Thank you to everyone who has already donated to support this campaign! We are closer to our goal thanks to your investment in Freshkills Park’s story of environmental transformation. Once the video is fully funded, artist Michael McWeeney will get to work filming wildlife and interviewing researchers who study the site’s ecology.

This project is inspired by our larger goal to connect people with the plants and animals that call Freshkills Park home. With the help of free and creative digital resources, our hope is that more and more people appreciate the nature that can be found in New York City.

Along with this video project, we have been working on a Tweeting Bird Box that will invite people to learn about Freshkills Park’s growing bird population. Of the many birds that can be found onsite, some like to make their nests in holes such as hollow trees. To study and support these cavity-nesting birds, dozens of bird boxes have been installed along fences and other structures.

With the new Tweeting Bird Box, a live streaming camera and infrared sensor will detect activity inside one of the bird boxes, and this activity will be shared through social media. Thanks to amazing support through an ioby campaign, we were able to secure funds for hardware costs and the labor of a freelancer to help us build the software. Now the Tweeting Bird Box is in its final stages of construction and we expect to have it installed by summer 2018!

This is an exciting time of year, when migrating birds begin their journeys back to summer breeding grounds. We hope you continue to join us in celebrating their arrival at Freshkills Park.

Photo by Diane Cook Len Jenshel, published in Audubon.