Inwood Hill Park Hosts ‘City of Forest Day’ This Weekend

INWOOD, NY – The third annual City of Forest Day, featuring programming highlighting the critical importance and value of New York City’s green lungs, is Saturday, Oct. 26.

Events are taking place across all five boroughs, including at Inwood Hill Park.

• Begin your Upper Manhattan City of Forest Day at 9:30 a.m. with a hearty morning of forest stewardship. Volunteers will plant trees and shrubs, as well as remove litter and invasive species, as part of an ongoing project to care for the forested edge of Inwood Hill Park’s Shorakapok Preserve. Bring water, suitable clothes for manual labor, and sturdy shoes; all other supplies will be provided. Interested parties may register here. The work begins near the Seaman Avenue and Isham Street park entrance.
• At 10 a.m., join urban park rangers for a hike through the oldest-growth forest in Manhattan. Participants who would like to join the free walk should also aim for the Seaman Avenue and Isham Street park entrance. More information is available here.
• Next up, at 11:30 a.m., Inwood Hill Park’s Shorakapok Preserve will be inducted into the Old Growth Forest Network. The preserve is a unique sanctuary for some of the only natural forest and salt marsh left in Manhattan, per the Parks Department. More information about it is available here. This event will take place near Shorakapok Rock, not far from the Indian Caves and the baseball fields.
• Once you’ve refueled, roll up your sleeves for an afternoon of forest stewardship beginning at 1 p.m. The afternoon session involves planting native trees, shrubs, and flowers as part of an ongoing effort to restore the forest edge near Gaelic Field. Once again, bring water, suitable clothes for manual labor, and sturdy shoes; all other supplies will be provided. Interested parties may register here. The work begins near the 218th Street and Indian Road park entrance.
• If, on the other hand, you abhor touching dirt, join William Bryant Logan and Tim Wenskus for a forest walk at 1 p.m. Wenskus, a noted forester with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Logan, an author, arborist, and a member of the faculty at the New York Botanical Garden, will discuss Shorakapok Preserves's ecology. Interested parties may register here. The walk begins near the 218th Street and Indian Road park entrance.
• As the sun sets, join Inwood resident and Taino Luis Sanakori Ramos of the Shorakapok Earth Keepers, a neighborhood community group that “seeks to honor the history and presence of indigenous culture” in Inwood Hill Park and other city green spaces, per its website. At 6:30 p.m., Ramos will lead participants through the forest while sharing indigenous stories of the Northeast. The walk begins near the Seaman Avenue and Isham Street park entrance.
  

All events are free and open to the public, and more information about the day's schedule is available here.

A significant amount of citywide programming is uptown, and both Highbridge Park and the Little Red Lighthouse in Fort Washington Park will also host events on Saturday.

You'll find a registry of events across all five boroughs here.