Stewardship Program

The District's Stewardship Program enables community and environmental groups, teachers, students and citizens to become environmental stewards of their local natural resource. We encourage groups to adopt a natural resource, such as a forest or a waterbody and its watershed, be it a reach of a river, a bay, a tributary, a lake, or a wetland. We work to empower stewards to act as watchdogs, monitors, local resource experts and historians of their natural resource.

The Stewardship Program is a cooperative effort with the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program and is focused on three elements:

  • Focusing on watersheds as the geographical unit for stewardship,
  • Promoting environmental monitoring, spanning a spectrum of parameters, including human use and abuse,
  • Training stewards as watchdogs and activists for restoration, education, and monitoring.

Program Support

We help stewardship groups and teachers interested in monitoring through providing technical assistance and facilitating information exchange. We host workshops on natural resource management issues, field trips showcasing the City's natural resources, and conferences for networking and sharing their work with government agencies. We also connect groups and teachers with resource experts willing to work with them.

Watershed Planning

We have chosen three priority watersheds: Jamaica Bay, the Bronx River and the Arthur Kill. The District acts as a liaison between government planning agencies and communities. In this capacity, we ensure community input into the public planning process. For instance in partnership with the Friends of Gateway, a non-profit group, we have re-established the Jamaica Bay Task Force. The Task Force meetings have featured various agency programs taking place in Jamaica Bay, including the Jamaica Bay Ecosystem Restoration Project of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection. The District is also an active member of the Bronx River Alliance, a non-profit organization working to restore the Bronx River. We are working in partnership with the Bronx River Alliance to ensure the Bronx River Watershed Comprehensive Restoration Plan of the US Army Corps of Engineers will reflect the community needs.




For more information about the District's Stewardship Program,

Contact Lucinda Kalin
P: 212-431-9676 Ext. 91
F: 212-965-1859

Download More Information
All files are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.

Erosion and Sediment Control Workshop, March 26th, 2008

Piloting Stormwater Catchment in Greenstreets Presented by Jeff Keiter and Michael Meric of the NYC DPR’s Division of Central Forestry & Horticulture at the joint NYCSWCD Board & Water Quality Coordinating Committee held on July 19, 2006

The Future of Biofuels Presented by Anne Carpenter at the joint NYCSWCD Board Meeting & Water Quality Coordinating Committee held on July 19, 2006.