Secret gardens: The plants and insects that inhabit NYC’s green roofs
You can spot monarch butterflies, birds such as the blackpoll warbler, native prairie grasses, and rarely, the tricolor bat
By Celia Young
Brick Underground
August 21, 2023
Excerpt:
When you think of New York City’s birds, you probably think of one particular feathered fiend. Sometimes called a “sky rat,” it’s short, often missing toes, and travels in packs. But the pigeon is far from the only bird to traverse the city’s skies.
Gotham’s green roofs—gardens, farms, and planted green spaces—help the city absorb excess rain water during storms and cool the air. They are home to an assorted mix of bats, bees and plants—plus migratory birds that use roofs as rest stops before flying across the continent. The city might look like a concrete labyrinth from the ground, but its skies are teeming with life.
“The story that plays out on a green roof is so fascinating to me. The [roof] was once this useless space devoid of life,” says Dustin Partridge, the director of conservation and science at NYC Audubon. “But then you install these green spaces, and they end up providing this habitat that would otherwise not be there.”
NYC Audubon monitors a handful of green roofs on commercial buildings—including the Javits Center—as part of the Green Roof Researchers Alliance, a consortium of more than 60 researchers including The New School, Columbia University, and The Durst Organization, a developer. But green roofs have become a popular installation for residential buildings too.
“[Green roofs] offer such a Swiss army knife of benefits,” says Anastasia Plakias, co-founder and chief impact officer of rooftop farming business Brooklyn Grange. “It’s an investment that improves quality of life for neighborhood residents, migratory and native wildlife has pollinators, and improves quality of life for residents in the building tremendously as well.”
