The New York City Urban Field Station's mission is to improve quality of life in urban areas by conducting and supporting research about social-ecological systems and natural resource management. It began as a partnership between the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. The Urban Field Station:

• Promotes environmental stewardship and ecological literacy (people’s understanding of ecology) to improve human well-being in New York City, the country’s largest and most diverse metropolitan area.
• Works with land managers to create innovative “research in action” programs that support urban ecosystems.
• Conducts comparative research and shares findings with decision makers and researchers in other metropolitan regions in the United States and around the world.
• Links to a growing network of U.S. Forest Service scientists and university partners who focus on urban research.

The New York City Urban Field Station (UFS) is both a physical place to conduct research (the research facility at Fort Totten) and a network of scientists, practitioners, university partners, and facilities that focus on urban ecology. Since its founding in 2006, the UFS has engaged over 30 non-profit, academic, and government partners creating innovative “research in action” programs to support urban ecosystem management and sustainability initiatives in New York City.

Two core Urban Field Station (UFS) partners, the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, created a field lab and residential space for visiting scientists at historic Fort Totten in Queens, NY. Previously, research by scientists from outside the New York City area was often hampered by the costs of visiting the city and the lack of available lab space and research equipment. The Fort Totten facility allows scientists to reside and work in New York City on a temporary basis (up to 3 months) for data collection and other partnership work, greatly expanding the scientific and technical staff available to work throughout the five boroughs and the region.

Northern Research Station researchers in New York City focus primarily on four areas.

Environmental Stewardship and Civic Engagement

Networks of public agencies, civic groups, private organizations, and individuals care for the urban environment. Who volunteers to steward urban ecosystems and how do volunteers get involved in these activities? How do different people and organizations use and care for open space as a form of civic engagement? How can a biocultural stewardship lens that sees natural resources as cultural resources help build more diverse and inclusive environmental programs and practices? How can co-learning and knowledge exchange help foster urban biocultural stewardship?

Selected Resources

• Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP)
• Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Johnson, Michelle L.; Plitt, Sophie. 2022. Not by trees alone: Centering community in urban forestry. Landscape and Urban Planning. 224(6): 104445. 8 p. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104445.
• Campbell, Lindsay K.; McMillen, Heather; Svendsen, Erika; Rodbell, Phillip. 2021. Best Practices for Hearing All Voices in Our Urban Forests City Trees: Journal of the Society of Municipal Arborists. 2021. 24-27.
• McMillen, Heather L.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Kealiikanakaoleohaililani, Kekuhi; Francisco, Kainana S.; Giardina, Christian P. 2020. Biocultural stewardship, Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, and the urban crucible. Ecology and Society. 25(2): 9. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11386-250209.

Forest Ecology and Management

Forest ecology research at the NYC Urban Field Station broadly focuses on understanding urban tree health and managing urban forest resources across the city. The urban forest includes street trees, landscaped trees, yard trees, and forest patches. This research also extends across a network of cities to consider how to best manage urban forest patches, applying silvicultural methods to urban conditions. With this work, we ask: How can we best measure tree and forest health? How can we best manage urban forests in the face of climate change and other urban pressures? How equitable is the access to and the health of the urban forest within NYC and other cities?

Selected Resources

• Tree Health
  • Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities website
  • Healthy Trees, Healthy Cities training videos on the Forest Service YouTube channel
  • Pontius, J. and Hallett, R., 2014. Comprehensive methods for earlier detection and monitoring of forest decline. Forest Science, 60(6), pp.1156-1163.
• Urban Forest Patches and Urban Silviculture
  • Piana, M.R., Pregitzer, C.C. and Hallett, R.A., 2021. Advancing management of urban forested natural areas: toward an urban silviculture?. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 19(9), pp.526-535.
  • Silviculture in the City
  • Johnson, L.R., Johnson, M.L., Aronson, M.F., Campbell, L.K., Carr, M.E., Clarke, M., D’Amico, V., Darling, L., Erker, T., Fahey, R.T. and King, K.L., 2020. Conceptualizing social-ecological drivers of change in urban forest patches. Urban Ecosystems, 24, pp.633-648.

Resilience, Health, and Well-Being

Resilience is the ability of individuals and communities to recover from stress or adversity. These projects explore the intersection between the natural environment and human health and well-being, asking: How can urban greening be understood and managed as a tool for improving quality of life and supporting resilience?

Selected Resources

• Living Memorials Project
• Green Readiness, Response, and Recovery
• Landscapes of Resilience
• Adapting to Crisis - COVID-19 Research

Use, Value, and Meaning of Urban Nature

As more people live in cities, our connection to urban nature becomes more important than ever. How do people use and value public green spaces and natural areas? What meanings do they imbue to these spaces? How can social science methodologies be used as training tools that help land managers “read the landscape” for social use, value, and meaning?

Selected Resources

• Auyeung, D.S. Novem; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Johnson, Michelle; Sonti, Nancy Falxa; Svendsen, Erika. 2016. Reading the landscape: citywide social assessment of New York City parks and natural areas in 2013-2014. Social Assessment White Paper No. 2. New York, NY: New York Department of Parks and Recreation. 69 p.
• Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; Sonti, Nancy F.; Johnson, Michelle L. 2016. A social assessment of urban parkland: Analyzing park use and meaning to inform management and resilience planning. Environmental Science Policy. 62: 34-44.
• Campbell, Lindsay K.; McMillen, Heather; Svendsen, Erika S. 2019. The Written Park: Reading Multiple Urban Park Subjectivities Through Signage, Writing, and Graffiti. Space and Culture. 24(2): 276-294. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331218820789.
• Johnson, Michelle L.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; Svendsen, Erika S.; McMillen, Heather L. 2019. Mapping Urban Park Cultural Ecosystem Services: A Comparison of Twitter and Semi-Structured Interview Methods. Sustainability. 11(21): 6137. 21 p. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216137.
• Svendsen, Erika S.; Campbell, Lindsay K.; McMillen, Heather L. 2016. Stories, shrines, and symbols: Recognizing psycho-social-spiritual benefits of urban parks and natural areas. Journal of Ethnobiology. 36(4): 881-907.