Written By Alex Byrne With over 1,100 acres of park land Van Cortlandt Park stands as one of New York city’s last refuges for animals adapted to forest and wetland habitat. It truly is where NYC discovers, with great potential for the park to be used as a natural laboratory to understand how urban environments differ from their rural counter parts and how science research can improve our understanding of the effects of different restoration, enhancement and management practices. Starting in May of 2018 ecologists at the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park with help from two college interns have begun...
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Natural Selections: It takes about half a day to get there, if you travel by Dragonfly.
Editor’s note: In honor of World Water Day (March 22nd annually) today’s Natural Selections post is focused on Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) who call Tibbetts Brook and Van Cortlandt Lake home. Alex Byrne will introduce you to these fascinating creatures and share with you why you spend some time watching them in the Park. It takes about half a day to get there, if you travel by Dragonfly. By: Alex Byrne Predators have always been a part of human culture and experience. Our intimacy with this act, read in tooth and claw, is a product of being predator and prey,...
Natural Selections of VCP: Meet the Carpenter Ant
Editor’s note: We would like to introduce you to our newest blogpost series- Natural Selections of Van Cortlandt Park. This series will focus on the creatures that call Van Cortlandt Park home. With well over half of its 1,146 acres being comprised of natural habitats- forests, wetlands, a lake and meadows- many plants and animals live in or rely on Van Cortlandt Park. Each post in Natural Selections will highlight and introduce you to one or a family of those creatures. During this first post, Alex Byrne will introduce you all to some of the Carpenter Ants in our beloved...