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We’re reflecting on some of the conversations POCACITO was fortunate to be a part of, four of which we want to share with you. Two of these talks took place as part of POCACITO events, and two are one-to-one interviews.
One thing that kept coming up is that the critical work of environmental and climate justice is happening at the local level. And it’s being led by civil society.
We met with community organizers and activists from Kyiv; Berlin; St. James Parish, Louisiana; and Superior, Arizona, to learn what this work looks like, and how we can help.
Electronic music track X1 by frankum -- https://freesound.org/s/426470/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Hello, and welcome back to another edition of the Pocacito conversations. Today's episode takes us back to Jamaica Bay in New York City and was recorded on Sunday, 02/08/2026. This is part two of two of recordings around Jamaica Bay. I am Max Grunig, your host for today, and I met with Terry Carter, the executive director at Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy, as well as Elizabeth Storr, deputy director with the Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy. And, yes, it was pretty cold.
Speaker 1:Elizabeth is a member of the German American Nature Based Solutions Exchange GAN Base, a program run by Pocacido and supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic Of Germany, funded by the European Recovery Program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. So Hi, Terry.
Speaker 2:Hi. How are you, Max?
Speaker 1:I'm great. This is fantastic weather. Didn't expect that.
Speaker 2:No. Welcome to winter.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. It reminds us that New York is actually kind of in the Northeast
Speaker 2:It is very true.
Speaker 1:And kind of cold.
Speaker 2:Mother nature is reminding us of that this year.
Speaker 1:Indeed. Indeed. Terry, tell me, maybe it's not really inviting to do that, but do you wanna tell me a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Sure. So I'm the executive director of Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy. I have been in this role for a little over three and a half years, but I've been in the open space and parks world in New York City for a long time, for more than twenty five years.
Speaker 1:Wow. Yeah. So you know a thing or two about I know a little field.
Speaker 2:Yeah. About this field.
Speaker 1:That's that's very helpful. So I feel in good hands.
Speaker 2:My my experience is really all about people's interaction with parks and parklands. And so I'm excited to talk to you about the Hangers Project today because it's really all about that, activating the park for people, bringing new audiences in, developing new programs, and expanding what we're already doing.
Speaker 1:Great. Great. So so just for orientation because people may have no idea, where where are we right now?
Speaker 2:So we are at Floyd Bennett Field. It is one of the parks that's along Jamaica Bay. Jamaica Bay is a large bay tidal estuary in the South Side Of Brooklyn and Queens within New York City. So Jamaica Bay as a whole with the open water, the wetlands, and the parklands that directly surround it are New York City's largest contiguous natural area. So it's 44 square miles of natural area, which is twice the size of Manhattan Island.
Speaker 2:And this particular park, Floyd Bennett Field, is the largest among the individual sites that make up that complex of natural area. And then we are standing in front of of two historic airplane hangars. They're nearly a century old. So this is an interesting place where natural history and cultural history meet, and provide something totally unique and special.
Speaker 1:Okay. Great. Great. Do you suggest should we go towards them or
Speaker 2:Sure. That would be great.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. I'll follow you. This is still it's still snow. It's kind It's of not just ice.
Speaker 1:And there's even some some open ground. It's impressive. So it must have been blown off the snow, kind
Speaker 2:I of think so. I don't this doesn't look, you know, cleared by humans. Right? No. No.
Speaker 2:This is a very windy place. I mean, you know, we're right at the South End of Brooklyn right before like immediately north of the Rockaway Inlet, which is, you know, the entrance to Jamaica Bay. And so this area gets very windy in general, you know, and and therefore is typically a little bit colder than it is in other parts of Brooklyn, and Rockaway that are right around us.
Speaker 1:You should have said that before we agreed to meet here. We should not meet at a place that's a little bit colder than other places.
Speaker 2:I know you're intrepid.
