City Trees

What other aspects of the WSP bird programs would you like to highlight? What are the urban forest/bird connections you find most interesting? GSS: New Yorkers have bird stories. People who par- ticipate in the EXPLORE BIRDS program spontaneously share their experiences with wild birds in the City and beyond. Initially I would quickly jot down these stories once the storytellers moved on. I thought I might share these bird tales in some way, but part of what drew me to people's stories were their voices and the emotions conveyed in their storytelling. We have been working on a podcast to broadcast the stories people share with us. The pandemic has changed how we've been collecting the stories. Instead of in-person, on-the-spot recordings, we have been speaking with people via Zoom. The podcast is titled Your Bird Story, and we hope to launch it by the time this article comes out. Even as New York State continues to open up, it remains challenging to offer in-person, public programs. I received a 2020 Creative Engagement grant to offer EXPLORE BIRDS with a heavy emphasis on art-making. I am planning to offer this program virtually in partnership with teaching artists from KoKo NYC, an arts educa- tion program for children based in Brooklyn. What is your biggest vision for WSP Eco Projects? GSS: I have two big goals for Washington Square Park Eco Projects. One goal is the development of a tree management plan. Without trees, the Park would look and feel radically different. And significantly, without the many large trees that the Park currently hosts, the Park and the neighborhood would be hotter. As these trees age or succumb to diseases and pests or natural occurrences such as hurricanes, there needs to a proactive strategy to underplant the next cohort of canopy trees. Species and structural diver- sity need to be considered in order to maintain a park that is healthy for humans and non-human species. Another goal is to use the work we are doing in Washington Square Park as a model for similar parks. The ecology of small parks is often over- looked, but parks like WSP offer a lot ecologically, not only to the human and non-human users of the park, but also to the surrounding landscape. I haven't formally calculated this measure but I esti- mate that WSP has at least 60% tree cover. As your readers know, the benefits of urban tree cover are numerous and the impacts of canopy on mitigating the urban heat island effect, reducing combined sewer overflows, and improving human health and wellbeing have been quantified extensively. The Park provides habitat for trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials which in turn support birds and other wild animal species either year-round or during migration stopovers. Based on eBird data, 111 species of birds have been observed in the Park. Small parks are part of the nearby nature of our cities, the green with which many residents fre- quently interact and derive benefits from. If we can make these green spaces more ecologically robust, we can improve well-being across the board. "Part of what drew me to people's stories were their voices and the emotions conveyed in their storytelling." 24 CityTREES

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