Harwood Park is Reborn

Beginning in 2014 the Friends of the Scarsdale Parks (FOSP) embarked on an ambitious reclamation of several acres in the heart of the village. Designated as Harwood Park in 1928 in honor of Scarsdale's first planner, the parkland languished for many years without care until FOSP got to work on a comprehensive environmental restoration – after obtaining a grant from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Trees for Tributaries program.

The park is situated on the Bronx River watershed west of the South Fox Meadow Brook, between the Library and the High School gravel parking lot (off Brewster Road). To prepare the ground for planting a large undeveloped section of the park was assessed by a team of FOSP board members, the village Department of Public Works, and the Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department. Before beginning more intensive work, the DPW members of the team cut an access path from the gravel parking lot to the library. The next step involved removal of debris, pieces of concrete and discarded road signs.

A front loader leveled parts of the area and removed some of the invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed and mugwort. Then further hand digging and cutting was needed to remove the more deeply rooted and stubborn "invaders" to set the stage for the community "Big Planting" in early May 2015. As a prelude to the event, members of FOSP pruned three foot un-rooted twigs from the grove of pussy willow trees in the meadow adjacent to the Library Pond gazebo. Then they dug about thirty 18 inch holes along the western edge of the brook and planted the cuttings. Some of those little twigs have since grown into new 15 foot trees along the stream bank.

Scarsdale's historic, first Community Planting Day was inaugurated on a beautiful Saturday co-sponsored by FOSP and the village. About 150 volunteers of all ages assembled to plant almost 300 native trees and shrubs provided under the grant by the DEC. Beth Roessler, the DEC's regional coordinator who delivered the plants, protective tree sleeves, black weed mats and stakes, gave instructions and the community went to work. Volunteers included the mayor and village trustees, Brownie and Girl Scouts, Boy and Cub Scouts, High School students, members of civic organizations such as the Rotary Club and Scarsdale Forum, and numerous residents accompanied by their children and friends. Before the end of the day, about an acre full of plants began their new life in Harwood Park.

When rain failed to materialize in the first two weeks after planting day, FOSP bought a battery operated pump to enable members of its board to take turns irrigating the new plants, using the brook as the water source. During the ensuing year, a weed whacking attack on invasive plants kept them in check, and FOSP donated and planted another dozen carefully selected native trees. Today, about ninety percent of the 2015 plants have happily thrived and transformed that section of Harwood Park.

Before last winter, the village had a contractor de-silt a major section of the brook alongside the gravel parking lot. The silt was left in the park until early this spring, when the contractor returned to spread the rich silt over a large open field west of the 2015 planting area. The soil on this freshwater wetland floodplain has been ideal for most of the plants, which continue to be cared for by FOSP. By May 2016 the DEC had again provided about 250 native trees and shrubs, and another diligent group of community volunteers continued the restoration in the area between the 2015 planting and Brewster Road. They represented most of the same groups that participated the previous year, and were joined by members of the Bronx River Reservation Conservancy. Today it is rewarding to see High School students and neighbors walking and biking along the path through a restored Harwood Park, where students and their teachers are studying nature, birds are building nests in the newly planted trees and a wide variety of native plants are helping to create a more balanced ecosystem.
FOSP is in the process of planning for a third planting at Harwood Park in spring 2017 that will reforest the floodplain along Brewster Road, enlarge the planting area on the western side of the brook, and establish a beachhead on the easterly bank as part of the ongoing effort to eradicate invasive plants at the edge of that woodland. Anyone who wants to know more about this project and participation in other community restoration work is welcome to contact the authors Madelaine at [email protected] or Dan at [email protected].