Three Questions with an NYRP Volunteer

New York Restoration Project is proud to welcome thousands of volunteers each year to help care for community gardens, parks, and green spaces across New York City. Whether planting trees, removing invasive species, or lending a hand at a community event, volunteers of all experience levels make our work possible.

This month, we’re highlighting Amanda Lin Costa, a dedicated Highbridge Park volunteer who has brought her expertise in sustainable landscape design and native plants to a thriving woodland garden along the edge of the forest near the Fort George Hill Playground. Her work is helping create habitat for wildlife while making this special corner of the park even more beautiful for the community.

Read on to learn what inspires Amanda to volunteer, and if you’re ready to get your hands dirty, join us! We welcome everyone, from first-time volunteers to seasoned professionals.

What inspired you to volunteer with NYRP?

Amanda Lin Costa: I first learned about NYRP when I read about your work bringing back the American chestnut. I was delighted to find out the project was happening right around the corner from me in Highbridge Park. In September 2023, I signed up for a tree-planting day, and after the event, Christopher McArdle (Deputy Director of Northern Manhattan Parks) myself, and a few other volunteers hiked up into the woods to observe the trees for ourselves. It was a truly magical day.

Later that year at a New York State Urban Forestry Council ReLeaf Workshop, I met Jason Smith (Director of Northern Manhattan Parks) who learned about my volunteer work and my background as a sustainable landscape designer. We made a plan for me to design and help maintain a woodland garden in Highbridge. Woodland garden design is my specialty, and I loved the challenge of incorporating New York natives, nativars, and ecoregional plants into an area actively being restored.

What’s your favorite part of spending a day volunteering in NYRP’s parks or gardens?

ALC: For the last few years, my primary volunteering has been in the Highbridge woodland garden. It’s been a fantastic experience getting to know the NYRP staff, and I love collaborating with community and corporate volunteer groups for large plantings or invasive species removal days. As the expression goes, “many hands make light work,” and that is particularly true in gardening. Public gardens especially need dedicated volunteers. Sharing my knowledge of native plants is also incredibly rewarding—I even used this specific garden and its battle with the dreaded porcelain berry as the thesis for my Master Ecology certificate!

What’s one thing that keeps you coming back?

Recently, we’ve expanded the woodland garden into a sunnier area nestled between a much-loved mountain bike trail and a children’s playground. I’ve nicknamed this garden the “Pollinator Corridor,” and it’s been exciting to create a wildlife habitat that also brings beauty to the community. While NYRP supports so many incredible spaces across NYC, for me, the immersive experience of escaping into the woods just blocks from my Manhattan apartment brings me back week after week. Plus, seeing the seasonal shifts never gets old. I’ve been particularly excited about the copious blooms of woodland phlox flanking the bike trail that have been slowly reseeding and returning year after year. When the fall-planted, native lupines bloomed this spring, it made me feel like we’d cultivated a quiet miracle amidst the city’s concrete and chaos.