LAND USE ON STATEN ISLAND, NY: CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

The GSA position statement “Integrating Geoscience with Sustainable Land-Use Management” is “To ensure sustainable land-management practices that meet present and future needs of people and the natural systems on which they depend, The Geological Society of America (GSA) advocates use of comprehensive earth-science information in land-use planning and decision making.” Furthermore, it encourages geoscientists to participate in land-use decision making at local, regional, state, and national levels."

We are board members of Protectors of Pine Oak Woods (PPOW), (siprotectors.org). One of our co-authors (AB) is a full-time professor of geology. Another co-author (JB) is the vice president of PPOW and co-author (ML) is the PPOW chair of the land conservation committee. The PPOW land conservation committee has played a very active role since July 2020 in researching and identifying unprotected natural land throughout Staten Island. PPOW for several decades has been engaged in the successful protection of numerous natural areas on Staten Island. We have worked in partnership with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), The New York State Office of Parks and Recreation and New York Historic Preservation. In as much as we authors are board members of the PPOW we are actively involved in this endeavor.

Therefore, we are engaged in a multi-pronged effort of balancing environmental preservation with development and using land conservation principles that include the following; Conserving precious natural resources, with attention to how stormwater management should affect the design, acquisition and conservation of open space; Ensuring equitable distribution of open green space in densely populated urban low-income environmental justice communities; Preserving and expanding the NYC tree canopies especially along grassy areas of roads and highways.

Recently, we received strong support from all our elected representatives at the city, state and federal level for the acquisition of many high-priority conservation sites on Staten Island, a borough of NYC, utilizing funds from the NYS Environmental Bond Act of 2022.