THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN Outdoor Self-Guided Visit: Bronx River Walk

TEACHER GUIDE Welcome to The New York Botanical Garden! What factors characterize our 50-acre native forest ecosystem? Conduct an ecology field study with your students as you navigate a self- guided visit through the forest and along the Bronx River. Use the information in this walking guide and the accompanying reproducible Student Field Guide to help connect students to an amazing natural resource in the city. Recommended for use for grades 2––8. ABOUT THE BRONX RIVER The Bronx River, originally called either tucked between the lip and gum PLANTS AND ANIMALS “Aquehung,” or “River of High Bluffs,” or sniffed into the nasal cavities and Some animals you might find in the by the Native Americans who lived and was a fashionable habit during the Forest and along the Bronx River:

fished along it, begins near the Kensico times. You will see the original Snuff Mill In the Trees: Reservoir in Valhalla, N.Y. (Westchester on the riverbank during your Bronx • Great Horned Owl County). The river winds 23 miles south River Walk . It is now known as the • Red-tailed Hawk through the Bronx, eventually emptying Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill. • Northern Saw-Whet Owl into the East River. It is the only fresh Despite their industry, the Lorillards did water river in New York City (the Hud- little to alter the forested riverbanks and Near the River: son and East Rivers are tidal estuaries). were the original stewards to this • Beaver (first wild beaver known to valuable resource until passing return to the City in over 200 years) In Bronx County, the Bronx River flows ownership to the Garden in 1895. Look for beaver-eaten trees! for eight miles through various • Muskrat (active in early morning neighborhoods including Muskrat Cove, The waterfall you will see was the and night, they are semi-aquatic) Bronx Park, NYBG, The Bronx Zoo, West original industrial dam that the Lorillard • Mallards Farms, Starlight Park, Concrete Plant family purchased. After the Garden • Heron Park, Hunts Point, and Soundview. assumed ownership of the forest and • Great Egret river, large boulders were piled against The Bronx River did not always flow Forest Floor: the downstream face of the dam in through the Garden. Seven hundred • Reptiles and Amphibians: order to give it the more natural million years ago this area lay at the Salamanders, snakes, turtles, and character of a Catskills waterfall than bottom of a sea. Four hundred million frogs (in spring and summer, look the artificial appearance of a mill dam. years ago it was a chain of lofty peaks. on top of logs, among damp leaves, Over the last 1.8 million years, four ABOUT THE FOREST and in vernal pools) major glacial periods have occurred, The Thain Family Forest, which borders • Invertebrates: each one covering the region with ice the Bronx River to the west in the Worms, millipedes, butterflies, tall enough to bury most Manhattan Garden, is a 50-acre native, old-growth moths, snails, ants, mites, crickets, skyscrapers. The last glacier receded forest. Much of New York City was once cicadas, and spiders (look on 17,000 years ago, changing the course covered by forest such as this. When leaves, decaying logs, and among of the Bronx River, which once flowed you walk through this forest, you will leaf litter) farther north. As the massive ice sheets walk along Native American hunting Some plants you might find in the retreated, they dropped enough debris trails; see marks left by glaciers, and Forest and along the River: to divert the river to a gorge. Through pass under trees dating back to the • Tulip Poplars time, the river has enlarged the gorge, American Revolution. • Red Maple producing the cliffs you see when you • American Sycamore visit. For thousands of years, this old-growth • American Beech forest has changed, adapted, and In the early 1600s the Bronx River was • American Elm survived. In its position next to the used for the purpose of powering mills • River Birch and Grey Birch river, the forest serves as a floodplain, a with water power and continued into • Sweetgum natural sponge that absorbs and filters the 18th century. In 1792 Pierre II and • Eastern Hemlock the river’s overflow during periods of George Lorillard purchased a dam, mill, Shagbark Hickory heavy precipitation, thus decreasing • and water rights on the Bronx River in flooding in nearby areas of the Bronx • Sassafras the place that is now part of the Gar- and improving water quality. Floodplains • Pussy Willow den. The Lorillard family built two more also support diverse communities of • Mapleleaf Viburnum mills and used the water power for plants and animals well-adapted to the • Common Spicebush grindstones which turned tobacco into a river’s periodic flooding. product called snuff. Snuff powder was • Poison Ivy WALKING GUIDE FOR THE BRONX RIVER WALK BEGINS ON THE NEXT PAGE ... page 1 of 2 edge, ask students to look carefully at BEFORE YOUR VISIT 6. The Mill View Trail connects to the something around them. Then ask them An effective Garden field trip begins Sweet Gum Trail. Turn right (north) on what it means to observe. Lots of pro- with careful planning and preparation. this trail and continue walking over a fessions require careful observation Take advantage of the free “Teacher small footbridge with more informational skills—for example, a detective. Ask Pre-Trip Pass” to orient yourself with signage. Allow time for students to read students what tools detectives use to the Bronx River, Thain Family Forest, the signs and notice how the small make observations. Discuss the use of and many Garden collections before streams meet and join the Bronx River. your senses as the crucial tools to make bringing your group. careful observations. 7. Continue walking until you reach the Hester Bridge, which spans over the The New York Botanical Garden is a Ask students for other examples of river. Turn right (east) and walk over museum of plants in beautiful displays. professions that require careful observa- the bridge, allowing students time to The Garden is lucky to have a river and tions, eventually arriving at the role of a forest on its property. As a group view the waterfall. scientist. Scientists make observations, discussion, have students define a ask questions, and record what they 8. Continue walking on the path and museum setting and implications of a notice. Scientists have been making turn left down the hill stairs on to river running through a forest in a city. observations and performing investiga- Waterfall Trail. Head to the waterfall to Discuss the types of behaviors you use tive research at the Bronx River and get a closer look at the waterfall. when visiting a museum. New York Botanical Garden for more 9. After viewing the waterfall, take Advise students that while visiting they than 100 years. Waterfall Trail south along the river and will need to stay on Garden paths, not 2. Explain to students that during this head back under the Hester Bridge, touch or pick parts of plants, and be toward the Old Stone Mill and Stone Mill mindful of other visitors. Please take field trip they will be using their senses and a field guide to explore life along Road. care not to litter in the river or forest. the Bronx River. Distribute Student Field 10. When you reach Stone Mill Road, This is an outdoor walk of almost one Guides, maps, and pencils. Briefly you can turn right to head back to mile and will take approximately 35 explain how to use the field guides and where you started—the Everett Gate minutes at a moderate pace. Encour- maps. and Picnic Pavilions. age students to wear comfortable foot- Provide students with a boundary and wear and to dress appropriately for PRE -/P OST -VISIT ACTIVITIES : ask them to choose a spot to sit and spending time outdoors. 1. Define a river. look at the river for a given amount of 2. Pre-Visit: Predict what students If you bring lunch, your group can eat time (3–10 minutes depending on the might observe when they visit at the Clay Family Picnic Pavilions grade level and interest). Prompt stu- the Bronx River. located close to the Everett Garden dents to: 3. Post-Visit: Compare actual Gate. Restrooms and water fountains • List the things you see around the observations about Bronx River are located close to the picnic area. river. The quieter they are the better ecology to support or reject (Plastic bag use is discouraged in the chance to see, smell, and hear. predictions. Garden—bags often fly away and get Animals in a forest are quiet because 4. List questions you might like to caught in trees and animal habitats.) their lives depend on it. (That is why answer by doing further it may be rare to spot more than a Download the Bronx River Walk Student research. Field Guide and Self-Guided Map. Make few of them.)

