In the process, most probably need to expand their concepts of what habitat looks like and can be: it’s not just in National Parks. We have no need to travel to the tropics or the poles, or back in time, or even to the eastern part of Long Island or the southern part of the Jersey Shore for a first-hand experience of complex marine and estuarine ecosystems. It’s right here, right now.īut if students are to appreciate this-and in fact many hold the misconception that NY Harbor is too polluted to support any life at all-they need to see NYC’s shorelines and shallows as habitat. And Billion Oyster Project is part of a larger movement to restore our harbor ecosystems to more diverse, and resilient states, inspired by the abundance we can identify in the histories of our waters. (For one local example, you can check out the lesson What happened to the oyster industry in Raritan Bay?) Many of us do not yet fully appreciate that New York Harbor’s shorelines and shallows are currently habitat for a fascinating array of wildlife. Think of the words ‘wilderness’, ‘ecosystem, or ‘habitat’, and it’s likely you and your students will picture a terrestrial environment-maybe a forest, desert, meadow, or polar tundra. Most of us will also picture a faraway place. We may even know that New York City is built on land that was previously forest, grassland, wetlands, or water, but it is hard to imagine restoring, say, the block where your school building is located to one of these landscapes. NYC relies on our terrestrial concrete and asphalt, and we sometimes forget that life abounds, even here.
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