1 Brooklyn’s Oldest Remaining Forest
A forest grows in the heart of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, on and below a terminal moraine that begins west of the park in Greenwood Cemetery, crosses the park, and continues east of the park into Queens and Long Island. Though the individual trees in this forest may not be older than the park itself, whose development began just after the Civil War, this area has been continually forested since before that time. How far into the past that continuity extends is unclear. “During the Revolutionary War,” explains Betsy McCully in City at the Water’s Edge: A Natural History of New York, “most of the trees were cut for firewood or cleared for crops to provision the British troops who bivouacked here, but it’s possible a few were spared the ax.”
This book presents an inquiry into the nature of Brooklyn’s forest. “Olmsted and Vaux’s Vision” presents a discussion of Preliminary Report to the Commissioners for Laying Out a Park in Brooklyn, New York by Olmstead, Vaux & Co., in which the park designers provided a narrative of their plan for Prospect Park, including their views of the purposes of town parks and how those purposes are best fulfilled. “Restoration” presents a discussion of A Landscape Management Plan for the Natural Areas of Prospect Park by Prospect Park Landscape Management Office, which provided a detailed plan for restoring the park’s endangered central woodlands.
My inquiry also included walks in the forest itself, in which I came face-to-face with my ignorance. On April 7, May 3, May 6, and May 14, 2023, I took the photographs, made the videos and audio recordings, and noted the observations that form the basis of this video essay.
“To Really See What’s There” by Rachael Nevins, licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | Script annotated with descriptive text [Word]
Attributions
The music is “Dowdy” by Blue Dot Sessions, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.
The image of the Battle Pass is via the New York Public Library and in the public domain.
The images “Sunset Field” and “Country Road” by Pete Considine are via Flickr and licensed CC BY 2.0; these images show woods in my hometown that are similar to and nearby the woods where I once walked.
The illustration from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Arthur Rackham is in the public domain.
