Gowanus Low Altitude Mapping (G-LAM)

July 31st, 2011

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy in partnership with Grassrootsmapping a subset of The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) launched weather balloons in the Gowanus Watershed to capture low altitude pictures to be part of a larger map.  This is the third collaboration between the Conservancy and Grassroots to document and monitor the Clean-Up effort at the Gowanus Canal.

01.22.2011, First Successful Launch:

01.22.2011 A compact camera is used to take low altitude pictures from a helium filled weather balloon.

01.22.2011 Weather Balloon Launch

01.22.2011 Guiding the weather balloon in a canoe

07.31.2011, Third Successful Launch

07.31.2011 Getting ready to launch

07.31.2011 Guiding the balloon

Low altitude pictures taken from the weather balloons are sorted and complied into a high resolution map.

The first G-LAM Map is viewable from this link.

You can compare that map to the map complied in March here.

Check back soon for a map compiled for July! You can also view exciting aerial and infrared pictures taken from the Gowanus watershed on our flickr site.

As always we would like to thank the Gowanus Dredgers for supplying the canoes and PLOTS in making these aerial map projects possible. Also, we would like to thank Liberty Industrial Gases for their generosity in donating the helium to help us launch these balloons. Here is the composite near-infrared map produced by folks at Public Laboratory.

Floating Gardens Launch Party!

June 19th, 2011

Gowanus Floating Gardens, Tire Gardens launched June 19th, 2011

Standing at the end of 2nd Avenue, you may be able to see what appear to be tires, concrete blockss and sticks floating in the Canal; but wait, they have plants in them!

Floating Concrete Gardens, aren't they cute?

The idea behind this art and science experiment is to explore the possible beneficial applications of floating gardens to provide wildlife habitat, filtration and oxygenation of Canal waters. Most importantly, however, this project will draw attention to environmental issues related to water quality in the Canal. This project was an initiative driven by volunteers, proactive neighbors and friends of the Canal. The gardens were made by compiling used-tires, casting special concrete planters and weaving tree branches into floating pods. We hope that these small islands will be able to help filter the nutrient-heavy, sewage infused Canal water. While we do not expect this small garden initiative to have a significant impact on the overall water quality, we hope this experiment will help to evaluate the feasibility of a larger, more effective floating garden project.

Gowanus Floating Stick Gardens launched by hand, TIMBER!!

These stick gardens, launched by hand, constitute an experiment in dispersing native plants and seeds into the compromised and toxic environment of the Canal via floating islands. The goal of this project is to establish robust germs of functioning ecologies along the shorelines to promote healthy habitats, capable of sustaining life.

Close-up picture of the stick gardens, visit httpl://gowanusseedproject.wordpress.com for more information

Stick Island

The Floating Gardens have been designed to address a variety of habitat types and environmental constraints such as vegetative gardens with salt-tolerant plants, shellfish cages and colonization substrates, fish habitat, bird perch and nesting platforms, trash collecting skimmers and micro algae pads. We are currently exploring several of the ideas described above, we hope that aquatic plants will prove useful at absorbing nutrients in the Canal; their dangling roots should also provide ideal places for aquatic invertebrates and small fish to hide and forage.

Native mussels are ideal targets for re-population to help filter the Canal’s water and provide additional habitat for other organisms. They are found to be colonizing bulkheads along Canal edges.

Volunteers leading the floating gardens into place.

Volunteers preparing concrete gardens for launch.

Volunteers carefully planting vegetables.

Beautiful plants being watered.

After all the hard work, volunteers were treated to a BBQ lunch

Delicious grub cooking on the grill

This Clean & Green proved again to volunteers and organizers alike that community activism can be fun and rewarding.

From the designers of this project to all the volunteers, thank you for making this exciting venture possible. Our partners in this project include the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, the Gowanus Dredgers and the Brooklyn New School. Sponsors include the Film Biz Prop Shop, Pinelands Nursery, Greenbelt Native Plant Center and Ozzie’s Coffee. Thank you for the continued support

Chimney Swift Tower

May 21st, 2011

Gowanus Chimney Swift Tower Rendering

The chimney swift is small, insect eating bird na­tive to the Eastern United States. In pre-colonial times, this bird lived in the hollow spaces of dead trees. As European settlers spread across their range, cutting down trees and replacing forests with cities, swifts were able to adapt and found a new niche for itself, learning to live in smoke stacks and chimneys. Over the last fifty years, swifts have again faced habitat loss as viable nesting sites have begun to disappear, and chimney swift numbers have been in slow decline.

