! Alert

Due to a planned New York Harbor closure and planned street closures in Lower Manhattan, Governors Island will close at 3PM on Friday, July 4, 2025. More info.

Due to a planned New York Harbor closure and planned street closures in Lower Manhattan, Governors Island will close at 3PM on Friday, July 4, 2025. More info.

Blog

On the Boards: Horticulture

Apr 30, 2009 6:33 pm
plant-selection-process1
The selec­tions of plants and trees exist­ing on Gov­er­nors Island today are a result of the influ­ence of both peo­ple and nature. The Island’s famil­iar mix of lawns, canopy of shade trees, and love­ly orna­men­tals suit­ed the Island’s his­toric pur­pose as a mil­i­tary and Coast Guard base. The His­toric Dis­tric­t’s pro­tect­ed con­di­tions, high­er ele­va­tions and qual­i­ty top soils make for ide­al con­di­tions to grow large, beau­ti­ful shade trees and sup­port oth­er plant­i­ngs. On the south­ern half of the Island, poor qual­i­ty soil, expo­sure to harsh salty winds, and poor drain­ing soils have result­ed in the stunt­ed and stressed con­di­tion of exist­ing trees. The dia­gram above illus­trates the over­all plant­i­ng strat­e­gy that West 8 and Math­ews Nielsen Land­scape Archi­tects are devel­op­ing, which priv­i­leges the selec­tion of native plants, but also con­sid­ers species that 1) thrive in the Island’s chal­leng­ing site con­di­tions, 2) sup­port the plan’s pro­gram­ming (like ball sports, pic­nick­ing and relax­ing), 3) diver­si­fies plant com­mu­ni­ties for insects and birds, and 4) require main­te­nance that’s appro­pri­ate to a pub­lic park. The strat­e­gy also address­es exist­ing con­di­tions in order to dra­mat­i­cal­ly enhance the park expe­ri­ence and habi­tat poten­tial of the south­ern por­tion of the Island. The West 8 team will choose plants that thrive in the Island’s com­plex micro cli­mates, and raise parts of the Island’s topog­ra­phy to assure that tree roots are above pre­dict­ed flood ele­va­tions. The plant­i­ng strat­e­gy the West 8 Team is devel­op­ing for the Park and Pub­lic Space Mas­ter Plan com­ple­ments the exist­ing botan­ic vari­ety of the His­toric Dis­trict, increas­es botan­ic rich­ness and diver­si­ty across the south­ern half of the Island and inte­grates the two parts of the Island into a thriv­ing whole. 
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