Speaker 1:So just for our listeners, so can we give them like an indication where we are on the temperature scale today?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think that we are about 15 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm not sure what that is in Celsius.
Speaker 1:It's not cozy. Not cozy.
Speaker 2:It's not cozy. It doesn't sound like
Speaker 1:it. Great.
Speaker 2:It's not cozy in Fahrenheit either.
Speaker 1:No. No. No. It's kind of unique.
Speaker 2:And as we're crunching through the top layer of snow that is of hardened Yeah. And meeting that really nice powdery layer underneath, but still very dry. It's been consistently cold for something like ten days now.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I I heard you had people on the ice yesterday who were Oh. Kinda cocked.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's very sad. So, I mean, it's dangerous. Right? Although it's been this cold, the bay is tidal and there's water constantly moving, you know, in and out of the bay twice a day, it's not safe, you know.
Speaker 2:So
Speaker 1:So it's not a good idea to
Speaker 2:it's not a good idea unless you really really know what the ice is doing
Speaker 1:Yeah. And Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and take every safety precaution. But fortunately, those three individuals, you know, made it out alive.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, isn't it? I mean, probably was a pretty cold experience.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can't even imagine. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So so we're looking this is the tower building. It's kind of fun if people can't really picture it. It's a it's a four story tower, four four story high.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's the old so let me, tell the story of that with a really quick history of Floyd Bennett Field. So currently, this is part of the National Park Service Gateway National Recreation Area. Gateway is meant to be you know, it's a national park site that's all about outdoor recreation for the masses, right, for people in New York City and urban environment. This particular site, you know, before kind of human settlement was all wetland and open area, marshland of various kinds.
Speaker 2:The native Lenape people used this area and all of the marsh around Jamaica Bay for hunting and fishing. They had settlements, you know, on another part of the bay, the Canarsie tribe, the Rockaway tribe. You know, so there's a very rich history here in terms of, you know, native American, indigenous peoples using this area for hunting and fishing. As, you know, the area was colonized and built up and urbanized in the Manhattan side and in Brooklyn, you know, eventually that settlement, right, and that development came this way. I'm obviously going through a very fast, you know, timeline here.
Speaker 2:We're not gonna hit every point. But, like, as the city built up, you know, this became a settlement for, you know, for populations of people. There was actually some early industry in processing the waste, from New York City. So right across, right across what is now Flatbush Avenue, so right on the other side of here, was Dead Horse Bay. So named because the horses that were used in carriages and other, you know, kind of early industrial uses were brought here at the end of their life and processed.
Speaker 2:And then there was also a a processing facility here that was run by a pretty well established community of people in what was called Barren Island. There was also a very small airstrip here in the early early days of aviation, a privately run airstrip. And, again, kind of fast forwarding through history, New York City did not have an airport, a municipal airport at the time. And this site was chosen among a few others as the best site for New York City's first municipal airport. So mayor LaGuardia, you know, there was investment made and the airport was built up including that administration building and these eight hangars.
Speaker 2:So all along what is now called Hanger Row. And then there were there there still are a couple of runways, that were built up as New York City's first municipal airport that was dedicated in May 1931. So we're almost a 100 years old at this point. Floyd Bennett Field is almost a 100 years old. And, you know, there were a couple of commercial flights that ran out of here, but it was never really successful as a commercial airport.
Speaker 2:However, it was hugely successful and wildly popular as the best place for early adventurous aviators to come and set records. So Wiley Post, Emilia Earhart, Jackie Cochran, Howard Hughes, you know, all of these kind of famous aviators from that era flew in or out of here at some point. Everybody who was anybody in early aviation came through Floyd Bennett Field.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:This is very popular among among the adventure crowd of aviators. And, you know, again, fast forward through history, because it was not successful as a commercial airport, there were other uses contemplated. As the war World War one excuse me. World War two came about, this became Naval Air Station New York in 1941 or '42. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I don't remember the exact year. But anyway, somewhere in that era. And in that naval era, it was the busiest, you know, kind of aerial hub for the allied forces during World War two, you know, kind of bringing airplanes and and ferrying them to where they needed to go for the allied troops. But after, you know, several years and a couple more wars so this was active as naval air station in New York during World War two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Cool.
