Fresh Creek Nature Preserve

Flatlands Ave, Louisiana Ave., E 108 St. and Belt Parkway

Fresh Creek is a nearly mile-long basin that still bears some features related to the meandering tidal salt marsh creek it once was. The small salt marsh island in the park is a remnant piece of salt marsh left from when the larger channel was dredged for navigation. Of this park's 56 acres, 42 are open water, surrounded by fringing salt marsh and upland created by historical filling. Along with neighboring Four Sparrow Marsh and Spring Creek Park, the salt marsh at Fresh Creek Park helps protect the Jamaica Bay ecosystem by acting as a natural filtration system, trapping pollutants that would otherwise contaminate the bay. Several small sections of the salt marsh have been restored as part of required mitigation for wetland impacts due to infrastructure projects within the Park and in other nearby areas.

The rapidly spreading plants common reed (Phragmites australis), mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), and tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) cover the uplands in Fresh Creek Park, though noteworthy plants such as rock sandwort (Arenaura stricta), Faber's foxtail (Setaria faberi), and velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti) are interspersed throughout.