Scheduled to open in 2010, the Sherman Creek Center is New York Restoration Project’s (NYRP) first-ever, fully functioning, state-of-the-art green facility – created to headquarter NYRP’s environmental education programs, extend NYRP’s operations capacity at Swindler Cove and increase the organization’s presence along the Harlem River waterfront.
The 2,700-square-foot facility expands upon an existing NYRP education field office – currently a repurposed gas station. Two, new modular buildings will create space for a multipurpose classroom, a small library and resource room, an area for public meetings, an office for NYRP field operations and horticulture crews, and a deck overlooking the Sherman Creek waterfront. The Center will utilize pioneering greening practices and the most sustainable technologies available, including a green roof and wall and gardens that dramatically increase the amount of porous surface area for ornamental plantings, which provides more effective management of rainwater runoff.
The Sherman Creek Nature Trail connects the Sherman Creek Center to Swindler Cove Park and was created in 2005, when NYRP began the restoration of Sherman Creek’s natural shoreline in a cooperative venture with the City of New York Department of City Planning. An inlet just north of Swindler Cove Park, Sherman Creek was once a bustling marina and popular recreational boating area in the 19th Century. However, over the past 50 years, the site had become an illegal dumping ground, cutting the area off from its immediate neighbors, including P.S. 5 and Dyckman Houses, a seven-tower public housing project with more than 2,500 residents.
The project began by tackling the invasive overgrowth of bittersweet vine, mugwort and other species that walled off the site from the adjacent neighborhood. Next, heavy debris was hauled away and recycled as construction fill. Much of the lighter cleanup was accomplished by corporate volunteers, where after a team of NYRP field staff, AmeriCorps and high-school interns began rebuilding the shoreline with truck loads of soil, timber cribbing, biodegradable matting and native plants.
The restored slopes and overlooks of Sherman Creek are now planted with swamp rose, golden rod, Dutchman's pipe and native grasses that control erosion. Shadier areas feature varieties of oaks, pines, and sweetpepper bush. The invasive trees removed from the site were chipped and used to create a pedestrian trail that leads down to a natural beach, where Spartina grass and fiddler crabs make their home in the mud and egrets, red-wing blackbirds and muskrat have also been observed.