On July 29, high school students in the City Parks Foundation Learning Gardens Training Program spent the whole day at Orchard Beach for an adventure off the beaten path.
Rather than swimming or lounging on the sand, they geared up for a day of hiking and observation on trails leading to Hunter Island, along the Long Island Sound.
Throughout the summer, students in the program have already gained valuable experience working in community gardens around the city, including in Jamaica, Queens, Brownsville, Brooklyn and the Bruckner Mott Haven Community Garden in the South Bronx.
They’ve learned about urban farming, ecology, biology and more, but for most students, the visit to Pelham Bay Park —the city’s largest— was their first time being immersed in a true natural habitat right in the city.
They were greeted by staffers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, including Mayra Sanchez from the Belmont neighborhood, who has been an environmental educator for 10 years and with DEC for three years.
Sanchez led half the group down parts of the Kazmiroff Nature Trail, owned by NYC Parks, and encouraged them to take advantage of natural areas close to home. “This is our park,” she said.
She taught the students how to recognize and follow trail markers and helped them identify several tree species using a leaf guide published by NYC Parks. She also pointed out some unusual sights, such as a foot-wide chicken-of-the-woods mushroom, an invasive vine called mile-a-minute that suffocates other plants and young trees and small, all-white ghost pipe plants.
Sanchez also cautioned the students against poison ivy —not only the leaves but also the “hairy” vines that climb up tree trunks and still contain the rash-causing oils despite looking harmless.
Eventually, the group made its way across a narrow wooden pathway to the water, spotting a white egret and a group of large rocks that some locals call “Bronxhenge.”
“If someone says New York City doesn’t have nature, that’s completely wrong,” Sanchez told them.
She taught a mini-lesson on water ecology, including what happens when sewage overflows to natural waters, even though it may look clean, and why it’s wise to avoid swimming right after it rains. They pulled samples to test pH levels before turning back around on the trail.
Throughout the hike, students remained mostly off their phones and chatted, pointed out observations and huffed along in the humidity.
Elvin, 17, was a first-time visitor to Pelham Bay Park and Orchard Beach. He lives in midtown Manhattan but has also lived in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. “To be honest, I like the forest more,” he said.
This summer, he’s been working at Harlem’s Gatehouse Garden at West 118th Street and Amsterdam Ave. Through that experience, he said he met at least one new friend and reunited with a friend from middle school who’s also in the program.
He said he was impressed by Pelham Bay Park, and as a self-proclaimed “animal guy,” he said he hoped to see white-tailed deer before the day was up, but was also excited to have spotted some kind of fast-running white animal about the size of a fox.
Despite the heat and humidity, Elvin said the park was “calming.” He said he sometimes goes to Central Park, but with so many visitors and nearby vehicle traffic, “It’s nothing like this.”
To the many city kids who want to explore nature but don’t know how to start, or perhaps are limited by what their parents allow, Elvin recommended starting with any local park that has a body of water.
“Smell a flower — not like at the stores, but smell a flower that’s growing. Maybe take a seat by the edge of the water” and listen to music or do some deep breathing, he said. Even though the New York City air quality isn’t always great.
“It’s still nice to find some sort of peace,” he said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
