Marielle Anzelone2013-05-24T03:40:51-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=marielle-anzeloneCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Marielle AnzeloneGood old fashioned elbow grease.How the View From Apartment Windows Affects Your Health and Well-beingtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.28384482013-03-12T16:17:55-04:002013-05-12T05:12:01-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marielle-anzelone/tree-of-heaven, a weed native to Asia and common in vacant lots in New York City, presses up against the glass of our fourth floor Brooklyn apartment windows. The tree found its way into the garden below by happenstance, but has become an interactive and engaging presence in our daily lives.
My children and I gaze at its now bare twigs, anticipating leaves that will unfurl in springtime. In summer its foliage will keep us hidden like tree-house inhabitants. We are captivated by the squirrels that scurry through its branches. House sparrows often perch within; their songs greet my boys when they wake in the morning. As a botanist, I know this tree causes ecological trouble by invading local woodlands. Yet as a mother, I would fight to save it, because it has come to feel like family.
In the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn the borough is depicted as such a harsh, desperate place that only one thing is able to grow there "out of neglected rubbish heaps" and "out of cement." This is the tree.
But this tree-of-heaven is more than a scruffy neighbor, it also bolsters our well-being. As humble as it is, the view of nature outside our windows has positive effects on our emotional health, mental acuity, and productivity; and recently-passed legislation points us to a future where such a view will not be left to luck.
There is research to back up these assertions. Psychologists at the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois surveyed residents of the country's largest public housing project in Chicago. The study showed that people who lived in apartments overlooking trees and a patch of grass reported feeling healthier, more productive, and less aggressive than neighbors whose views were of alleys and concrete. They also scored higher on cognitive function tests. The findings are clear: The view outside our collective urban windows matters.
In fact, there is a body of scientific data that demonstrates the strong connections between nearby nature and healthy human behavior and function. Post-surgery patients with tree-filled vistas experienced less pain, swifter recoveries and shorter hospital stays. In Tokyo, walkable green space added years to the lives of senior citizens. Outdoor plantings in high density areas was shown to reduce crime. In Britain, proximity to green spaces was correlated with lower mortality rates, especially for those in the lower-income brackets.
The tree-of-heaven outside our Brooklyn apartment is more than mere window dressing; it also improves our health, mood, and creativity. In New York City, where flora and fauna can be scarce, our view is a precious commodity. But it is pure luck that we have it at all since the tree arrived here by chance. As much as my sons delight in the tree, sometimes I daydream about less bedraggled alternatives. Instead of accidental, what if our view had been planned and purposeful?
In its place could be something more pleasing. Imagine the space of a single street tree transformed into a small-scale woodland. The addition of native wildflowers, ferns and shrubs would keep it abuzz with wildlife to delight children and nurture a sense of place. If installed on every block throughout the city, these biomes would provide connective habitats for birds, bees and butterflies while engaging neighbors with slivers of wildness and each other.
Creating these biomes would build upon recently-passed legislation that supports local biodiversity, the first law of its kind in New York City. The City Council should be applauded for advancing these bills and advocating for the use of native plants in public landscapes. I had the privilege of providing public testimony and advising on the legislation. While its passage is an important first step, the Big Apple has more to do. Let's catch up to cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Austin that prioritize nearby nature by preserving wilderness, providing easy access to it and weaving ecological elements into daily life. The latter is especially important for apartment dwellers who lack backyards like many of us in New York.
At a time when local government is counting every penny, such investments make fiscal sense. More nature can mean fewer social services with improved public health, reduction in crime and fewer emergency responses. Piggybacking on the city's existing PlaNYC Million Trees planting program, the extra work and costs would be negligible.
Small-scale forests would effectively amplify nature on city blocks by bringing parks to the people. In creating these connections, we could strengthen our immune systems while reinforcing ties with the natural world and within our communities.
In time and with more political will, I hope we see a greener and more inviting view outside all of our windows.]]>Nature in New York Citytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8225782011-02-14T16:11:08-05:002011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marielle-anzelone/ Dominated by soft rush (Juncus effusus) and fragrant water lily (Nymphaea odorata) is Lily Pond, an example of an intact urban ecosystem, located in Blue Heron Park, Staten Island.
