The Arthur Kill, Staten Island

Late Sunday morning, my roommate Yuichi and I took the Lexington Ave Subway from Bedford Park in the Bronx to Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. We then rode the Staten Island Ferry across New York Harbor to St. Georges Terminal on Staten Island and boarded the Staten Island Railway for Tottenville at the southern end of the island, arriving about 2:15.

This photo is from the pedestrian walkway over the railroad tracks at Nassau Station-- the second-to-the-last stop on the SIR.  Our destination is the salt-marsh (middle foreground in photo), woods and abandoned industrial area along Mill Creek (line of trees before bridge in photo) which flows west from Richmond Valley and empties into the Arthur Kill (left), the narrow waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey.  In the distance is the Outerbridge Crossing joining Tottenville, New York and Perth Amboy, New Jersey.  The real estate company offering the land in the left foreground suggests it's a prime site for a medical facility or warehouse.  It's also a prime site for plants and animals.

This is the salt-marsh of the Arthur Kill.  Whew.  Away from the road and "civilization".  The brown stuff laying down is mostly smooth cord grass (Spartina alterniflora), a native plant that can live in or near sea water.  Its roots stabilize shorelines and provide shelter for mussels and many other creatures.  The mussels in turn provide food for wading birds, like great egrets, snowy egrets, black-crowned night-herons, and glossy ibis who make their rookeries in these marshes, sheltered by the grass. Blue crabs, diamondbacked terrapins, and several species of shrimp also live here.

This is the forest behind the marsh.  Most of the trees are native species.  And every one has some useful product or service.  Too bad about the trash :(  When we come back, we'll begin piling it up by the road.

Yuichi going for twigs of gray birch (Betula populifolia).  A tea made from the twigs has a mild and satisfying aroma; like breathing mountain air on a warm day.

The seeds are important winter food for wildlife.  Aren't they cute?  The papery wings help the seeds float on the wind.  They're easy to spot when they fall on snow. (image courtesy of the USDA Plants Database).

Collecting bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta).  We ate some right out of the ground and I had it for lunch the next day.  It's not bitter, but does have a little kick to it.  Like very, very mild wasabi, to which it is related.

This is a fairly large sassafras (Sassafras albidum) tree in the laurel family. The wood is aromatic and used for all sorts of things, including moth repellent. Blocks, panels or chips were used in closets and chests before man discovered napthalene (moth balls).  The roots make a delicious tea and was the original "root" in root beer.  Then some researchers used alcohol to extract the chemicals in sassafras roots and fed large quantities to rats.  Not surprisingly, the rats developed cancer and predictably, the USDA banned the commercial sale of sassafras.  Well...... the compounds extracted in water are not the same as those extracted by alcohol and I try not to consume large quantities of anything!!  Maybe it has something to do with it's purported efficacy in treating STDs, back then known as "social diseases", which, heaven forbid, might encourage more intimacy.  The leaves are used to make filé gumbo.  They're a thickening agent and they add flavor of bay leaves with a hint of citrus.  Williams-Sonoma sells 1.3 oz of the powder for $5.95.

Digging greenbriar or catbriar (Smilax rotundifolia) rhizomes.  The underground stems (rhizomes) can be  bulbous and can weigh up to 20 pounds (in tropical species).  Note the clump of trees just above Yuichi's head.

The middle trunk has the bark worn off it.  Young bucks use certain species and certain sizes of trees as scratching posts for their growing, itchy antlers.  This one was probably used by that poor buck murdered by a careless motorist.

This is probably the guy with itchy antlers.  Motor vehicles kill.  Slow down people.  Please!

This is the catbriar rhizome.  Every indigenous people has developed herbal aphrodisiacs, either as stimulants, depressants or mood enhancers. The best aphrodisiac in my opinion is regular exercise, a healthy diet and restful sleep.  Can't manage those?  Greenbriars grow nearly worldwide and just about every culture where it is native used it as an aphrodisiac-- as well as medicine for host of other problems including exzema.  I have not yet researched specific medicinal uses for our native species, but for what it's worth, we tried the rhizome pictured above and it tasted like medicine.  The young shoots are one of my favorite trail nibbles and are also good cooked like asparagus.  They even look like asparagus spears.  I compete with the deer for the tenderest, fattest shoots.

A deer and raccoon walked this way before we did.

Mud flats and brushy woods of the Arthur Kill.

An engine manifold that is no longer making an awful racket and spewing poison into the air.

Old lobster traps in the shadow of the Outerbridge Crossing.  The little trees on the left are false indigo  (Amorpha fruticosa).  It contains indigo in small concentrations and the leaves contain amorpha, used as an insecticide and repellent.

Under the Outer Bridge Crossing.  It was built in 1928 and named for Eugenius H. Outerbridge, the first chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.  I think it's beautiful in its simplicity and strength.

Meadow and salt marsh.

This is little blue stem (Schizacaryum scoparium), an icon of the North American prairie.  Deer, bison, elk and antelope love it.  Along with the rarer indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), blue stem is a good indicator of a healthy, functioning, native ecosystem.

We found this coconut (Cocos nucifera) washed up on the mud flat.  There was a cup's worth of slightly sour milk inside.  I liked it, but Yuichi did not.  The meat was really oily and delicious, almost like that stuff they put in cannoli, only way better and better than any coconut I've ever eaten.  Maybe all those months (or years) spent in the sun and salt were good.   The little green plant is the bittercress we collected in the woods.

We'll be back in spring when things green up.  Want to join us?