Explore the Wonders of New York Nature by Betsy McCully

NewYorkNature.us by Betsy McCully is your portal to the nature and natural history of the New York region. The author created this website to inform, educate, and hopefully inspire you about the incredibly rich and diverse natural world of the New York region, past and present.
photo of New York Harbor from Staten Island
Credit: Ben Cooper, all rights reserved. View of New York Harbor from Staten Island.

Welcome to New York Nature

Did you know that New York City was built on an archipelago, a constellation of islands in a vast estuary? Here in one of the largest cities in the world, you can find wetlands, grasslands, forests, rivers, ponds, lakes, and miles and miles of beaches, dunes, and barrier islands. And all of this is surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. This mosaic of habitats has long supported a rich diversity of life.

 

Explore New York Nature

You may be surprised to learn that the site of New York City is a geological hotspot, located at the eastern edge of North America where continents fused and rifted apart. In these pages you can read about the region’s billion-year-old geological history as told in its rocks, the evolution of its flora and fauna as told in its fossils, the advances and retreats of multiple glaciers, and radical changes in the landscape. You can discover how New York’s modern habitats evolved through natural processes, how they became degraded by human activities, and how they are being restored by human efforts. You can find natural histories and photo galleries of New York’s flora and fauna. For those of you who want to learn more, topical reading lists and useful links are provided.

Geologic map of Northern Manhattan and the Bronx showing bedrock formations
Prehistoric New York
Photo of Racemed Milkwort
Plants and Animals
photo of Newtown Creek oil depots
Habitats

New York Nature Galleries

Come on in and look around, build your knowledge of New York’s nature, and if you’re able, go outside and explore! If you can’t get outside, then enjoy a virtual tour of New York’s nature in these pages.

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