Speaker 2:But there was the military didn't have as much of a need for it at the time. And in 1971, it was decommissioned as a military site and turned over to the Department of the Interior and became the country's first urban national recreation area at the same time that Golden Gate National Recreation Area was established in San Francisco, in 1972. So since then, it's been a national park and really meant to, you know, preserve and, have people interact with its natural history and cultural history. And this is such a significant site for aviation, in general around the world. And so now here we are more than fifty years later after the park was established, and, these last two hangars, Hangars 3 And 4, are still standing from their, you know, their early days, but they need a lot of work.
Speaker 2:And so our organization, Jamaica Bay Rockaway Parks Conservancy, is rehabilitating and adaptively reusing these hangars in partnership with the National Park Service. So they're, you know, kind of two separate hangars that are joined by this building in the middle and then these two brick structures on the outside. Altogether, this is about 50,000 square feet. And what we imagine this to be is really focused on, you know, public service, public visitation, activating these interiors for, you know, everyone who wants to visit the park. So there will be visitor services, education programs, bike rentals, tours and shuttle buses, food and beverage service, and a pretty large flexible space for arts and cultural programming.
Speaker 2:Maybe, you know, similar to some of the programming you have in Tempelhof or other airports in Germany. And then the other main part of the program in this other side in Hangar 4 will be focused on a field station and and laboratories and classrooms for field research, for the development, and refinement of nature based technologies, and the kinds of research and and r and d that are needed to advance nature based solutions, you know, and and kind of leveraging this interior space, the laboratories, and machine shop and spaces like that for the kinds of things that we can learn and do in the rest of Jamaica Bay.
Speaker 1:Wow. That's really a lot. It's a huge project. So, just for orientation, what timeline are you thinking about?
Speaker 2:So we're in a design process and partnership development right now. And so we anticipate operations in 2029. Good. Some time in 2029. So it takes a while
Speaker 1:Three years.
Speaker 2:For a project like this. Yeah. So about three years Mhmm. Mhmm. From now is when we expect to invite you back for the ribbon cutting.
Speaker 1:I'll I'll come. I hope when it's a little warmer.
Speaker 2:Yes. I hope
Speaker 1:so too. Yeah. Good. Good.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, I just wanted to point out Yeah. Because I love it so much. On this, like, the the building in the middle, and you can see the, like, the the concrete, the artistic elements. Right?
Speaker 2:This is early Art Deco architecture and the detailing here. So you have, like, the, you know, the wing relief with New York City and then FAB, is Floyd Bennett, you know, air airfield. And you have the sunrise relief over the central door. That's my favorite. These hangar doors are all original.
Speaker 2:They will be rehabilitated. So original glass put back where that's possible or new glass that can replicate this. But these hangar doors will be operational. So imagine in nice weather, you know, when you have, like, food stalls on the inside, we'll have picnic tables out here, you know, live music playing, very family friendly, open, you know, bikes for rent or you can go ride the historic runways, you know, go hiking in the North 40 Natural Area, bird watching, kayaking, all of that, like, outdoor adventure, will will be happening here, will be possible. We're super excited.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Amazing. Just one question before we kind of freeze, here. Since this used to be an air force base, right, people always have first thought like, oh, what about, you know, contamination, soil contamination, and all this, like, very often that's a challenge with sites that's been used. I mean, for one thing, with any former airport, that's already, even if it's civilian use, you have all kinds of, you know, oils, lubricants, etcetera.
