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Metro NY article

An article by Amy Zimmer about the reservoir was published in today's Metro-NY. In the article Queens Councilman Tony Avella asks, “Why not spend the money where there are opportunities for ball fields where you don’t need to destroy natural areas?”

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More about heat islands and trees

Stuart Gaffin is a research scientist with the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He was part of a group that studied the "urban heat island" in New York City and presented solutions for mitigating heat. You can read a full article on NASA's website, but here are some key passages that present compelling arguments for preserving the Ridgewood Reservoir:

"On a hot, sunny afternoon, walk outside and find a parking lot bordered by grass. Put one hand on the asphalt and the other on the grass. The same surfaces of asphalt, stone, brick, and cement that keep weeds and water out of our way can sizzle in the sunlight and raise local temperatures. To make room for all these buildings and roads, cities squeeze out vegetation that would otherwise cool its surroundings by evaporating water. Added to the mix are car motors, hot air from air conditioners and clothes dryers, earth-moving machines, even smokestacks. All of these heat sources work together to raise temperatures. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an urban area can see air temperatures up to 6 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the nearby suburban and rural areas."

"An especially effective mitigation strategy involved planting trees. Each tree could not only cool its immediate area, it could also cast shade onto nearby buildings. Gaffin and his colleagues estimated that 17 percent of the city’s surface could be planted with trees. They also estimated, however, that the biggest temperature reductions could be achieved by addressing New York City’s dark, impervious surfaces such as roads and roofs. Their assessment of the city indicated that 64 percent of the city area consisted of such surfaces."

"As he researched mitigation options for the urban heat island, he became aware of another issue that causes some cities as much hardship: stormwater runoff. “The purpose of asphalt is to create an impervious surface,” he explains, to keep out water. Unfortunately, the water that can’t be absorbed by roofs and roads has to go somewhere else." "To deal with runoff from heavy rains, cities have storm sewers, but many cities use the same systems to handle both the overflow from rainstorms and the water flushed out of toilets. Heavy rains can overwhelm these systems (called combined sewer overflows), pushing raw sewage into waterways. “It’s the major source of pathogens in the New York Harbor. It’s a major problem in Europe. This is one of the impediments to ever reclaiming the recreational and other values of our urban water systems,” he says. He has coined a term for this problem, as a parallel to the urban heat island. He calls it “the urban runoff island.”

"Gaffin and his colleagues used Landsat data to assess New York City’s summer heat. The top map shows temperature, with cooler temperatures appearing in blue and hotter temperatures appearing in yellow. The bottom image shows vegetation, with beige indicating sparse vegetation and dark green indicating dense vegetation. The maps show a correlation between dense vegetation and cool temperatures, and between sparse vegetation and high temperatures. NASA’s Landsat satellite captured these images of New York City on August 14, 2002, at 10:30 a.m. (Maps by Robert Simmon, using data from the Landsat Program.) Gaffin and his colleagues used Landsat data to assess New York City’s summer heat. The top map shows temperature, with cooler temperatures appearing in blue and hotter temperatures appearing in yellow. The bottom image shows vegetation, with beige indicating sparse vegetation and dark green indicating dense vegetation. The maps show a correlation between dense vegetation and cool temperatures, and between sparse vegetation and high temperatures. NASA’s Landsat satellite captured these images of New York City on August 14, 2002, at 10:30 a.m. (Maps by Robert Simmon, using data from the Landsat Program.)"

In addition to the heat mitigating value of the forests of the Ridgewood Reservoir is its use to control storm water. A comprehensive management report for the "Jamaica Bay Watershed Protection Plan" was released this month. On the New York City Department of Environment Protection website is a summary of the report. The Department of Parks and Recreation wants to replace forest and vegetation with artificial turf and asphalt at the Ridgewood Reservoir. I guess they didn't get this memo:

"Most notably, the plan builds on the Mayor’s PlaNYC, recommending a series of Best Management Practices for storm water management."

I didn't read any recommendations for cutting down 23 acres of forest. Read the entire news release here.

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"A million more trees in NYC..."

Here is a link to a good editorial about the reservoir on the Juniper Park Civic Association's website.

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New York Daily News article

The following article was published in today's New York Daily News. Writer John Lauinger did a great job with the coverage:

Forest fans howl over plans to raze 20 acres in Ridgewood Reservoir

By John Lauinger Daily News Staff Writer

Sunday, October 21st 2007, 4:00 AM

Bring on the bulldozers!

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe delivered a shock to nature lovers and community activists last week when he said the city is planning to level more than 20 acres of dense forest in Ridgewood Reservoir to make way for recreational facilities, attendees of the meeting said.

The brief disclosure came at an under-the-radar meeting at the Parks Department's Manhattan headquarters in which Benepe highlighted some of the $400 million in park upgrades proposed in Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC initiative.

"I had the sense that they had made up their minds that this is what they wanted to do," said Heidi Steiner, 50, who attended the meeting and is a member of the Ridgewood Reservoir Education and Preservation Project.

Steiner, other meeting attendees and some community activists said they were stunned by Benepe's comments, considering that public opinion at two earlier public meetings was heavily against such a tree-chopping plan.

"It just blows my mind that they think they need to put more recreational facilities there," said Robb Jett, a 52-year-old computer technician from Brooklyn who attended Monday's meeting.

The 50-acre reservoir, which is sandwiched between the upper and lower levels of Highland Park along the Queens-Brooklyn border, was an active water source until 1959, and served as a backup reservoir for Queens and Brooklyn until 1989.

But nature has reclaimed the reservoir in the years that have followed.

The thick forests that now cover most of the terrain provide ideal habitat for many species of wildlife - in particular, more than 120 species of migratory birds, some of which are rarely found nesting in the city.

"The Ridgewood Reservoir is perhaps, a little surprisingly, one of the most pristine and important natural areas within the boundaries of the five boroughs," said Elliotte Harold, 41, a college professor from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and a member of the Brooklyn Birding Club.

"It's a very unique place, and it would be a shame to see it turned into just another baseball field," he said.

Benepe told the Daily News on Friday that the $46 million plan is not a "done deal" - but then spent several minutes explaining why recreational facilities are needed at the site.

"We have a very strong obligation to provide sports and recreational facilities so that kids can get exercise and avoid problems like diabetes and heart disease," he said.

Those arguments didn't sit well with Steiner, who lives in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.

"There are other solutions to the problem other than destroying one of the few natural areas remaining in the city," she said.

Benepe said the city has a shortage of "first-rate" recreational facilities, and said Queens is "blessed with thousands of acres of parkland that is mostly natural."

But community activists said replacing more than 20 acres of forest with AstroTurf sports fields contradicts Bloomberg's much-publicized plan to plant a million trees in the city by 2030.

"It's very hypocritical for them, on their own property, to cut down thousands of trees and then boast about how they're planting trees on the sidewalk, which they're making residents pay for," said Christina Wilkinson, president of the Newtown Historical Society.

Benepe strongly disagreed.

"These are really accidental landscapes that have grown up out of lack of maintenance and lack of use," he said.

jlauinger@nydailynews.com

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More about Monday's meeting

Here's a link to some more coverage of Monday's meeting held by parks commissioner Benepe:

Parks to Bulldoze Ridgewood Forest


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