Wildflower Walking Tour at Ridgewood Reservoir

New York City is filled with wild flora – majestic trees, rare wildflowers, wetland grasses – that are critical to the ecological function of the City’s ecosystems. Learn about our indigenous plants and why local ecotypes are important. Explore our urban forests, marshes and meadows that house these species and threats to these habitats. We’ll also discuss what you as an individual can do, including how to go native in the garden and why preserving biodiversity in New York City matters to the health and future of the planet.

Marielle Anzelone, is an urban ecologist focusing on people’s connections to nature and how design, education, and government can nurture this relationship. She founded NYC Wildflower Week in 2007 to engage urbanites with the wild flora of the Big Apple. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times and the Daily News. Currently she’s also leading a year-long discussion about trees on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC public radio.

The Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park is a 50+ acre natural oasis that straddles the border of Brooklyn and Queens. Built in 1859 to supply the once independent City of Brooklyn with high quality water, it became obsolete with the addition of new reservoirs in the Catskills in the 1950’s and was decommissioned in the 1980’s.

Since then, nature took its course in a perfect case study of ecological succession. A lush and dense forest has grown in its two outside basins while a freshwater pond with waterfowl sits in the middle basin. The area is now a federally recognized wetland. Wetlands are known as a “biological super systems” with the same level of biodiversity as coral reef and rainforests.