Announcements

How to Look at Plants: Observing your Urban Ecosystem

October 11, 11am–12:30pm
Green Oasis Community Garden, 372 E 8th Street

In street tree beds and parks, along roadsides and inside abandoned lots, within forests and wetlands, the city is full urban plant communities with interesting stories. What are they up to and how do we find out? At the garden, we will look closely at plants together and understand their relationships with their environment, each other, animals, and humans. Rain or shine, cancelled for heavy rain or thunderstorms.

This workshop is the companion to our How to Look at Plants zine.

How do I live on the land?

Observe your neighborhood

• How to Look at Plants zine
• Nature journaling
• iNaturalist identification app (upload observations for citizen science)
• NYC Tree Map
• Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast

Learn about stewardship

• Books
  • Concrete Botany: The Ecology of Plants in the Age of Human Disturbance — Joey Santore
  • Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Sand County Almanac — Aldo Leopold
  • Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants — Douglas Tallamy
  • See the full Urban Ecology Library catalog at the wiki
• Online
  • urbanecologycollective.org — blog, wiki, zines; how to start a native plant garden, running volunteer workdays…
  • Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t YouTube channel
  • r/NativePlantGardening
  • welikia.org — see what New York looked like before colonization
• Training
  • NYC Parks Super Steward
  • TreesNY Citizen Pruner
• Events
  • NYC Parks Event Calendar
  • Creatures NYC mailing list

Volunteer with others

• Green Oasis Community Garden — native plants, DIY/repair, mending events, theater/arts
• Friends of Tompkins Square Park, Manhattan
• LES Ecology Center, Manhattan
• Lentol Garden, Brooklyn
• A community garden near you
• NYC Parks Stewardship events
• NYC Parks volunteering list

Visit stewarded land near you

• The Bronx
  • Pelham Bay Park
  • Van Cortlandt Park
• Queens
  • Alley Pond Park
  • Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
• Brooklyn
  • Brooklyn Bridge Park
  • Marine Park
  • Bushwick Inlet Park
  • Narrows Botanical Garden wildlife sanctuary (Saturday/Sunday 1–3)
  • Newtown Creek Nature Walk
  • Kingsland Wildflowers rooftop garden
  • Greenway Botanical Garden at the Naval Cemetery
  • Lowlands Nursery in Gowanus to buy native plants
• Manhattan
  • Inwood Hill Park
  • Seward Park
  • Solar1 Stuyvesant Cove
  • The High Line
• Staten Island
  • Greenbelt Nature Center
  • Freshkills Park