Speaker 1:But military use might be even more so. So how was that dealt with? Or is was that already all gone before you set foot
Speaker 2:here? Not part of our scope, but that's something that the National Park Service would manage. And so I can't answer in any, you know, technical way, but I will say that for the scope of our project and the interior, there's not like the ground penetration that would stir up any contaminants that are in the soil as part of our scope. However, I will say one thing that we're contemplating, and this question is still very active. We don't have an answer for it, is we're looking into the feasibility feasibility of of geothermal Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Heat and cooling, which obviously will require, a lot of borings, right, a lot of of wells, that will penetrate the ground. So that's, that's something that will need to be investigated working with the National Park Service.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Are you frozen? Do you wanna try to walk around the back side
Speaker 1:to look in? We can we can do we can do Yeah. Let's do that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's hard standing still.
Speaker 1:Okay. No. That's that's fantastic. So so are you still trying to get funding for it? Or
Speaker 2:Definitely. We're definitely still fundraising. You know, this is a big project. It's a 100 well, we're raising a $100,000,000 in total. About 75,000,000 is for the capital project itself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a a lot of that that we've contemplated for green energy solutions
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Geothermal and solar. And then, you know, like all of the heating and cooling, the HVAC, upgrading the electric, all of that, it needs to be new. Oh, it's hard to walk on this. Is it easier to I'm gonna forge a new path. I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Definitely unique. So I see you have one generator out here or is that for something else?
Speaker 2:It's the National Park Service just put this in earlier last year and it's a lift station. It's a pump. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, maybe you can build some gazebo around it.
Speaker 2:Exactly. We'll do we'll have to do something. And from here, Max, you can see hangers one and two. Yeah. The exterior beautifully restored.
Speaker 2:This is actually an award winning preservation project. This was completed in 2016. And what these hangars look like now are what Hangars 3 And 4 will look like when they're done.
Speaker 1:Just the inside will be radically different.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I see. So it's actually not warm in these hangars because they kind of open door all year around. No.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 2:So, yeah. You can from this from the South Side especially, you can see how much work is needed. Right? I mean, there's no roof here, so the National Park Service scope will be a totally new roof
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:New concrete slab, and then they'll address any and all of the like, the building envelopes. So any brickwork that's needed.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:They'll restore these huge beautiful hangar doors, you know, repair the clerestory windows, in all sides.
Speaker 1:But it's amazing. I mean, you really have this huge space without suspension pillars. Yeah. I mean, that's
Speaker 2:yeah. The like the interior, these beautiful like the the architecture of the building because it doesn't have those columns or interior pillars, all of the weight is being born right on the envelope. And so you have these beautiful, you know, metal trusses, you know, just under the ceiling Yeah. That are part of so this is a a building on the National Register of Historic Places, and this whole district is on the National Register of Historic Places. So there's two different sort of listings.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And within the buildings, one of the character defining features from a historic preservation standpoint is the wide open interior views.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the design, you know, for like, this will be the arts and cultural programming space, food and beverage stalls, you know, but we're really preserving that interior view.
Speaker 1:The open
Speaker 2:So you get that openness, you get the light pouring in from these windows
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the clerestory windows and the hangar doors. You get the open view of the trusses, and you really you know, the idea is that you feel really connected to the history while having a totally modern day experience.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. And it's hard to picture it because three years sounds a long time, but when you see this, it's a lot of work to be done. So cool. Wonderful. And
Speaker 2:even when there's a new roof and new slab, I mean, like, the expense for a project like this, and you can see the kind of the gap that's in between the hangar doors.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That even if the doors are beautifully restored, it's not like an airtight building. No. No. No. It never had, you know, effective heating and cooling.
Speaker 2:No. So we're bringing all of that in. So we'll you know, our architects are being very creative about preserving the historic character and the historic fabric of the buildings, but, like, we have to, you know, make it less porous.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yes. Definitely. That's a good step for energy efficiency. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It will be interesting to see how this works because you mentioned the National Register, so it's a historically protected structure, so you can't just also do anything you want in terms of energy efficiency.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I love, like, look at the arch, like, the detailing, right, in the door. And if you look at, not so much that one, but these These.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Center doors Yeah. On hangers one and two with that, like, radial kind of half circle window above, I just I love it. So beautiful.
