Fall Stewardship Day at Marine Park

Brooklyn Kings County at Marine Park on Saturday 10.24.15

The NYC Parks Department and the conservancy for Marine Park sponsored this event.  The event started at 9 am.  The Lions were the last group to arrive.  There were over twenty Lions, one Leo and two Cubs.   The Leo and Cub were from the Brooklyn Kings County Leos Club.  We all had to sign waivers.  In the future, we have the option of signing the waivers online in advance.  I told Sarah, the representative from the conservancy about Lionism.  She ran the Brooklyn Half that I volunteered  at in May.  The Parks Department had granola bars for breakfast. Lion Marcella picked up two Lions that were at the wrong location.  They were at the Nature Preserve on Avenue U. The morning was bitterly cold but not freezing. 

They separated all the volunteers into three groups to work.   Due to the timing, all the Lions were in the last group together.  Sarah discussed a project to redesign the trail system that will start next fall for two-year duration.   They explained that Marine Park is the biggest park in NYC, bigger than both Central and Prospect Parks.  It is over 500 acres with 12 miles of trail.  The side of the park we were working on is the more ecologically untouched portion.   We took rakes, grabbers, garbage bags and seeds.  The seeds were a mixture of three native wildflowers.  The Lions Clubs helped plant some young trees a few years ago around the back edge of the ball fields.  The trees were thriving but non-native invasive vines and exotic vegetation like porcelain berry, mugwort and bittersweet, were overwhelming the young trees.  Our aims were to clean the area of debris, rake out the invasive vegetation, lay out a layer of seeds then cover it over with some organic matter.   .

Hurricane Sandy devastated the area.  Some local students had removed the majority of the debris left by the storm so there were only smaller items left such as glass bottles, plastic bags, and other evidence of children hanging out in the park having fun.   The Lions cleaned the corner of the park leading to the trails.  In about one hour, we cleaned both areas and ran out of seeds.  We then cleaned the area between the two sections of young trees.  .We went back and for our efforts received a vegetarian or chicken wrap lunch and a free Parks Department water bottle.  We finished by 11:30 and were ready to go home.