At a cost of $15 Million dollars the New York City Parks Department and the state Department of Environmental Conservation began last month began spraying herbicides on White Island to kill weeds, that will be replaced by grasslands.
It’s all to bring back a rare bird back to the area/island, that was forced out when they built the shopping center at Erskine Street.
Mike Fellar, the city Parks Department’s chief naturalist says “it’s unlikely that the public will have access to White Island once it’s cleaned up – despite it being classified as parkland – because officials want the habitat kept pristine for the wildlife.”
More from the article
The trash-strewn White Island is quietly being converted into a habitat for the little bird called Henslow’s sparrow, which hasn’t been spotted in the Big Apple in more than a decade, The Post has learned.
Ida Sanoff, chairwoman of the environmental group Natural Resources Protective Association, said she’s glad the city is finally cleaning up the 70-acre site – also known as “Mau Island” – near Jamaica Bay but doubts the project will bring the inconspicuous bird back
“What are they going to do? Put up a sign saying: ‘Hello, sparrows. Beautiful nesting places here!’?” she said.
Geoffrey Croft, who heads the watchdog group New York City Park Advocates, blasted the city for killing off not just weeds, but some endangered plant life, while spraying the herbicides. He also questioned why the project began without community input.
15 million dollars ?!!? for the elusive Henslow’s sparrow!? …and they cut P.S. 277′s budget??? Do these birds shit hundred dollar bills?
I think there are plenty of birds back there allready. Henslow and his Sparrow friends must have some pull.
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Is this a late april fool’s day joke?
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Nope, not a joke.
At least the Sparrows won’t spraypaint graffitti and trash the new bus shelters like certain local residents.
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Ha Ha Ha , birds vs graffiti what a stretch . I guess if I stretched it the other way I could say birds pooping on our cars , houses and yes sometimes us is a form of graffiti . Its not that the birds don’t deserve their own $15,000,00 Island Its that no one down here was told about the danger to us from the spraying .
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When the henslow left was there a memorial erected anywhere? did his other bird friends block traffic and make a nuisnace of themselves? No? well then welcome back Mr. henslow
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Well Joe, your right once again the Russian (Saltmarsh) knows not what he’s talking about as usual.
Why are we going thrugh all this trouble for a bird that has been gone 10 years and will not be comming back?
And they should have warned people in the community about the spraying!
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Your right, birds don’t spray walls, or smash shelters. So let’s continue to cut educational budgets and funnel taxes to some wide eyed pet project to reward them.
I can’t jump on the “no bird left behind” program. Keeping it clean, absolutely. G.B.C. should be praised for their hard, heroic and dedicated work in this area. 15 million dollars just seems like a hefty gamble taxpayers are flipping to try and coax a type of Bird to live in the backweeds. It would be great to see sprawling green hills back there. Not only for the health of the animals, but how about the health of the HUMANS????. But again- 15 Million dollars for a sparrow’s gated community??
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This is crazy! 15 mil for a bird that I’m sure has found a home somewhere else. I guess scholl programs and such aren’t as important as a bird! Gotta love the City and Gov’t
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too lazy to google it, but what’s the history of the island? Did people go there to hang/fish/picnic etc?
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Parks Dept. is really giving us the bird.
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Monsterzro , The island was built mostly from garbage but that didn’t stopped people from using it . In the beginning of the summer people would bring their boats there to scrape the bottom clean , The fish would come to eat the scrapings . People would go there to picnic and fish for the shore . One of the right of passage was to swim from one side to the other . except for some cuts, bruises and sun burn’s no one was ever hurt from anything on the island that I know of but suddenly the island was not fit for humans but for 15 million its great for bird’s that no one cared about saving years ago when the first disappeared form brooklyn .Something fishy and its not the fluke
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Maybe they should move the Gerritsen Beach population to Mau Mau and watch it get trashed all over again.
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maybe they should move your mother over there. saltmarsh o never mind the garbage trucks cant use the bridge anymore.maybe we can float her over on the s-it barge.
