Staten Island transforms giant garbage dump into a stunning oasis for bees and butterflies

Staten Island is known for its up close views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline, some playful jeering by the other burrows of New York City calling it “the forgotten borough,” and over 170 parks. It also once claimed the world’s largest landfill taking in a colossal 29,000 tons of trash per day.

Freshkills landfill sits on over 150 million tons of solid waste and now it’s getting an environmental make over. With the planting of 50,000 native violets, the Freshkills Park Alliance wants to bring bees, monarch butterflies, and all the little pollinating organisms to reshape the area and help balance the local ecosystem.

“Planting these violets is incredibly important to the ecosystem within Freshkills and also the region,” according to Mark Murphy, President of the Freshkills Park Alliance. “Our 2,200 acres of native grassland is not just a place of beauty, but a place of highly efficient carbon capture, of resilience, regrowth and environmental sustainability.”

Garbage scows bring solid waste for landfill.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Archiv... Photo by Chester Higgins Jr.

Endeavors to reclaim areas damaged by the inevitable human foot print have been growing more critically important to the long term sustainability of our planet. Organizations like The Ocean Cleanup focuses on the removal of plastic pollution in the ocean, One Tree Planted has restored over 290,000 acres of forrest around the world by planting 135 million plus trees one at a time, and Sierra Club has been gathering volunteers and activists to fight for the rights and maintenance of parks and monuments across the planet for more than 130 years, are all working towards improving planet health. These groups aim to redirect public perspective and actions towards more environmentally responsible behaviors.

Freshkills Park with the Manhattan skyline behind.Author H.L.I.T.

What makes developments such as Freshkills Park so important? Bees. Their population has been on the decline since the mid 1980’s and things aren’t getting better. It’s getting worse.

A crisis is at hand according to the U.S. beekeeping industry over the deaths of hundreds of millions of bees during this past winter. Habitat destruction, pesticides, and changing weather patterns are decimating bee populations and impacting agricultural industries’ ability to feed the planet. Organizations focused on redevelopment of habitat for pollinators like bees are becoming more urgently important. But it’s not just large scale action that makes a difference.

Honey Bee Covered in PollenPhoto from Canva by Sidersphoto

You and I can help too. Going chemical-free in our yards and choosing bee friendly plants is a strong start. Unknown to me, 70 percent of bee species, including the familiar bumblebee, are ground-nesting bees. They’re not building bee hives in the trees, rather burrowing in the ground to form their homes.

Those individuals fortunate enough to have a small home garden can leave bare patches of soil and avoid mulching with wood chips to create nesting sites for these important pollinators.

As science brings us new data and suggestions on to healthily navigate the planet, it’s nice to see organizations stepping up and trying to make it a little healthier and safer for the now and future. The Freshkills Alliance science team plans on studying the impact of large-scale native violet planting over the next two years.

Expecting to be fully opened by 2036, Freshkills Park will be almost three times the size of Central Park.