NYC Parks And The U.S.Army Corps Celebrate
The Restoration Of Gerritsen Creek In Marine Park

Monday, August 13, 2012
11:00 a.m.

Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center
(behind the center)
Ave U & East 33rd Street, BROOKLYN

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe will join U.S. Army Corps District Commander Colonel John R. Boulé to celebrate the Gerritsen Creek Ecosystem Restoration Project in Brooklyn’s Marine Park.  The $8.3 million project was designed to ameliorate the adverse impacts of past filling activities and to create an improved ecosystem where plants and animals can thrive, and residents can better learn about their natural surroundings.

The project involved the construction of 18 acresof tidal marshland and 23 acresof rare coastal grassland.  Once an unremitting Phragmites monoculture, Gerritsen Creek is now the largest restored mosaic of coastal wetland, grassland, shrubland, and forest in the region. The area will be open to the public in the fall after restored vegetation has a chance to become sufficiently established.

The renovations and construction to the east side of Gerritsen Creek were funded generously by the 1995 New York State Clean Air/Clean Water Bond Act Grant and the Department of Environmental Conservation, for a combined total of $1.3 million. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allocated $5 million, and the NYC Housing Preservation and Development provided an additional $2 million of funding.