Because nearly 1/3 of New York City is waterways, and Jamaica Bay is a place that surprises non-NYers who think the entire place is a concrete jungle, when in fact part of NYC is a wildlife reserve. Fascinating.

Jamaica Bay guardian, Don Riepe, has recruited thousands of volunteers to help him plant marshes to protect the wildlife and Queens citizens from extreme natural disasters.

The American Littoral Society has a marshmaster and bay guardian. His name is Don Riepe and he has recruited more than 3,000 volunteers to help him systematically replant salt marshes in Jamaica Bay, Queens. Historically, natural buffers like marshes can reduce the impacts of sea level rise and storm surge from climate change and hurricanes, and therefore reduce the kind of awful flooding that parts of Queens and Brooklyn experienced after Hurricane Sandy. The Jamaica Bay Marsh Restoration Initiative has planted more than 180,000 native Jamaica Bay Spartina plugs and restored more than 40 acres of badly-degraded marsh islands since 2013.

[via WNYC]

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