NYBG Science, Conservation & Humanities Seminars: “Implementing a Citywide Management Framework for New York City’s Wild Forests”

Despite the infrastructure and population density of New York City, the five boroughs still contain significant open space. Based on our recent land cover study, we found 11% of the city was covered in natural areas, including 10,000 acres of natural area forests. Through our further ecological assessments, these forests were found to contain a range of healthy and threatened plant communities, providing benefits to wildlife and NYC residents. Critically, it was found that NYC’s forests are at a tipping point and require investment now to ensure they will be able to function in the future.

In this talk, NYBG will introduce the Forest Management Framework for New York City, a 25-year strategy to manage and restore 7,300 acres of forested NYC parkland. They will also introduce the Natural Areas Conservancy, the non-profit conservation organization based in NYC that developed the framework in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). NYBG will discuss how they used the framework and their outreach program to develop management recommendations for the forest in Bronx Park to produce better alignment of conservation efforts among the four land managers in the park: The New York Botanical Garden, NYC Parks, the Wildlife Conservation Society (Bronx Zoo), and the Bronx River Alliance.

This presentation will be recorded, archived and shared online in the NYBG Lecture Library.