"Skyscraper national park." Kurt Vonnegut's description supports the widely held view that New York City is a paean to the built environment. This collective image includes towering edifices, taxied roadways and neon billboards. The last thing one would expect in this milieu is nature. Yet sprinkled throughout the five boroughs are approximately 28,000 acres of city parkland. Discounting ball fields and swing sets, nearly half of these have significant areas of flora and fauna. They harbor the city's true treasures: freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, beaches, and forests. Ensconced within these ecosystems are more than 40% of New York State's rare and endangered plant species.
Still, it isn't easy being green in the Big Apple. Over the past century, 75% of the city's woodlands, wetlands and meadows have been destroyed. The persistent pressure of urbanization and its concomitant ailments has driven many of the city's native plants to the brink of extirpation. We have already lost 43% of our flora including such treasures as the yellow fringed orchid (Platanthera ciliaris) and swamp pink (Helonias bullata).
Recent floras of the five boroughs relate a disturbing tale. Of 1,357 native plants ever recorded, only 778 species remain. Somewhat resilient were trees and shrubs. This may be attributed to the protection afforded by their tough outer bark. Over time, as suitable habitat shrinks and these trees and shrubs are unable to recolonize, they too will pass.
Pink ladyslipper (Cypripedium acaule) is one of the few orchid species that has managed to survive in NYC. But for how much longer?
Plants that disappeared more quickly were less resilient, non-woody ground layer vegetation, like ferns, wildflowers, and grasses. Annuals and biennials, with their short life cycles, were also in decline. Flora of wetlands and open meadows were also hit hard. These herbaceous plants, the foundation of plant species diversity, appear to be acutely vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances. The latter is especially germane on an archipelago teeming with eight million humans. In Manhattan and Brooklyn, exotic plants already outnumber the surviving native species.
Retention of most of our native plants is not reason enough to pull out the party hats. The bad news is that the majority occur infrequently, with many known from only one location. Some plant groups have been utterly decimated. Sadly, the orchid family illustrates this point well. Once upon a time, there were 30 species of orchids in our fair city. Today only six species remain, consisting of only eleven populations. There is one other orchid; the exotic broad-leaved helleborine (Epipactis helleborine). Visiting from Europe, this species is found in more and more parks every year.
Trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), once common on Staten Island, now extinct in New York City. This picture was taken in the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania.
Staten Island is New York City's Xanadu, a place where many plant species have taken refuge. With bucolic vistas and 10% of its land preserved, the island bolsters the city's native plant numbers. Yet its greenery still suffers the slings and arrows of human existence. Since 1990, Staten Island has lost more than 30% of its indigenous flora including nodding trillium (Trillium cernuum) and wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum var. philadelphicum). Scarier still, no plant or habitat type was invulnerable to the onslaught of urbanization. And ecologically, Richmond County is a microcosm for the rest of the planet -- a store of biological diversity struggling against high human population densities. Most of these species cannot be grown or transplanted successfully. Habitat protection is the only hope for their future.
"God might have made a more beautiful place than Staten Island, but He didn't."
- George W. Curtis, 19th c. author and SI resident]]>NYC Nature 101: Urban Ecologytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8182172011-02-03T13:37:25-05:002011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marielle-anzelone/ Urban nature at work in Alley Pond Park, Queens
Looking forward to the release of PlaNYC 2.0 and what will hopefully be the Five-Borough Year of Biodiversity, what is nature in NYC? Urban ecology. The study of urban ecology is a recent development. For decades, ecologists defined nature as the pristine green spaces far from people. True ecological observation could only occur away from human intervention, in the "wilderness." It was universally held that cities were unnatural consortia of weeds, pigeons and rats.
This perspective has changed within the last 25 years. Ecologists have begun to do their field studies closer to home. In the process, they have discovered that nature survives, and even thrives, in the city limits, with a surprising variety of native plants and animals. As formerly open spaces are devoured by development, understanding and protecting urban ecosystems is crucial to our environmental future.
Additionally, studies done in "pristine" nature show that the concept of "wilderness" has been rendered an anachronism. All areas of the globe now bear the mark of humanity's existence, even places as remote as the South Pole (ozone hole), or as untrammeled as Alaska (elevated levels of mercury in wildlife).