Swift nesting site in Oregon

We are building a chimney swift nesting tower along the canal to attract new birds to the neighborhood. A strong local swift population will help to control the summer swarms of mosquitoes, gnats, and flies.

Nest inside a tower in Texas

The tower is modified by a design from the Driftwood Wildlife Association in Texas, which has been doing chimney swift research for decades. The tower is constructed of  a plywood tube with ridges facing inward, giving the swifts a place to perch and attach their nests. The plywood is surrounded by a layer insulation to keep the swifts cool in the hot summer sun. The outside layer of folded metal cladding will help the tower blend in to the industrial aesthetic of the Gowanus neighborhood.

An amazing volunteer effort of many minds and hands has raised the tower from the concrete foundation to its full height of 14 feet, and the only work that remains is installing the folded metal cladding on the outside, which will be completed in the next few weeks. Hopefully by next summer a family of  swifts will have moved in and the neighborhood will be filled with their darting flight and twittering calls.

Tower footing

Raising the tower. Volunteers! Construction! Awesome!

On the banks of the canal

Thank you to everyone who has helped make the tower a reality, especially John Rowden at NYC Audubon for giving us the initial idea.

A very special thanks goes to the Aguayo Realty Group in Park Slope for sponsoring the tower. While its a little different from the real estate they are typically involved in, the tower is  an ambitious project that couldn’t have been completed without their support.

Street Tree Watering, Summer 2011

After we installed the 20 street trees with the help of New York Restoration Project and Americorps, we are required to maintain them and ensure their survival. The most important consideration is making sure that the trees receive enough water, which requires a weekly visit from one of our dedicated volunteers. In order to coordinate this process and make it as easy to perform as possible, we have created 2 watering zones, mapped out below. We always need more dedicated street tree stewardship volunteers.

If you are interested in helping to care for street trees within the Gowanus Canal watershed, please contact Hans: hans@gowanuscanalconservancy.org

Street Tree - Watering Zone 1

Street Tree - Watering Zone 2

Clean & Green 05.20.2011 – Street Tree Planting

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy worked with a large contingent of extremely motivated Americorps volunteers on Friday morning, May 20, planting 20 street trees in the neighborhoods around the Gowanus Canal. This project was coordinated with the help of NYC Parks Department (DPR) and the New York Restoration Project (NYRP). In preparation for this project, the GCC walked around the neighborhoods within 2 blocks of the Canal with NYRP project manager Britt Zimmerman and identified appropriate locations for street trees. NYRP purchased the trees and had them delivered to the Conservancy’s Salt Lot for installation on the Planting day.

The Americorps Volunteers!

On the morning of the Clean & Green, several dedicated NYRP field staff members worked extremely hard to transport the street trees from the Salt Lot to their destination in the field. Some of the trees were so large that it was necessary to rent a bobcat for their transport.

Street trees waiting at the Salt Lot.

Americorps volunteers showed up around 9:00am and were instructed regarding proper tree-installation techniques. We passed around fliers produced by NYRP and DPR, which depicted best planting practices. After instruction, the volunteers were divided up into groups, handed maps showing tree locations and dispersed throughout the neighborhood.

Volunteers install a street tree at the corner of 2nd Ave and 9th St.

Team leaders with horticultural experience led the groups and oversaw the installation of the street trees. The Americorps volunteers did beautiful work and all 20 trees were planted, staked and mulched within 3 hours.

Gowanus in Bloom – 05.01.2011

The Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are still blooming their heads off in the 2nd Avenue Garden, right next to the Salt L0t.

Redbud in bloom at the 2nd Avenue Garden.

Floating Gardens Experimentation

Some of our volunteers have a beautiful idea to create floating gardens in the Gowanus Canal, which could serve a number of purposes. To name a few:

1) Habitat creation

2) Water filtration and oxygenation

3) Provocative design project

We’ll see how the gardens fare, but the project is an intriguing one. Some of the concepts that we’ve explored are creating gardens that create floating plant masses, shellfish gardens, fish boxes, and algae substrates. We’ll post some of the sketch iterations later, but here are some shots of our first site mockups.

The frayed rope provides a substrate that oyster spat can colonize.

Orange construction netting encloses buoyant object, which floats on the water’s surface. Algae and shellfish can grab onto the netting to begin colonizing the buoy. The frayed rope “tail” dangles freely in the water and provides a surface which is suitable for colonization by juvenile oyster spat.

Mussels are secured to a floating burlap ball.

The mussel ball is assembled by wrapping a floatable section of wood in burlap, which is slotted to provide homes for mussels. The mussels are then inserted into the slits and the entire assemblage is carefully wrapped in twine to bind it all together. The ball floats in the water, turning and rotating under the tide’s influence, providing a suitable habitat for mussels.

