Building Nature From Scratch

Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85 acre, man-made landscape constructed on abandoned piers in the New York harbor, was created with ecology in mind. The park’s award-winning piers support top-notch recreation, from opera to outdoor films, all of it beautifully designed. But the piers also contain native woodlands, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, and numerous meadows. These landscapes closely mimic native ecosystems and are managed with an emphasis on wildlife habitat. Rebecca presents many of the strategies employed in designing the park as well as the organically based management practices that promote biodiverse parklands.

Rebecca McMackin is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. She is the Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park where she oversees meadows, wetlands, forest, and ornamental beds with the aim of encouraging biodiversity. Her writing has been published in The New York Times and Landscape Institute. In her scarce free time, she designs gardens for Mantis Plant Works that are both beautiful and ecologically robust.

CBLP CEUs: 1