This warrants deeper consideration. Most people would consider dramatic disturbances, such as hurricanes, to be responsible for the destruction of natural areas. In fact, the opposite is true. Such storm events may have little long-term effect, whereas subtle, human-induced changes permanently alter nature. Ecology in urban natural areas is marred by disturbances from current and historical land uses. For example, in a recent study, forest that had been farmed by the Romans was compared with forest that had never been in cultivation. Thousands of years later, the former farms still have not recovered, sustaining more weedy plants and lower quality soils.
It behooves us to understand how this happens, for as a colleague recently put it, "every day the world becomes more and more like New York City, not the reverse." For example, Staten Island in 1879 was a farming community with 30,000 people and 1,100 plant species. Staten Island today has 400,000 people and has lost 443 plant species.
Urban natural areas share some common attributes:
• Higher percentage of paved/built land. Development of open space destroys 20,000 to 40,000 years of native, healthy soil development in one fell swoop.
Lack of plants underfoot due to use of mountainbikes and ATVs. Mineral soils are exposed, with the humus/seed bank layer gone. The only way to restore the area is through intensive measures such as plantings.
• Increased use by humans. Given the dense population of people per park, our natural areas show signs of wear and tear - mountain bike tire ruts, charred stumps from arson, strewn litter, bare, unvegetated patches, exposed mineral soil. In Central Park, greater than 25% of the forested areas were bare ground, caused by pedestrians and cyclists. More than 2 1/2 miles of illegal bike trails were created in the North Woods section in one season.
• More exotics, more of the time. Seeds transported by tires or carried by birds from landscape plantings mean proportionally many more alien species in urban that rural areas. And these non-native plants dominate these patches. In Chicago, one-third of all plants are exotic. About 150 species are so invasive, they are in 95% of the parks.
• Replacing forests and fields with buildings and roads increases the amount of land impenetrable to precipitation. This "impervious cover" directs water offsite, unable to percolate into the ground as groundwater recharge. Brimming with pollutants, this overflow water has high volume and runoff rates, which create erosion gullies. This process, replayed over and over in urban areas, is especially deleterious to our wetlands, home to many of the city's most imperiled plants.
Urban wetlands, such as this one, are under duress, due to increased runoff from paved areas and higher pollutant content in that surface water.
• Urban wetlands are characterized by overall drier conditions, reduced nitrogen cycling and higher levels of pollutants than those in less developed watersheds.
• Poor air quality. High levels of air pollutants are responsible for more human deaths each year than car accidents or guns. Plants don't like it either, because smog, acid rain, et al. increases infections, diseases and the likelihood of death. (Although stationery sites like factories shoulder all the bad PR, the source of these pollutants is mobile - our cars).
• Urban Heat Island Effect. Trees and shrubs cool the air through shade and evaporation. Replacing them with roads and buildings, which release stored heat at night, makes for warmer evenings and increased A/C use. This extra heat (5-8 F) creates more rain and thunderstorms. Everywhere we go, we always take the weather with us.]]>2011 Is Five-Borough Year of Biodiversitytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8106752011-01-18T18:26:04-05:002011-05-25T18:25:24-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marielle-anzelone/Will healthy forests and natural streams like Corson's Brook Woods in Staten Island be part of PlaNYC 2.0?
As the year 2010 drew to a close, so too did the United Nation's International Year of Biodiversity. This year-long, global recognition of our planet's vital biological diversity was meant to elevate this issue nearer to the top of the political agenda. I'm not sure that this goal was met.
A quick search of "biodiversity" on the New York Times website yields only a handful of articles on the topic in the past month (with "biodiversity" mentioned by readers about two dozen times). A comparison of Google search trends of biodiversity and climate change in 2010 shows that "climate change" was searched for more than twice as often as "biodiversity" and "global warming" more than four times as often.
That's why I hope 2011 will be Five-Borough Year of Biodiversity.
When released in April, the revised PlaNYC 2.0 will likely include biodiversity. If this expansion of Mayor Bloomberg's sustainability initiative occurs, we would have David Bragdon to thank. The new Director of The Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Bragdon is responsible for PlaNYC and passionate about nature. As Portland's former Metro Council president, he focused on acquisition and restoration of natural areas and then community engagement with these open spaces.