A tire is filled with floatable materials and tested for buoyancy in the Canal.

We filled a tire with sealed plastic bottles and spray-foam insulation and tested the prototype to see if it would float. The orange netting in the bottom of the tire is used to hold mulch and organic soil substitutes as a planting medium.

The tire garden prototype succeeded!

The plant is unlikely to survive because it is not an ideal species but it was the most suitable plant we had on hand: Chasmanthium latifolium Sea Oats. Ideally, we will try a native marsh grass that is much more salt and wet site tolerant, as these plants will have to withstand constant exposure to wet conditions. Still, the fact that the garden floats and looks moderately attractive is some cause for celebration.

* These experiments have been made possible because of generous material donations from our friends and partners at Film Biz Recycling. This project is also a collaboration with the Gowanus Dredgers, Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and the Brooklyn New School.

April 17 Clean & Green

GCC - Tools & Plants waiting for installation

We had a wonderful Clean & Green day in April, working to put the finishing touches on some brand new street trees in Carroll Gardens along Smith street as well as clean and maintain existing tree pits further down Smith street towards the 9th street F-stop. The NYC Parks Department generously facilitated the installation of several new street trees, which the Conservancy agreed to help mulch, water and plant some perennials around.

Brooklyn Tech students remove weeds and cobbles

We also picked up massive quantities of trash and pulled weeds from around the base of several neglected tree pits on the South end of Smith street. Weeds look unsightly and will compete with the trees for water and nutrients. We also spent a lot of time removing unnecessary cobble stones from pits where the trees had outgrown their usefulness. Although cobbles can help to protect tree roots from the wayward pedestrian, ultimately they reduce the permeability of the tree pit and can constrict its roots. Every tree likes to have its soils loosened and aerated from time to time. Believe it or not, trees need to breathe too.

Volunteers remove weeds and cobbles from an existing tree pit in need of some TLC.

Brooklyn Tech students attack the mulch pile!

The GCC’s pilot compost project: ¡Composting Gowanus!

April 9th marked the day that the ¡Composting Gowanus! program got under way with our first partner in composting: Southside Coffee and Lot 2!  The two businesses will be collecting scraps on a weekly basis in 5 gallon buckets.  We are in the talks with local businesses and organizations to help relieve their organic waste stream.  We at the GCC will keep you up-to-date on new partnerships as the program grows and develops over the summer.

In February our volunteer team secured a $1000 at the FEAST dinner in Greenpoint.  Our promise to the community is to “close the loop” and send organic matter back to the soil.  We feel strongly about that promise and want to do everything we can to promote a new era of clean and green living.

On weekends our volunteers collect the buckets and transport the material to the Salt Lot where we have ample space for composting.  If you are interested in helping our team turn compost and trailer/cart/transport buckets to the Salt Lot this Spring Summer and Fall please contact the GCC’s Compost Coordinator, Erik Martig at emartig@gmail.com.

¡COMPOSTING GOWANUS! buckets at Southside Coffee

¡COMPOSTING GOWANUS! volunteer with trailer and buckets

Spring Cleaning

Our 2011 Clean & Green schedule is up! Please mark your calenders and join us for what will be our 3rd successful season of sprucing up the banks of the Gowanus Canal! All events are family friendly and are from 11am-3pm. To sign up, email us at volunteer@gowanuscanalconservancy.org, including your name and dates you are interested in attending.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27

Clean the 2nd Avenue Rain Garden and organize
the Salt Lot for for the 2011 season
Location: The Salt Lot (2nd Avenue and 5th Street)

SUNDAY, APRIL 17 EARTH DAY
Tree Planting Day & existing garden maintenance
Location: The Salt Lot (2nd Avenue and 5th Street)

SATURDAY, MAY 21
Chimney Swift Tower Installation and finish Canal
Edge Garden
Location: The Salt Lot (2nd Avenue and 5th Street)

SUNDAY, JUNE 19
Floating Gardens launch party
Location: 2nd Street (westside of the canal)

SATURDAY, JULY 23
Maintain existing gardens and Watershed Mapping
Location: TDB

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21
Mural Project & cleanup @ Huntington Street
Location: Huntington Street (westside of canal)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
1st Street Garden Installation
Location: 1st Street (westside of canal)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23
Degraw Street Garden Installation
Location: Degraw Street (eastside of canal)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19
Maintain existing gardens and finish up Degraw
and 1st Street gardens
Location: TBD

Please contact our office or e-mail us for updates on locations and activities.
phone: 718.541.4378
email: volunteer@gowanuscanalconservancy.org