The Staten Island Greenbelt is a system of contiguous public parkland and natural areas in the central hills of the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is the second largest component of the parks owned by the government of New York City and is maintained by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation and the Greenbelt Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization that works in partnership with NYC Parks to care for the Greenbelt and raise funds for its maintenance and programs. The Greenbelt includes High Rock Park, LaTourette Park, William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, and Willowbrook Park among others.
Description
The administrative headquarters of the Greenbelt and Greenbelt Conservancy are located at the entrance to High Rock Park (one of the many parks within the system) with a street address of 200 Nevada Avenue in the Egbertville neighborhood; in June 2004 a second facility, known as the Greenbelt Nature Center, was opened approximately away, at 700 Rockland Avenue. The Greenbelt Conservancy, which works in partnership with the NYC Parks Department, is a membership organization offering year-round nature-themed events for young people and adults.
The Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, a citizen organization committed to the conservation and preservation of remaining natural area on Staten Island has, since the early 1970s, carried on the mission of its predecessor, SIGNAL. Today the "Protectors" continue the tradition of organizing people concerned about the island's fragile and threatened wilderness via lobbying and naturalist led hikes.
A researchable archive of planning, legal, public relations, and other documents related to the Staten Island Greenbelt, its ecology and history, is housed at the library of the College of Staten Island, a campus of the City University of New York.
Geology
Containing an extensive system of connected trails and covering , its forested hills run the length of Staten Island's midsection while wetlands and kettle ponds fill much of the low-lying areas. Four hundred and ten feet above sea level, Todt Hill is the highest elevation south of Maine along the Eastern Seaboard. This and other surface features are the result of glacial activity from the Pleistocene epoch; the metamorphic and igneous rocks below the surface – schist, sandstone, serpentine, magnetite, iron oxide – are the result of tectonic activity from the much earlier Paleozoic era and volcanic activity from subsequent geologic eras.
Wildlife
The Greenbelt is one of the most biologically diverse places in New York City. It is home to several species of amphibians; such as the eastern redback salamander, the green frog, the American bullfrog, and the grey tree frog; reptiles; such as the eastern garter snake, the eastern box turtle, and the northern water snake, as well as New York's state reptile, the common snapping turtle. On occasion northern "black" racer and eastern milksnakes are reported here. Both species are threatened elsewhere on Staten Island due to habitat destruction due to development. The Greenbelt provides year-round habitat native mammals like the gray squirrel, eastern chipmunk, eastern cottontail, and the white-tailed deer. Permanent bird residents include the blue jay, northern cardinal, downy woodpecker, and black-capped chickadee, while northern flickers and other migrants use the Greenbelt as a stopover on seasonal migration routes. Raptors such as Cooper's hawks, redtail hawks, and great horned owls also call the greenbelt home. The waterways are rich in fish life, and such species found here include the largemouth bass, bluegill, green sunfish, brown bullhead, black crappie, yellow perch, chain pickerel, as well as several darter species.
Early settlement
The native Lenni-Lenape, who inhabited the island centuries before the arrival of the Dutch, reportedly dubbed Staten Island Aquehonga Monocknong or "the place of bad woods" perhaps because of the spirits they believed dwelled there. Then, as today, the boulder-littered moraines were covered with many species of trees: oak, hickory, maple, beech, as well as lesser quantities of birch, sweet gum, ash, black walnut, wild cherry, and tulip. Below the canopy of this sub-climax forest grew dogwood, ironwood, spicebush, blackberry, wild grape, Virginia creeper, and sassafras, along with royal and cinnamon ferns, skunk cabbage, lady slipper, and trout lilies in the wetter areas.