We should be glad he's returned to the Big Apple, because we need him. The original PlaNYC doesn't mention nature at all. New York City has more nature than any other city in North America - more than Los Angeles and Chicago combined. Yet the city's 29,000 acres of forests, salt marshes and meadows aren't mentioned in the document.
The adoption of biodiversity policy by the Bloomberg administration could be bigger than the United Nation's awareness initiative. New York City is in a position to shape the global conversation. How should our urban world integrate nature? By saving open spaces, engaging citizens with their natural heritage, encouraging ecological literacy and connecting economic health with the local environment. Such an agenda would exert its influence beyond the five boroughs and help determine much of our global biodiversity future. Cities and nature can co-exist. New York City, it is your time to show the world how this might be possible.]]>More Than the Million Trees, Where Is Nature in PlaNYC?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.7811802010-11-10T12:09:31-05:002011-05-25T18:10:25-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marielle-anzelone/small, starry white flowers are easily overlooked. The season when it shines is fall. About this time of year, its berries have ripened to a ghostly white with dark "eye" spots in the centers. Contrasted on a grape juice-colored stem, these striking fruits are hard to miss during a walk in the woods.
A few weeks ago I spent an afternoon scanning the moist forest floor of Cunningham Park, Queens, searching for this wildflower. I had seen it here years ago, growing in the shade of a sugar maple. Despite hours of searching, I came to the sad conclusion that doll's eyes had disappeared from the park.
Small patches of its rich woodland habitat are still found within city boundaries, but the plant itself no longer grows here. This wildflower continues to populate neighboring areas in New Jersey, Westchester, and Long Island but it is likely now gone from the New York City portion of its range.
Most people are surprised that New York City has nature at all. Yet old-growth forests, expansive marshes and grassy meadows cover nearly one-eighth of the city, making it the greenest in North America.
We New Yorkers innately know that nature is good for us. In the weeks following the September 11th tragedy, New York City's parks and botanic gardens were flooded with people seeking solace in green spaces. The healing effects of nature are real, free and available to all - as long as these places are allowed to exist.
The myth of biodiversity loss is that it is caused by accidents or acts of God. Oil spills and fires only tell part of the story. Forests turned to soccer fields or meadows lost to strip malls result in flora and fauna that become locally extinct right under our noses. Wildflowers that escape the bulldozer still struggle to survive against competing interests. Outdoor sports should be encouraged, but in marginal habitats, not sensitive natural areas. When illegal motorized vehicles and mountainbikes tear through them, tender plants are crushed. This is how doll's eyes met its fate.
Habitat loss and degradation result in species that are abundant outside the five boroughs, but increasingly uncommon here. Such localized rarity is important to examine, because the consequences are dire. More than half of the world's people now live in urban areas. New York City is inadvertently drafting a blueprint for loss of biological diversity that other regions will inevitably follow. This is especially important this year, as 2010 has been declared "International Year of Biodiversity" by the United Nations. In fact, U.N. representatives recently attended a summit on biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan to negotiate a global strategy for the extinction crisis.
Local government can lead the way. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vision for a sustainable New York City is outlined in a document called PlaNYC. The ambitious agenda discusses climate change, transportation alternatives and drinking water but does not mention nature. Its initiative to plant one million trees is laudable, but there is even more we can do to restore our urban nature. The document is currently being amended, with revisions to be published in April 2011. This is a unique policy opportunity to recognize native flora as an integral part of city life.
PlaNYC must address these issues directly, starting with the creation of Biodiversity Reserves that limit development and curtail incompatible recreational activities. It must cultivate children's innate love of nature by providing opportunities for every child in grades K-12 to connect to local woodlands, grasslands and ponds. It has to overcome the hurdle of limited access to nature for low-income communities. It must outline how city agencies will work collaboratively to combat species loss and ecosystem degradation.
PlaNYC is open for public comment. New Yorkers can get involved by voicing their support for the nature in their backyards. You can also grab a field guide and go for a walk in the woods. Get to know your foliar neighbors and keep track of their whereabouts. This familiarity will build advocacy and encourage us to keep things whole.
