![]() ![]() We hope that despite their retirement, they will continue to inspire imagination and creativity in parkgoers into the future,” added Donoghue. Welcome to Fantasy Forest Amusement Park, Queens ONLY Amusement Park Were located in the heart of the historic Flushing Meadows-Corona Park beside the. “We’re so excited to unveil this new contemplative space in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, as we send some of our hardest-working employees into retirement in style. Additional trees, shrubs, and landscaping elements will also be planted. Hailing from all across the city, the animal sculptures have served kids in playgrounds for decades and include:Īlongside the retired playground animals, benches have been installed to add to the contemplative nature of the area as well as a new accessible pathway. “At NYC Parks, our civil servants take many forms: not only park workers, but also the beloved concrete animals children have been playing on for decades in our playgrounds across the city,” said Sue Donoghue, commissioner of NYC Parks. NYC Parks even hosted a retirement party for them. Many of these birds arrive in New York City only twice a year as they travel along the Atlantic flyway, a major migratory route.Six animal sculptures from playgrounds across the city have been retired and moved to Flushing Meadows Corona Park to a new home adjacent to the Unisphere, the “Home for Retired Playground Animals.” Daniel Avila / NYC Parks In addition to housing these native species, freshwater wetlands also provide resting, breeding, and feeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of migrating birds. Muskrats ( Ondatra zibethica) munch on prolific chairmaker’s rush ( Scirpus americana), while cottontail rabbits ( Sylnilagus floridanus) frequent the brushy meadows, which provide good cover. Sedges, rushes, and wetland wildflowers are cropping up as water reclaims Lefrak Meadow, formerly the site of ballfields. Snapping turtles may be seen mating here in the spring.Īt the south shore of Willow Lake is a cattail marsh. This lake attracts numerous waterfowl, including an occasional northern pintail ( Anas acuta), hooded merganser ( Lophodytes cucullatus), or blue-winged teal ( Anas discors) in the fall. Willow Lake in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is named for the weeping willows ( Salix babylonica) along its shores. Despite these variable conditions, freshwater wetlands teem with life. Water levels in wetlands are variable, influenced by the underlying rock and soil makeup, rainfall, season, and ground water inputs. The sophisticated food web that developed brought advanced predators to the wetlands: snapping turtles ( Chelydra serpentina), wolves ( Canis lupus), several species of hawks, and humans ( Homo sapiens). Plant communities diversified under these favorable conditions, attracting animals that fed on the plants. As wind and water eroded the soil, the steep slopes grew gentler, slowing the passage of water. Generations of plants grew and decomposed, building peat-rich sediments. NYC Parks hosted a retirement party for the six. Where waters were shallow or flowed slowly, seeds and spores were able to take root and flourish. Flushing Meadows Corona Park now features a home for retired concrete playground animals in a quiet grove just east of the iconic Unisphere. If layers of fine silt and clay were deposited on the bottom of the depressions, the kettles collected water and ponds formed. Large glacial fragments broke off, melted, and left depressions called kettles. When the ice melted 17,000 years ago, water flowed to the sea, creating streams and rivers that carved through rock. A massive ice sheet called the Wisconsin Glacier advanced on New York City 75,000 years ago, pushing rock, soil, and boulders ahead. The formation of wetlands can be traced back to the most recent ice age. Meadow Lake in turn flows into Flushing Bay. Flowing from a source near Union Turnpike, Flushing Creek feeds Willow Lake and then Meadow Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the city. Today, the park has grown into the second largest in the city, behind only Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. Only 2,000 acres of freshwater wetland remain in the city today, and many species that once called the wetland home have been lost forever.īuilt in Flushing Creek's plain, the site for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was originally marshland before it was converted into a landfill. In the past 200 years, the increasing demands of a growing metropolis have resulted in most of this land being filled for construction. This valuable ecosystem can slow erosion, prevent flooding by retaining storm waters, filter and decompose pollutants, and slow global warming by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen at a prodigious rate. New York City once contained 224,000 acres of freshwater wetland.
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