Just a couple of days ago (July 1) I posed the idea that I would like to write about things that extend beyond the border of the preserve into the larger “watershed”. Well, as they say ‘timing is everything’. On the evening of July 7 I had the opportunity to attend a public hearing hosted at APEC about the Harbor Estuary Restoration plan. The meeting was delivered by the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) but with co-sponsorship by the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program and the Port Authority of NY/NJ. Don’t let the term New York Harbor deceive you because the way the harbor is defined it includes a huge area of New York and New Jersey (see brochure website listed below).
The plan is ambitious in scale, scope and timetable. It lays out how this region might ‘restore’ the health and vitality of the estuary through water quality improvements and by restoring key ecological habitats over the next 40 years! The harbor region is divided into 8 restoration regions and Little Neck Bay and the Alley Wetland Preserve are included in the “Harlem River, East River and Western Long Island Sound” unit. This may sound like a strange association of different places but actually it is a unified watershed with all of the lands draining into the tidal channel of the East River. I’ve written on other occasions about the special nature of the East River and would like to revisit those ideas someday soon but for now I can say that because of its connection to both Long Island Sound (to the east) and New York Harbor (to the west) the Upper East River is a very special connecting water body. You really can’t understand the nature of the water flows in this region without coming to grips with the tidal nature of this channel.
As for the meeting itself, Lisa Baron of the USACE presented the comprehensive view of restoration opportunities. Five specific habitats are the targets for restoration. On the maps that were presented I noticed that Little Neck Bay stood out prominently in at least three of the major restoration categories –coastal wetlands, oyster reefs and eelgrass beds. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have oyster reefs and eelgrass beds in the bay once again! The bay has plenty of room and plenty of opportunity for all of these ecological improvements. I would also add that this valley also has an undetermined potential for the other two target systems -islands for water birds and maritime forests although these were not shown in the current plan.
Large scale, regional restoration needs to be done in a coordinated way but it also needs to be done on a case-by-case project-by-project basis. This plan is trying to do both- maximizing the site specific projects while coordinating the big picture for the region. There is much for all of us to learn from this. The following three web sites will take the interested reader to a good starting point.
The Waters We Share website
http://www.harborestuary.org/watersweshare/
The Waters We Share brochure
http://www.harborestuary.org/watersweshare/pdfs/HEP-Brochure.pdf
Comprehensive Restoration Plan
http://www.harborestuary.org/watersweshare/resources.htm#crp
Next time I think I need to write specifically about some of the restorations that are already underway in and around the preserve. We certainly do live in exciting times.
No comments:
Post a Comment