Freshkills Park Guided Tour

Dutch Settlement of Staten Island

Despite having been sighted by Giovanni Verrazano in 1524, Staten Island was not settled by Europeans until the mid-1600s. In 1613, the Dutch gained interest in the area and established fur trading posts in Manhattan and Staten Island. Wars broke out in the 1630s through 1650s as the Dutch attempted to take over Staten Island from the Lenape, but the conflict was not settled until 1661, at which point Governor Peter Stuyvesant permitted the first permanent European settlement at “Oude Dorp” (now South Beach). The Native Lenape benefited from trading with their European co-habitants but eventually dispersed from the area and immigrated west by 1682.

Evidence of the Dutch settlement is found in the names they gave to the area. The word “Fresh Kills” comes from the Dutch term “kill”, meaning waterway or stream.

Picture: New Netherland Institute

Original Wetlands

Before there was Fresh Kills Landfill, there were wetlands on the western shores of Staten Island. Historically, these wetlands were healthy and productive, providing food to the Lenape Native Americans that lived in the area. Urban planners in the mid-1900s saw wetlands as useless land, and planned to fill in the wetlands using solid and other materials to make the area suitable for development.

Landfill Operation

When Fresh Kills Landfill was created in 1948, it was only meant to stay open for three years; however, it ended up operating for a total of 53 years. By 1955, it was the largest landfill in the world and was the principal landfill for New York City’s household garbage. At its peak in 1986-87, it was collecting up to 29,000 tons of waste per day. By 1991 it was the last remaining landfill in the city. It finally closed for good in 2001. The city’s garbage is now shipped off to landfills in various locations such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, upstate New York, and Virginia. 

Discovery Day

Each year, Freshkills Park has traditionally held at least one Discovery Day, during which large areas of the park are open to visitors for bike-riding, hiking, photography, and a variety of activities provided by community partners. Past Discovery Days have included birding walks led by NYC Audubon, nature walks led by Urban Park Rangers, recycled arts workshops, and musical performances. 

Bike Rides

Freshkills Park includes miles of trails perfect for biking, and partners with bike advocacy groups to host rides and races onsite.

Grasslands

When the New York City government first decided that Fresh Kills Landfill would become a public park, developers quickly realized that it would not be possible to return the site entirely to its original wetland habitat; the landscape had been changed too drastically. However, it was possible to engineer new grassland habitat over the mounded waste. As a result, Freshkills Park now has approximately 1,000 acres of grasslands, consisting of a diverse array of native grass species. Grasslands are one of the most endangered habitat types in North America; in fact, less than 1% of the original tallgrass prairie in the Northeast remains, and grasslands have experienced greater habitat loss than any other habitat. As a result, Freshkills’ grasslands are extremely important in helping to facilitate the success of grassland species. Many different types of wildlife have made use of this new habitat, including mammals such as red foxes, field mice, and white-tailed deer, reptiles such as snapping turtles, diamondback terrapins, and painted turtles, and a large number of grassland birds.

Grassland Studies: East Mound

The majority of the grassland birds at Freshkills prefer East Mound over the other sections of the park. In order to discover what the birds might like about this mound over the others, researchers conducted fieldwork over the summers of 2017, 2018, and 2019 to determine if there were any significant differences between East and North Mounds. They compared vegetation species and characteristics, soil moisture percentages, and noise levels, and found that the main significant difference was that the soil on North Mound had higher moisture percentages (wetter soil). Many of the birds such as the savannah and grasshopper sparrows build their nests on the ground and thus prefer drier conditions, which could potentially explain why they like the drier East Mound. 

Fish Seining

Every summer, Freshkills researchers put on chest waders and carry a big net out into Main Creek. They drag the net along the bottom of the river and carefully record all of the different species of fish and crustaceans they find, a process called "seining." They then release the animals back into the water and repeat the process again. This information can help to give an idea of the health of the aquatic ecosystem of the park and can provide information on effective conservation strategies.

Water Monitoring

Every Wednesday over the summer, researchers kayak to two different points in Main Creek to take water samples and measurements. These samples then get sent to the Interstate Environmental Commission (IEC) lab at the College of Staten Island, where they are analyzed to determine levels of two pathogens, Fecal coliform and Enterococcus. This allows us to ensure the park’s waterways are clean, healthy, and safe for human and wildlife interaction. 

Osprey Monitoring

Pandion haliaetus, commonly known as the Osprey or Fish Hawk, is a large Bird of Prey that has become one of the most commonly observed birds at Freshkills Park. Previously, in the 1950s through 1970s, Osprey were in rapid decline, with some communities seeing 90% population losses due to widespread application of pesticides like DDT that caused eggshell thinning and malnourishment in their young. After the banning of DDT and the passage of other conservation laws, Osprey have bounced back in many areas. Each summer, staff survey Osprey populations in Freshkills Park and submit the data to researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 

Bird Banding

Since 2016, researchers from the College of Staten Island have operated a bird banding station at Freshkills Park each summer. The researchers have banded over 20 species of birds, including the indigo bunting, hairy woodpecker, and yellow warbler. The information that is gathered is being added to large-scale data sets that increase understanding of bird productivity across the continent and assist in tracking species that visit the area.

Freshkills Park Studio + Gallery

The Freshkills Park Studio + Gallery, located at 2240 Richmond Avenue, is an art space that aims to promote understanding of the landfill-to-park transformation, develop innovative strategies in ecological restoration, and incite socio-environmental change through education and demonstration. The space is open on select days for programs and viewing hours; visit  https://freshkillspark.org/studio-gallery  for a list of open dates and past and current exhibitions.

UnCommon Pages

UnCommon Pages is an art project presented by Susan Mills. This project reimagines an invasive plant as a generative material, and with that, is a form of recycled art. On July 19, 2014, Susan led a group to harvest Phragmites australis, the invasive species found at Freshkills Park also known as the common reed. Susan transported the harvested Phragmites to Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY to cook the plant material and remove impurities, beat with water to form a pulp from the plant fibers, then hand dip to form paper sheets. These were the cover stock for 2,000 passport-sized Field Notebooks made by workshop participants. 

Capturing Change photography

For years, photographers have been visiting closed sections of Freshkills Park to document the unique combination of nature and infrastructure. Their work explores the variety of changes taking place as habitats are established and the park is built in phases over decades. Collections of these photographs are exhibited on occasion at the Freshkills Park Studio + Gallery.