The High Line is an elevated public park built on a freight rail. It is located on 10th Avenue, running between the 13th and 34th street. It contains about 20 blocks of area. I visited the High Line on September 22, 2012 at 3:00pm. It was an amazing experience since it was the first time I visited it. In my opinion, the park is the combination of nature, aesthetic, and humanity. With various plants on the side, artistic rock benches and fixtures and walkway create a beautiful and pleasant aura for visitors to enjoy their walk. The park is also full of different species of pollinators that fly from plant to plant. I could only encounter a few species of pollinators. I noticed a large amount of bees throughout the park, with small amounts of birds and other insects.
The High Line carried commercial freight form 1934 to 1980. It became abandoned when Interstate highway system encouraged truck transportation that led to the decline in rail freight. When the High Line was abandoned, Friends of the High Line fought to preserve the High Line from being demolished. Due to their effort, the High Line became a public park and pedestrian walkway that contains a high diversity of flora and fauna.
When the High Line was first created, it accumulated a shallow level of soil and organic matters as a result of the cycles of growth and death of the pioneer plants (Stalter 390). As materials and trash are being smothered into the soil and plants by train and wind, the mineral abundance of the soil increased. Also, soil compaction and fire led to greater soil quality. New species were introduced due to unintentional transport of seeds by human visitation. When Friends of the High Line transformed the abandoned rail into the High Line public park, species were introduced on newly deposited volcanic ash on sites where plants did not exist (Stalter 388). The history of human intervention created a variety of habitats that contributed to the species richness of the park today.
The High Line is a great example of a rambunctious garden. As Emma Marris stated, “Rambunctious gardening is proactive and optimistic; it creates more and more nature as it goes, rather than just building walls around the nature we have left” (Marris 3). In other words, rambunctious garden is to allow human to work with nature instead of restoring our environment to its pristine look. We are to create green spaces by selecting the desired plants and/or maintaining the plants that are there already to create a “garden” of biodiversity. In a sense, the High Line is a garden because the New York City parks department maintains it. In a garden, we water our plants and decide which species to stay in the space to achieve our goal, whether it is to enhance the beauty of the property or to increase the biodiversity of the garden. The same goes with the High Line, plants were selected to plant in the area and some species were maintained to achieve a rambunctious garden that has a high biodiversity.
Bombus-affinis
Honey Bee
Fly
Birds sitting on a rock.
Interesting looking red insect.
