History & Context
To understand our waterways and community, it’s important to see them within the timeline of history.
The resources below provide some background on the area, as well as context for stewarding, or taking care of, waterways in an urban setting.
Info Pages
The Environmental History of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
Some background on the environment of Flushing, presented by Baruch College students.
What is Urban Environmental Stewardship?
With research pointing to the importance of community-based stewardship to conserving landscape health, the US Forest Service conducted a study to better understand such stewardship in urban settings.
Daylighting Streams: Breathing Life into Urban Streams and Communities
A report on buried urban streams that highlights their importance to the surrounding environment and successful efforts to bring them back to the surface.
A website with extensive coverage of interesting and little-known histories of NYC waterways, by a historian and staffer of the Parks & Rec department. Link leads to a post on historical boating in Flushing Creek. See the book by the same author in the Books section of this page.
Broaching the brook: Daylighting, community and the ‘stickiness’ of water
A paper exploring the process of opening up subterranean waterways, or ‘daylighting,’ and its benefits to the local environment and community.
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