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maybe i should stick my head up my butt, oh wait it’s already there
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salt marsh you ARE an ass!!! And your off handed comments are just that. A wast of time.
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This just in: Mau Mau is covered in golfballs.
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15 MILLION! WTF!!! for some bird! god what the hell is wrong with the parks department? there taking away from gerritsen one thing at a time, first backweeds and now mow mow.
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Its called WHITE ISLAND FYI
Its federal law that when masrhland is developed, some needs to be restored someplace else. The parks department and the DEC aren’t paying for it, Its the army corps of engineers.
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yet again, GB’ers prove what ignorant trash they are. Why do they care what’s done with an island no one has access to? Oh yeah their retarted devil spawn will have no where to drink and set fires
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wakkkkkity shhhhhmmmakity dooooo.
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ok mr anonymous that comment was way out of line. and yes i am pretty sure most of us are aware of the law when salt marsh area is built on there needs to be some restored. but mau-mau (which it is known by) was a garbage dump. and do they really think that the bird is going to come back? also it is not our fault they built that shopping center.. do we really need another strip mall in america? this plan is one of the dumest ideas i have heard. and i have a degree in environmental science so don’t bullshit me with your uneducated comebacks.
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http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/project/newyork/factsh/pdf/gerritsen.pdf
Although the overall Jamaica Bay Restoration project may cost $15,000,000, the preceding link brings you to a fact sheet with a projected cost for the Gerritsen Creek project of $4,900,000.
http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/front/gerritsen.pdf
This link will bring you directly to the Final Ecosystem Restoration Report and Environmental Assessment report developed by the Army Corps of Engineers dated October 2003. Implementation of the plan is scheduled to begin October 2008. The plan is not designed to remove Mau-Mau; it is designed to excavate the areas around the island. As you can see by the picture above, the deterioration of sand around the island is hindering the natural tidal flows.
Nothing in the report indicates that they spending all the money just for a single bird species. They are trying to create a more sustainable ecosystem, which will bring more desirable plant and bird species back to the island and surrounding areas. It seems that some people are rambling on and on about something they only have bits and pieces of the real picture, and the NY Post is capitalizing on this to sell their papers. There will be a Town Hall Meeting at the Cort Club on Thursday June 26, 2008 7:30pm in which I believe this topic among many others will be discussed. See you there.
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If we can’t have green streets we might as well take what we can get, I say its for the birds….
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It has come to my attention that the city has decided to bulldoze MAU MAU Island (White Island).I live in Gerritsen Beach and fish around MAU MAU Island all the time. This is a tragedy this island is home to osprey, owls, racoons, opossoms, rabbits, muskrats, turtles,and geese that is just to name a few.I have personally drited behind the island and watched osprey swoop out of the sky grab a fish and perch on the island to eat it.Also to deny the public access around the island to fish, jet ski, water ski, or even a boating is absurd. I also heard they wanted to dredge the area around the island. This will not only stir up old sediment, it will also pollute the water for people (KIDDIE BEACH.)In addition, many different fish and crabs live and breed around this island dredging will destroy thier habitat as well. The island also use to be a garbage dump site now that it has vegatation on it and has settled all these years, why would you unearth it in to the air? By keeping the island the way it is people use the shore line to hang out with boats and jet skis never going into the thick vegatation so by the island looking so wild it protects all the wildlife on it. I also would like to say none of the people on thier water crafts are disrupting any habitat. In the summer it screams with life but even in the winter if your there its great also, this past March there was a seal there I saw it . WHO DO WE CONTACT TO STOP THIS I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE BULLDOZERS HAVE ALREADY STARTED PLEASE LET ME KNOW?
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The island is not being removed, the Parks is going to try and stop it from deteriorating. We are meeting with theEPA, Parks, and the DEP this week, I will keep you updated.
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I understand there is a meeting at the Cort Club on Thursday at 7pm with Parks Dept. Has anyone heard about it?
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Am I Invited?
@ANDREW TRNKA,
Andrew Trnka? From Dictum?
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i agree with andrew trnka
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