Viewing the East River from the Roosevelt Island tramwayI watch the New York City Skyline slowly fades away, with its rattling trains and whooping sirens. The aerial crossing was a good start for my quest to find quiet in one the loudest cities of the world. I will end up at the southernmost tip Roosevelt Island, which has 1,500 trees growing on an area the size a tennis court.
Newly planted trees are located along the East River Esplanade. Manhattan Healing Forest Its Goliath counterpart in steel and concrete is a stark contrast. As I turn the corner at Southpoint Park, it was a warm day. March Afternoon, the orange-bellied Robins and chickadees’ song signals the forest is close.
Christina Delfico was my tour guide for the day. She is also the founder of iDig2LearnThe nonprofit, which is a group of local students who plant urban gardens around the city, aims to protect the environment. She hops between plants, teasing soil and cooing to the blossoming buds and growing branches—seemingly mirroring the peckish robins nearby. Delfico applied to the state two years ago to request permission to plant New York City’s first micro-forest. Over 400 volunteers planted the first trees just over a year ago.
As I hopped over the stone wall of the garden to join her, it felt like I had crossed an invisible boundary worlds away from New York City’s chaos. The wind rustles leaves of 47 native plants, including beach plums, white oaks, and sweet birches. Even the US Forest Service blue tags identifying the plants as wild strawberries, shagbark hawthorn or wild black cherries jingle like wind chimes.
The sound of human voices here is different from that in Manhattan, too. Around the forest, people are curious and congenial—the usual unspoken rules that conduct life on the other side of the river momentarily tossed out the window. “We are going to see a lot of blueberries this Summer!” Delfico informs a Public Works crew upon crossing paths with us, and the city team dances to celebrate the good news.
This mini-retreat from urban living is just the type of let’s-see-what-happens project Roosevelt Island is known for. The island’s walking tour is a collection of New York City’s most outlandish experiments. From the 19th century smallpox clinic, Cornell Tech and the Healing Forest, next door, to Strecker Memorial Laboratory, which was the first pathological lab in the United States. Delfico says that many of those who were shunned ended up on Roosevelt Island.
The tucked away green space serves another purpose. It doubles as a seawall that helps curb flooding, pollution runoff and erosion. All of these are growing concerns for the Island. Roosevelt Island’s location in the East River means that it is particularly susceptible to climate change and sea level rise.
Ethan Bryson is the lead forester for SUGi, an organization that was a partner in the project. He says, “The Manhattan Healing Forest works like urban acupuncture.” In its concentrated form it is rooting the island and improving water quality. It also accelerates the habitat restoration from years to months.
