volunteer program grows, we are looking for feedback from past volunteers about your experience at the park – why you do it, what works well, and where we might be able to improve.

The work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the artist-in-residence for the NYC Department of Sanitation for the past 30+ years, is featured in a new book edited by Kari Conte titled “Seven Work Ballets.” According to Sternberg Press, the book focuses on a series of seven grand-scale collaborative performances that took place between 1983 and 2012 in New York, Pittsburgh, Givors, Rotterdam, and Tokamachi.

Freshkills Park will offer Discovery Day events on May 15th and June 26th, 2016 from 11am to 4pm. During these free events, 700 acres of the otherwise closed site will be open for tours and recreation.

“I always wanted to get into environmental science to clean up hazardous waste,” Ted Nabavi said in his recent interview with Urban Omnibus. Ted has been working with DSNY for over 25 years, currently as the Director of Waste Management Engineering for the Bureau of Solid Waste Management.

Happy National Invasive Species Awareness Week! An “invasive species” is a plant, animal, or other organism that’s not native to the ecosystem under consideration whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

On February 9th, students at James Madison High School built a chain of plastic bags around the school building in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The project was meant to raise awareness about excessive use of the material and its harmful impact on the environment.

The Freshkills Park Office has started planning for the 2016 season and we’re excited to welcome new and returning volunteers to our growing community.  Your help during public events will make it possible for thousands of people to visit and learn about closed sections of the park.

On President’s Day weekend, millions of birds were recorded as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). According to the New York Times, this was the 19th year that both amateur and expert ornithologists worldwide have contributed bird sightings to this citizen science project, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Bird Studies of Canada.

This snowy panoramic view was taken this morning from the top of North Mound.  

Shortly after Winter Storm Jonas, artist Kirk Finkel recorded this time lapse video of his installation at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in St. George. This interactive sculpture, called NEST, is designed to bring Freshkills Park wildlife to people in New York City and encourage visitors to see the park firsthand.

New York City is in the process of creating its first wetland mitigation bank in the marshlands surrounding Saw Mill Creek on Staten Island.  Saw Mill Creek, a tributary to Prall’s Creek and the Arthur Kill, is encircled by the largest expanse of remaining salt marsh along Staten Island’s west shore. 

This spring, 6th-12th grade students in Staten Island will have the chance to participate in a Citizen Science water monitoring project at Freshkills Park. The project will be overseen by Manager of Science and Research Development Cait Field and fellow NYC Department of Parks and Recreation staff.

The Design Trust for Public Space is now accepting submissions for the Future Culture Photo Urbanism Fellowship, in partnership with Staten Island Arts and the Alice Austen House, to focus on the cultural community of Staten Island’s North Shore in a time of transformation.

This material originally appeared in NYC zerowaste’s January 2016 newsletter. Freshkills Park proudly supports DSNY and NYC zerowaste in helping New York City send zero waste to landfills by 2030. 

It’s easy to make resolutions at the start of the new year, but many of us struggle with keeping them for more than a few months. Fortunately, Freshkills Park will be there to help you accomplish a wide variety of goals in 2016.

Freshkills Park is a big fan of temporary structures. As a site that’s only open for public events a few days each year, it’s really valuable to have materials that can be stored, assembled, dismantled, stored, assembled, and so on.

It’s been an amazing year at Freshkills Park.  We have accomplished so much!

2015 by the numbers

Over 10,000 people experienced Freshkills Park this year, whether visiting the park during our new Discovery Days, special events, and programs or participating in presentations around the City.