RECOMMENDED TEACHER RESOURCES : a double-sided copy for each student. • Write down the moving and non- bronxriver.org Bring pencils on the day of your visit. moving things you see around you.

nybg.org AT THE GARDEN 3. Walk north toward the bridge. Youtube.com: Bronx River Restoration If you arrive by bus, your group will Choose another suitable spot to stop check in at the Everett Garden Gate De Kadt, Maarten. The Bronx River: and listen. Prompt students to: An Environmental & Social History. (School Group Entrance) and walk • Close your eyes and listen for a given Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, straight along Stone Mill Trail until just amount of time. List five things you before you reach a bridge. Take the trail heard in your booklets. 2011. on the right just before the bridge NYBG in Bloom iPhone App 4. Before continuing your walk north which leads you in through a portion of RECOMMENDED CHILDREN ’S BOOKS : under the bridge toward the Mill View the Forest toward a paved path next to Non-fiction : the Bronx River. When you arrive at the Trail, have students identify their Frahm, Randy. Rivers: Sculptors of River, you will notice that this wide path location on their maps and indicate the extends south toward Pelham Parkway direction which they will be heading. the Land. Mankato, Minn.: Creative and the Bronx Zoo and north leading Co., 2003. 5. When you reach the Mill View Trail, Sweeney, Alyse. Rivers. Blooming- under the bridge toward the Mill View allow students time to walk and explore Trail into the Forest. (The estimated ton, Minn.: Capstone Press, 2010. at their own pace whilst reading the walking time is 10 minutes.) Fiction : informational signage throughout the SUGGESTED STUDENT ACTIVITIES trail. Use the Plant and Animal Key to Locker, Thomas. Where the River 1. When you first arrive along the river’s identify life they notice along the path. Begins. New York: Dial Books, 1967. page 2 of 2