Speaker 1:It is amazing how different it was. Oh, that's plowed. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh. Oh. Oh, That's
Speaker 1:okay. Crunch our
Speaker 2:way back through
Speaker 1:the sun. And he did industrial building hundred years ago. They had a lot of aesthetic considerations, whereas now, people usually just build by cost true. Oh, so you can actually walk on this. Oh, kind of.
Speaker 1:Oh. Well, it's good there's no water in there.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:So this just
Speaker 3:It's like
Speaker 2:It's the fact that every roadstep
Speaker 1:crashes through. Yes. Yes.
Speaker 3:Oh. I know. It's both, like, terrifying and really fun at the same time.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Well? We need snow shoes.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yeah. I think if you were even just on cross country skis, you could glide over this.
Speaker 2:With skis on?
Speaker 1:Yeah. You'd
Speaker 2:Yeah. Might Because your weight would be distributed. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So earlier, you mentioned something about a water plane. Oh. What's that?
Speaker 2:Oh, the seaplane. Seaplane. Yeah. We we'll drive this way. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But from here, if you see this large yellow building Yeah. That's Hangar B
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is the old seaplane hangar, which are you know, these are like those huge Yeah. Flying boats. Yeah. The seaplanes.
Speaker 1:But they're no longer flying here.
Speaker 2:No. No. No. So no no flights are coming in and out of here anymore Yeah. Except that the New York Police Department, NYPD, has their aviation unit The helicopters.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've seen a helicopter land here before. Yeah.
Speaker 1:From in the summer, not now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the helicopter that rescued those people yesterday
Speaker 1:Oh, came from
Speaker 2:came from here.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's also good to know. Yeah. I think it's about time to get a little warm up. Yes. That's especially when the wind picks up, it really makes it even difficult to just pee.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh. It's so cold.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is cold. I forgot I have a whole face covering hoodie, so put that on maybe. Good thing the car is still sour.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. So Max, we're driving through what's, you know, known as the Grasslands Management Area, which I think is so cool. My favorite time of year right here is in the fall, because the grasses are still high, but they turn it's like fall color. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they turn golden and auburn. You get all of those beautiful autumn colors right here in the grasslands.
Speaker 1:Nice. And you said they mow it. So was there a consideration at some point to have animals graze it instead, or was it never an option?
Speaker 2:I don't know if that was ever considered
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As, like, the mowing technique using animals instead of a machine. Is that what you mean? Yeah. I don't know if that was considered, actually. I mean, it would be a big operation.
Speaker 1:It would be. It would be. No. And of course, it totally depends whether that's even remotely feasible, but the in and out and the roads around it and being in the city and so on. But I think it's interesting.
Speaker 1:So this is now the seaplane hangar.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So this is even bigger than Hangars 3 And 4. Oh. And, you know, it's also one giant space on the interior. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And I don't think we can drive in. Is the I mean, there's a truck over there, but then they have a horse. But, like, if you look straight out, Max Yeah. Obviously, you're seeing Jamaica Bay. Yeah.
Speaker 2:What we can't see from here per se, but just imagine that it's there, is there's like a ramp, right? So instead of just the seawall, there's a wide ramp, a concrete ramp that goes down into Jamaica Bay. Yeah. That's where these seaplanes, you know, would come in and out of the Oh, nice. And then this huge parking lot that's behind the trees in front of us will, you know, is where they were, like, tied down.
