By Alaska St. Clair The Riverdale Press
On a recent crisp, autumn afternoon, Ewen Park was growing greener by the hour as 190 new trees took root in celebration of the third annual City of Forest initiative.
Hosted by the Stewards of Ewen Park, in partnership with local organizations and volunteers, the event was one of over 80 eco-focused activities across the city aimed at enhancing and restoring urban green spaces. At one station, Michael Edmond from Bronx Green-Up, the New York Botanical Garden’s community outreach program, offered seeds and homemade flower pots to attendees, encouraging them to cultivate their own mini gardens. At another, Plant Native NW Bronx – a grassroots community organization that works on use of land and ecological restoration — led a hands-on seed bomb making activity, teaching the community a technique popular among guerrilla gardeners in the 1970s.
According to Ann Lane, founding member of Plant Native NW Bronx, this process combines compost, clay and seeds to create “bombs” which can be thrown into underused or neglected areas to increase native plant cover.
“We’re currently in an ecological crisis so we need to do whatever we can to promote biodiversity,” Lane said. Both Lane and Julie Jenkins, a founding member of Stewards of Ewen Park, work in the same office building and realized the City of Forest event was the perfect opportunity for another collaboration.
Mainly a group of local dog owners, the Stewards of Ewen Park came together in 2021 when they noticed neglected areas around the park’s dog run and felt inspired to take action. They meet around every two weeks for ritual stewardship and cleanup, replacing invasive species with native plants, while taking on a larger project each spring and autumn. The group aims to foster biodiversity, creating what Jenkins calls a, “forest patch/respite on the edge of Kingsbridge for bees, birds, and other mammals” — humans included.
As members of the Forest for All NYC Coalition (FFANYC), organizers of City of Forest day and catalysts of two local laws protecting urban forests, the Stewards were eager for this year’s autumn project to be their most ambitious yet.
“We’re taking a degraded forest, full of invasive species, and replacing it with native species to make it more resilient and longer-lasting,” Jenkins said.
Funding for these trees came from neighborhood donations and a grant through the City Parks Foundation. According to Jenkins, each park has a palette of approved tree species, which she reviewed to curate a balanced mix.
“The goal is to choose what was here 300 years ago and what would grow here naturally if we allowed the forest to take over,” she said.
Some species, like winterberry hollies, were more ornamental to engage community interest, whereas others were more strategic, for ecological value.
To protect the young trees as winter approaches, volunteers constructed a natural barrier from fallen branches to fence in the area.
“We’ll water them really good today,” said Cary Epstein, another long-standing member of the Ewen Park stewards. “And then, we’ll spread mulch all over the top and then hay to give them sort of their winter coat.”
Epstein said she was optimistic most of the trees would last, but there is a new woodchuck family the group is keeping their eye on.
Many of the volunteers were high schoolers from the group Christadora, a youth conservationist group based out of the Bronx which provides students a stipend for their work in urban green space cleanup and community service projects.
“We haven’t done anything in Ewen Park this year,” said Bella Klosterman, the group’s outreach coordinator and leader of the day’s activities. “So, we were really excited to get out here and give our students the chance to develop some of their tree-planting skills.”
One volunteer, Naomi, a tenth grader in Queens, was happy to play her part.
“I planted a lot of trees when I was younger,” Naomi said, “I also enjoy helping my community.”
The event also drew curious onlookers from the community who stopped to admire the new forest in progress. Joey Reyes, a Ewen park regular who was walking his dog, praised the stewards, Epstein in particular, for her visible dedication.
“She’s here daily,” Reyes said. “This is her backyard. She’s always planting something, always putting trees in.”
Original here.