This year’s Linda Milbourn Fellow, Scout Kerensky-Coodley worked on the Fort Jay Meadow in New York for her graduate fellowship project in landscape architecture. Please see the attached PDF to learn more about this fascinating project.
Introduction:
Governors Island sits 800 yards south of Manhattan and is accessible by ferry, seven days a week. Off its eastern shore is the Buttermilk Channel, a 400-yard-wide waterway that separates the Island from Brooklyn.
Fort Jay is part of the Governors Island National Monument, managed by the Nation al Park Service in coordination with the Trust for Governors Island. Sitting on high ground, the fort is surrounded by a grassy moat and gently sloping land.
The surrounding landscapes are cared for by the horticulture department of the Trust for Governors Island. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the horticulture department experimented with letting the grass grow wild on the southern and southeastern sides of the Fort. As the grass grew, native birds flocked to the area, much to the delight of the local NYC Bird Alliance (formerly NYC Audubon). The horticulture department had already embraced an ecological approach to management of the island, and this burgeoning wildlife hotspot became an opportunity to envision new opportunities for the land.
