Creating Habitat – One Year Later
Led by Kathleen McCarthy and Paloma McGregor
Thursday June 25 10am-2pm
A year after the laboratory at Soundview Park’s new salt marsh restoration, join us to examine the water quality of the Bronx River at this site. This iLAND laboratory will explore the function of wetlands in improving water quality and providing habitat. The event will include background readings, a walk through the site discussing the processes and functions of the four ecosystems present, physical interaction with the site by adding to or subtracting from the restoration at various scales, and creating movement which responds to the site physically and conceptually. Additionally, this year human impacts on the restoration may be evident. We will explore evidence of the human footprint and the challenges to protecting biodiversity in an urban environment.
Participants should plan to get dirty. Wear long pants and bring socks to wear with rubber boots (provided). Hats and sunscreen are necessary. Please also bring snacks and/or lunch and water.
Van transportation for 12 people will be leaving from Manhattan. Meet at El Museum del Barrio (1234 Fifth Ave between 104 & 105 St.) at 9am. Please email projects@ilandart.org to reserve a spot!
We encourage you to review these readings about salt marshes and estuaries before Thursday:
https://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/pub/seascience/dynamic.html
This workshop is supported by and in partnership with the Natural Areas Volunteers (NAV) of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (http://www.nycgovparks.org/registration/nav). The Soundview Salt Marsh Restoration is funded in part by the New York State Department of State under the Clean Water-Clean Air Bond Act and the City of New York.
Kathleen McCarthy is a restoration ecologist working with the Natural Resources Group (NRG) of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Kathleen plans, manages, and oversees the implementation of wetland, riparian, and aquatic resource restoration projects. She received a Master of Science in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University with a concentration on urban ecology. The natural areas in New York City range from renowned habitats of Jamaica Bay to natural areas that are severely impacted by humans. Understanding the complexities of these ecological systems, and how to conserve biodiversity by maintaining or restoring ecosystem functions is the focus of Kathleen’s work. She believes that stewardship of our natural areas helps to inform our understanding of ecosystem functions, the larger environment, and our place within it. Before working as a full time scientist, Kathleen was an award-winning visual artist in New York City. Her work has been published, exhibited internationally, and commissioned for permanent public sites. Her most recent work was an investigation of animal vision.
Paloma McGregor is a choreographer, writer, and organizer living in Harlem. An eclectic artist, she has structured improvisation for a floating platform in the Bronx River, choreographed an Afro-futurist pop opera at The Kitchen and devised a multidisciplinary performance work about food justice with three dozen community members and students at UC Berkeley. She is director of Angela’s Pulse, which creates and produces collaborative performance work dedicated to building community and illuminating bold, new stories. Paloma’s work has been supported by grants and creative residencies from the Jerome Foundation; iLAND; Earthdance; Wave Hill; Voice & Vision; Dance Exchange; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; Foundation for Contemporary Art. In 2012-13 she collaborated with Bronx-based environmental educator Damian Griffin on Follow the Water Walks, supported by an iLAND residency. Together, in consultation with ecologist Becky Boger, they developed interdisciplinary methods for engaging communities with their natural and man made landscapes using mapping, science, and dance. Paloma is a 2014-15 Artist In Residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, where she will develop a solo iteration of her iterative performance project, Building A Better Fishtrap. The project, rooted in her 89-year-old father’s vanishing fishing tradition, examines what we take with us, leave behind and return to reclaim. Paloma toured internationally for six years as a dancer with Urban Bush Women, and continues to perform in her own work as well as project-based work with other choreographers, including Liz Lerman, Cassie Meador and Jill Sigman.
Photograph by Meredith Talusan
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