The loss of our local species is a call to action. We New Yorkers, all 8 million plus of us, are the stewards of our natural heritage. Let's take pride in this common ownership by nurturing our nature and ending the loss of doll's eyes and all its foliar kin.]]>What Edward Norton Should Know for the UN's Biodiversity Summittag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.6570762010-07-23T11:20:45-04:002011-05-25T17:10:24-04:00Marielle Anzelonehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/marielle-anzelone/ Urban nature exists. Most people embrace Kurt Vonnegut's description of the Big Apple as a "Skyscraper National Park". While accurate at 51st Street and 7th Avenue, it obscures the fact that there is bona fide nature in the five boroughs, even in Manhattan. New York City has more open space than Los Angeles and Chicago combined. These 53,000 acres include towering forests, vibrant marshes and grassland meadows. The world looks increasingly like New York, with more people now living in urban settings than rural areas. The city's 8 million residents are drafting a blueprint for biodiversity from which global lessons can be learned.
Clean air isn't free. Local biodiversity provides us with fresh air to breathe and pure water to drink. Humans benefit from abated floodwaters and the pollination of food crops. Nature provides these ecosystem services for free, but there is clearly a price to be paid for their loss. Purifying contaminated water costs money. Recently a study commissioned by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection determined that natural ecosystems provided benefits worth $18 billion per year, equal to the state's construction industry.
Charismatic megafauna are attention-grabbers. A few years ago, New Yorkers went cuckoo over Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk in Manhattan. His mate Lola had a nest on a tony apartment building across from Central Park. The management of the building found it messy and wanted to take the nest down. The public was having none of this. There was a giant outcry, with plenty of media coverage and dozens of protestors carrying placards. The birds won. This outcome is wonderful for the flashier elements of nature, but what about organisms incapable of garnering any attention for themselves?
Plant blindness is real. People barely notice plants or even realize they are alive! Most see native vegetation as the green backdrop to their outdoor forays. At the same time as the Pale Male controversy, scientists rediscovered Torrey's mountainmint on Staten Island. This globally-rare plant was inconveniently located on land threatened with development. Despite being only one of 20 known populations in the world, there was no public outcry. Bulldozers rolled in and the strip mall was built. Today the mountainmint lives in a sad, garbage-filled strip along a roadside. Its future is precarious. Without a large fan base, our native plants may survive only as photographs.
Extinction is quiet. Dramatic events such as fires, hurricanes and even oil spills have gross negative consequences, but extinction usually is not one of them. Most native plants and animals are lost to quiet, everyday events. The destruction of red maple swamp forests cut down for ball fields and the introduction of invasive garlic mustard seeds from mountain bikes destroy and degrade the places where biodiversity lives. Even parkland is not safe when parking lots, public works, and active recreational pursuits trump preservation of wild spaces.
Nature is good for you. More intangibly but no less important, biodiversity enhances the quality of our lives, providing scenic vistas and shady spots for picnics. Research shows that being in nature lowers stress, boosts immunity, and heightens creativity. The "tonic of wilderness" was well documented before Henry David Thoreau wrote about it. Yet it is difficult for people to understand the benefit of open space conservation - how their individual well-being is fundamentally intertwined with the vast richness of the nature that is around them.
This is why we need you. Most folks think my line of work is interesting, but irrelevant to their everyday lives. People used to know the nature in their backyards, back when basic biology classes were taught regularly in schools. Now more children can identify the McDonald's logo than a white oak leaf.
What nature really needs, then, is your star power to help garner better publicity. Human beings grossly undervalue and ignore the importance of this biodiversity, their life support system. Your voice will amplify the work that we conservation biologists do, and help mitigate our struggles with popular perceptions. I wish you much success but would encourage you to not quit your day job.
Marielle Anzelone is an urban conservation biologist and Co-Founder and Executive Director of NYC Wildflower Week.]]>
A few weeks ago I spent an afternoon scanning the moist forest floor of Cunningham Park, Queens, searching for this wildflower. I had seen it here years ago, growing in the shade of a sugar maple. Despite hours of searching, I came to the sad conclusion that doll's eyes had disappeared from the park.