Speaker 2:You can still see there's, like, this metal, like, hooks in the ground. Mhmm. Like an upside down U that were the tie down point for for plane wings. Oh, yeah. You know, like, if you see a small airport with, like, a Cessna or a Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, so they had those kinds of tie downs for all of the planes that were here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. But will there be any use for this one, or is there already used?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's being used now. So on the inside, there's an amazing collection of historic aircraft.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:So there's a seaplane, there's at least one seaplane, I think, at least one, there might be more than one. There's like a collection of the different kinds of aircraft that were relevant to Floyd Bennett Field through the various eras. So the military era, the pre military era.
Speaker 1:And I see there's a camp store here. So is this a campsite in the summer?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like, over here on the right, where all these trees are is Camp Gateway. That used to be well, it still is a public campground, but it's not open right now. It closed down during COVID, actually. Oh.
Speaker 2:And hasn't opened since then, unfortunately. But, yeah, that used to be the camp store. So, like, in these trees here, like, on the edge of the grasslands, tucked in there are a couple of different campgrounds from Camp Gateway. So that's, like, something that the Conservancy would love to help the Park Service reactivate the campground.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, there's a lot of work to be done with the hangars and a few other things that are already in the mix, that's certainly on the horizon. You know, it's a unique experience for camping in New York City. And again, like, the whole idea, right, of this being a national recreation area, is providing the opportunities for outdoor recreation and environmental learning, you know, all of all of those kinds of activities, environmental education, you know, and campgrounds help facilitate that. It gives people a place to stay. It's a unique experience.
Speaker 1:Do know why it's not been possible to reopen them yet?
Speaker 2:They the the previous operator is no longer here, And so the park, a few years ago, looked for a different operator. They didn't find one who's viable, I think. And, you know, so that's where we are now.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. I understand. Yeah. That would be indeed a huge, unique feature to say we go camping in Queens.
Speaker 1:Is this Queens?
Speaker 2:We're on the Brooklyn side.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're on the Brooklyn side. Even even more
Speaker 2:I know. Even more unique.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And, on the right side behind where it's all snow, is that also still runway underneath?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's runway, and then oh, I didn't point it out, when we were driving through the grasslands, that's runway, and there's a whole, like, triangular sort of pattern of runways throughout the site. But yeah, there's an old what you're looking at on the right is an old taxiway for the airplanes, and then we passed the community garden, the Floyd Bennett Garden Association, which has something like 400 plots, which is the largest community garden on the East Coast. Oh. It's it's pretty big, very, you know, active all well, maybe not this time of year, but throughout the growing season.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's very active.
Speaker 1:Interesting. And are you are you, is this different organizations or just one for the urban garden or?
Speaker 2:It's a different organization, So they're, like, an association, a nonprofit that kind of manages, you know, the the individual members who belong to the garden or who, you know, operate the plots.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Cool. And now we just turn towards Eco Village.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Ecology Village. Oh, okay. So there's, there's, like, a small building here with, you know, indoor space for learning classrooms. There's a gymnasium here.
Speaker 2:And then behind this building, in the trees that are kind of behind that building, again, are a couple of camp camping areas with tent platforms and some three, like, wooden lean tos, like little huts, if you will
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:For camping. So this site, though, is further on our horizon.
Speaker 1:I see. These buildings are not operation operating
Speaker 2:No. I mean, they're just literally falling down, it's very That
Speaker 1:is sad.
Speaker 2:And these are like not original to Floyd Bennett Field, you know, when it first opened, but were built during the naval air station era. And on the left side though Max is this really cool site that's operated by New York City Parks Department. It's three acres of a native plant nursery that was opened just after Hurricane Sandy because there wasn't enough plant stock, right, for the native marsh grasses and dune grasses and the plants that were needed for ecological restoration after Hurricane Sandy. But since that time, the New York City Parks Department operates this as a part of a, you know, I mean it's a nursery, right, an outdoor nursery, and they use it for harvesting seeds of these native varieties of seeds. Really quick fun note, it's hard to see right now, but that little structure, there's an archery range here, so it's one of the only, it might be the only outdoor archery range within the five boroughs of New York City.
Speaker 1:Right, right.
