14 APRIL 19, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Forest Park Trust to receive innovative conservation resources
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
In what is being called the first
strategic plan to bolster the health
and protect the future of New York
City’s urban forests in the midst of climate
change, the Forest Park Trust — a
nonprofi t that supports programs in
Forest and Highland Parks in Queens —
has been selected as a winner to receive
innovative new conservation resources.
The “Forest Management Framework
for New York City” plan was announced
by the Department of Parks and Recreation
and its nonprofi t partner, the
Natural Areas Conservancy (NAC), on
April 16 aft er six years of research, data
collection and analysis by NAC scientists.
The Forest Park Trust, along with
the Prospect Park Alliance in Brooklyn,
were announced as the winners of a
competitive program within the plan
that will provide the nonprofi ts with
newly developed tools to take care of
the forested areas in the parks.
“The new Forest Management
Framework represents a signifi cant
step forward in improved management
and resources for our natural
areas,” said NYC Parks Commissioner
Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP in a press release.
“It is my hope and expectation
that this framework will not only
inform forest management here in
New York City, but in cities across the
country and around the world.”
At Forest Park on April 17, Executive
Director Sarah Charlop-Powers and
Senior Ecologist Helen Forgione of
the NAC joined members of the Forest
Park Trust on a tour of Forest Park to
explain exactly what this program
will do for its 170 acres of forested
land. The two recapped their visit on
a conference call with the Ridgewood
Times later that day.
The NAC’s research led to the
creation of three tools that serve as
informative resources for park workers,
Forgione said. One is called a rapid
site assessment, which is a streamlined
way to analyze and record observations
about the condition of a certain
area of the forest before and aft er any
work is done to it.
The second is a series of questions
and observations that park managers
can go through to understand what
type of forest they are dealing with.
Forest Park, for example, has an “oak
hickory” forest, Forgione said, and
knowing that allows workers to plant
the proper trees that won’t be invasive
to the species already present.
The third resource is a planting list
that is categorized by forest type so
that park employees can see the types
of native trees that are best adapted to
climate change.
Charlop-Powers also explained that
the details of the rapid site assessment
were developed to be collected with a
smartphone or tablet with the hopes of
eventually creating a digital database.
“It’s a good case study to track the
work of parks and nonprofi ts in a single
database, creating one place to see
all the restoration work being done in
the whole city,” Charlop-Powers said.
“Having that live and interactive in a
new way is really exciting.”
Forgione added that the tour with
the Forest Park Trust was also a training
opportunity, and they actually
performed a rapid site assessment
to demonstrate its importance. They
intentionally chose a spot in the forest
that looked like it was in good health,
but the results of the assessment
showed that the very few seedlings
sprouting in the forest fl oor were
mostly invasive species.
“It really refl ected the information
we already had about the park and
confi rmed with numbers the conditions
on the ground, even though the
eyes were telling us things looked
pretty good,” Forgione said.
Overall, the NAC’s study found that
the city’s forests are in surprisingly
good condition, with 85 percent of its
trees considered native and healthy.
The framework, however, estimates
that there is a need for $385 million
in investments over the next 25 years
to preserve and improve the health of
the city’s forests.
As this program gets underway
at Forest Park, NAC scientists will
work hand-in-hand with the Forest
Park Trust to provide training and
support.
File photo/Ridgewood Times
Music legends and new amenities highlight this year’s events at Forest Hills Stadium
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM / @ANGELAMATUA
Attendees at concerts later this
year at Forest Hills Stadium
will now enjoy indoor plumbing
at the facility, which is also set to
install gender-neutral bathrooms as
well as other upgrades since it reopened
fi ve years ago.
The new bathrooms will be installed
in its concourse to “cut down
on wait times and allow fans to get
back to their seats as fast as possible,”
the stadium announced.
In addition to the bathrooms, the
stadium will welcome back New York
City’s only automat, a vending machine
that serves hot food. The fi rst automat
in America was opened in 1902 and
they became popular in New York
with struggling musicians and actors.
The venue, which also released its
concert lineup from June to October,
will look to stay open year-round
with the installation of a “Winter
Wonderland.” Mike Luba, partner at
Madison House Presents, the concert
promoter at the stadium told AMNYthat
the plan includes installing
an ice skating rink in the stadium
surrounded by Christmas trees and
holiday vendors.
Patrick Confrey, a spokesperson
for the stadium, told QNS that “there’s
nothing official to report yet but
we’re working on making it a reality
this winter.”
Forest Hills Stadium used to be the
home of the U.S. Open and hosted Arthur
Ashe and Althea Gibson’s Grand
Slam wins. The Rolling Stones, The
Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan
all performed at the venue during the
’60s and ’70s.
When the U.S. Open moved to
Flushing Meadows Corona Park in
1977, Forest Hills Stadium fell into
disrepair. In 2013, Madison House
Presents and the West Side Tennis
Club partnered to re-open the venue.
2018 CONCERT
CALENDAR:
June 8 – Belle & Sebastian with
Perfume Genius and Frankie Cosmos
June 9 – Nathaniel Rateliff & The
Night Sweats and The Head and the
Heart with Hiss Golden Messenger
June 13 – Robert Plant and The Sensational
Space Shift ers with special
guest Sheryl Crow and Seth Lakeman
June 15 – alt-J with special guest
Kamasi Washington
June 17 – Roger Daltrey performs
The Who’s ‘TOMMY’ with The New
York Pops
June 22 – Dropkick Murphys &
Flogging Molly
July 24 – Arctic Monkeys
July 28 – The Life Tour: starring
Boy George & Culture Club and The
B-52s with special guest Thompson
Twins’ Tom Bailey
Aug. 11 – Black Summer Night For
Social Justice – Maxwell with Fantasia,
DVSN and Jazmine Sullivan, with
additional guest performances and
organizations
Aug. 17 – CAKE and Ben Folds with
Tall Heights
Aug. 18 – Russell Peters’ Deported
World Tour
Sept. 8 – Jamiroquai
Sept. 12 – Van Morrison and Willie
Nelson & Family
Sept. 15 – David Byrne with Tune-Yards
Sept. 22 – Portugal. The Man with
Lucius
Sept. 29 + Sept. 30 – The National
presents: There’s No Leaving New
York; a two-day event at Forest Hills
Stadium. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit,
Future Islands, Cat Power, Cigarettes
Aft er Sex, Phoebe Bridgers, U.S. Girls,
Bully, Adia Victoria
Oct. 6 – The Infatuation presents
EEEEEATSCON – Discover A Diff erent
Kind of Food Festival
Photo courtesy of Forest Hills Stadium
Renovations at Forest Hills
Stadium will include bathrooms
and an automat.
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