McGuire Fields natural area

The natural areas within McGuire Fields cover 55 acres. They contain fringing salt marsh and significant expanses of common reed (Phragmites australis). Forested freshwater wetlands and native meadows can be found throughout the site. The Jamaica Bay Riding Academy is based just across the Belt Parkway from the southern end of the Park, and horse riding trails run under the Mill Basin bridge into and through the east side of the Park all the way north to the ball fields that give this Park its name.

In 2023, after the widening of the Belt Parkway, NYC Parks began a restoration to plant thousands of trees and shrubs of the forest and wetlands within McGuire Fields -- after removing and managing the overabundant stands of phragmites (Phragmites australis), knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), bamboo (Pleioblastus spp.), tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), and sprawling porcelainberry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) and bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) vinelands across the southern 44 acres of the the park.