Speaker 2:It's a fun little add on that most people don't know about. Then this site on the left is part of what will be a seven acre outdoor education campus, a small urban farm, an outdoor amphitheater for school groups to use for educational programs. That's run by, it will be run by a different nonprofit called Runway Green.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot going on here, right? You were driving around and you're seeing clearly buildings that need, you know, probably to be torn down at this point, sadly. There's a lot of need here, but there's also a lot that's in the early stages of happening. So, like, three years from now, five years from now, this will be a very different place.
Speaker 1:And on the left, is that actually still the marines using this?
Speaker 2:Or Yeah. So the the US marines use this area as, a reserve base. So it's not like a full on marine base but they use it for weekend trainings and, you know.
Speaker 1:And so how big is this again, the whole Floyd Bennett field?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Floyd Bennett Field is 1,300 acres, so it's pretty big, it's the size of New York City's Central Park and Prospect Park put together.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:And then this on the left side, this little building here, is the Conservancy's, you know, outpost. We use it as a classroom, we use it as a second office that's based here at Floyd Bennett Field, we call it The Nest because it's, you know, a little add on to what we have. But it's an open space that we use a lot for family and community programs, early childhood environmental education, our Wetlands Fellowship Workforce Development program operates out of that building, and again we have it as another kind of office space that we can come to when we're working on this side of the bay.
Speaker 1:Elizabeth, what's our heading? Where are we going? We're leaving Floyd Bennett Field Park now, right?
Speaker 3:That's right. We're leaving Floyd Bennett, and we're going to go over the Marine Parkway Bridge, the Rockways, and we're going to make our way to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Wonderful. Luckily we don't have to walk.
Speaker 3:Luckily. Or swim.
Speaker 1:Or swim. That would be a very short lived adventure. But yeah, it's amazing. You said you're in this group of swimmers?
Speaker 2:Yes. They
Speaker 1:yeah. And and do you know when you restart swimming?
Speaker 3:We'll start swimming probably towards the March, early April.
Speaker 1:Okay. And it's what side of the bay or are you on the Atlantic Side where you swim?
Speaker 3:No, swim in Jamaica Bay.
Speaker 1:In the bay?
Speaker 3:So I can point out as we go over the bridge, we swim right off the coast of Breezy Point, right here by the bridge.
Speaker 1:Nice. And March, what water temperatures do you expect to have then?
Speaker 3:I'm hoping, you know, high 50s.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's like almost balmy. It's like very, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's still cold, but not, like, not, like, near freezing.
Speaker 3:Not near freezing. Yeah. We also have very good gear and equipment that make it possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Makes sense. So I should come back for that.
Speaker 2:You should come swim with us. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:So we swim right over here.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. That must be amazing. Do you see a lot of animals in the water or like birds and Yeah,
Speaker 3:because we swim very often in cold temperatures, those are times when the bay is at its clearest, the vegetation is low, so you get to see we see cow nose rays, we see spider crabs. Incredibly, when the water's still pretty cold, the spider crabs cluster together so you can swim over clusters and carpets made out of spider crabs. Incredible. You see a lot of the fish. You see the men hate it.
Speaker 3:And the the bird life are less threatened when you're swimming by than if maybe you're in a boat, so you get pretty close.
Speaker 1:Yes. Because you have you're you're very low. You're not a big time thing. That makes sense. Okay.
Speaker 1:So I'll put it on my calendar.
Speaker 2:We'd love to have you, Max. Say
Speaker 1:the That's wonderful. Like you said, okay. In three years, you think the hangars will open, and then, of course, you have the next phase after that. Is maybe the buildings that we saw that were falling apart? Or what's your thinking about after the hangars?
Speaker 1:Or also, of course, there are things outside Floyd Field. Right? So, like,
Speaker 2:there's Right. There's a whole Jamaica Bay Yeah. And all the parks around it. But, yeah, I mean, Floyd Bennett Field as a particular site and an area of focus is I mean, it's so rich with need, right, and and available projects. So the hangars is certainly big deal and will take all of our energy for the next three years.
