New York Harbor

Superstorm Sandy dramatized the importance of preserving low-lying coastal lands, and The Trust for Public Land has helped protect more than 1,800 acres in the New York Harbor region. Many of our waterfront projects in Brooklyn and Staten Island flooded during the storm, absorbing significant storm and wave surges, and helped protect adjacent homes and businesses. Our goal now is to protect and restore more waterfront lands.

The Trust for Public Land is working in partnership with researchers at Columbia and Drexel Universities to plan and implement green infrastructure improvements along vulnerable waterfront areas to address future threats and inform waterfront planning. Our conservation agenda includes research on green infrastructure performance during Superstorm Sandy, GIS-based planning to identify priority conservation sites and on-the-ground projects to encourage wetland restoration and creatively designed resilient waterfront parks. Based on this expertise and our years of experience, we have chosen to focus on two particularly vulnerable areas, Staten Island and Jamaica Bay.