Social-Ecological System Transformation in Jamaica Bay

The view from Rulers Bar Hassock in the center of Jamaica Bay is at once wild and urban. You can watch shorebirds hunt for the eggs of horseshoe crabs, and lift your eyes to Wall Street skyscrapers on the horizon. Rulers Bar is an amalgamation of human and nonhuman processes in its own right. Having decayed in recent decades due to increasing pollution and other factors in the bay, the island is being restored through the work of the Army Corps of Engineers, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the National Park Service—all aided by two groups of community activists, the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers and the Northeast Chapter of the American Littoral Society. These community activists, and their governmental supporters, lead stewardship activities because they are concerned about the health of the bay and the health of their nearby community in Broad Channel. The Army Corps dumped sand, and more than five hundred community and youth volunteers planted more than 88,000 plugs of salt marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) during low tides.