Speaker 2:But I have to say that we're not waiting until the hangars are open for the other kind of programmatic elements nor some of the other physical improvements for Floyd Bennett Field. So what I mean by that is, like, the Wetlands Fellowship, our education programs for school groups, our public engagement programs, arts, arts festival, and other cultural events. Like, those programs are happening now, and we're doing more and more of them at Floyd Bennett Field strategically so that when we open the building in 2029, there's already an audience built up. Right? We're not starting from scratch.
Speaker 2:And all the while, we are doing some of those, like, smaller physical improvement projects. So we hope to be able to make headway on, Ecology Village even if it's a very light touch, you know, restoration or kind of light touch improvements, so that that space can be used, as early as this year. That would be tremendous if we can do that. There's a large we weren't able to access it today because the the runways, the roads are still snowed in, but there's a large 240 acre natural area, kind of a coastal forest at the North Side of Floyd Bennett Field. And so we have, some some proposals out there and plans to start a comprehensive restoration project or at least start the planning phase for that.
Speaker 2:So kind of gathering all of the information that we need in order to plan a restoration of that scale. And, you know, so that's, like those are some examples of what we're doing now, not waiting until 2029, but how we're chipping away at these other projects so that there are multiple efforts in the pipeline simultaneously. It makes it, you know, a little bit more complex from a staffing and resource and fundraising standpoint. But, also, I think there's tremendous benefit in doing these things on a parallel track because then anybody who's involved, whether that's as a funder, as a program partner, or anybody else, even our our team, right, our staff, the the visibility, right, the visible kind of change and activation of Floyd Bennett Field is so much more tangible and visible. You can experience it in a way that's more comprehensive than just one thing at a time, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Right. No. It it totally does. Totally does. Just being very curious, since you see you're already doing events there, are they then open air, or how do you do events at Floyd Yes.
Speaker 2:So we have a public arts festival that is open air, it's out on the lawn right in front of Hangars 3 And 4, again, to raise awareness of that site, of the project, and how cool its history is. So excuse me. So the arts festival, we had the first one in 2024, and we're looking forward to the second biennial Floyd Benetfield Public Arts Festival this spring in 2026. There's also last year, we had an outdoor running event called Run the Runways. So a fun run for, you know, families and people of all ages, a two mile run on the historic runways that was, you know, followed by another kind of festival and activities out on the lawn.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, everything that we're doing now is outdoors because it it, you know, it has to be, but also, you know, that's the benefit, right, of of the park, and our mission is to improve the parklands, which we do physically, but also from a stewardship and public engagement standpoint, really connecting people to the parklands. And that happens, I think, most easily and most readily when you're outdoors, you're experiencing that nature and the cultural history very directly.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Absolutely. No. That's true. So, hopefully, of course, no snow by then.
Speaker 1:What are the dates for the festival?
Speaker 2:Hopefully, no snow by then. So, early May. May 9 is our is our date. I hope we'll see Very you
Speaker 1:nice. Yeah. I'll definitely put that on my calendar as well. Wonderful. Teri, are you leaving us here?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna leave you here. It's been so fun to visit Point Beneathfield with you, and I'm wishing you guys warmth
Speaker 1:and
Speaker 2:more fun for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Thank you, Terry.
Speaker 2:Thank
Speaker 1:you, Have a great rest of your Sunday. I hope not too much snow shoveling.
Speaker 2:Maybe a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, wonderful.
Speaker 2:I have to go.
Speaker 1:Good good luck with that. Thank you so much for tuning in today into part two of our recordings around Jamaica Bay. Stay tuned for more episodes around nature, the environment, and climate change. Many thanks to Frankum for the music. Until next time.
Speaker 1:Ciao, and bye bye.