Alley Pond Park natural areas

Alley Pond Park is the second largest park in Queens, and contains 530 acres of natural areas. The park lies on a glacier-formed moraine, a ridge of sand and rock that formed 15,000 years ago and left behind boulders that sit on the hillsides of the southern end of the park and ice that melted and formed the ponds dispersed throughout the valley, called “kettle ponds.” Fresh water drains into the valley from the hills and bubbles up from natural springs, mixing with the salt water from Little Neck Bay. As a result, the park is host to freshwater wetlands and salt marshes, tidal flats, meadows, and forests and supports abundant flora and fauna.

The tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera), oaks (Quercus spp.), and beeches (Fagus spp.) in Alley Pond Park’s forest are some of the largest in the city, including one of the largest tulip trees in NYC (and one of the Great Trees). Locally-rare and state-rare plants include bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), pink lady’s slipper (Cypripedium acaule), giant yellow hyssop (Agastache nepetoides), and others. The kettle ponds and other small wooded wetlands support the city’s best remaining populations of spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) and two-lined salamanders (Eurycea bislineata) along with wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus), spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), and gray tree frogs (Hyla versicolor). The park is also a birding hotspot because of the diversity of habitats and its salt marshes are home to snowy egrets (Egrette thula), ospreys (Pandion haliaetus), and other shore and water birds.

Since the 1990s, NYC Parks has implemented extensive forest and wetland restoration and protection work at Alley Pond Park with staff, contractors, and volunteers as well as through partnership with other City agencies. Caring for these restorations also requires sustained outreach and engagement, and NYC Parks has partnered with organizations like the Alley Pond Environmental Center and Friends of Alley Pond Park to help organize volunteer planting events, stewardship, and educational outings within the park.