The High Line covers several Manhattan neighborhoods on the West side. With many access points, which are near multiple public transportation stops, this public park stretches for over one mile between 10th and 11th Avenues on top of the old freight rail line. As an elevated park, the views of NYC’s skyline and other storefronts are pretty unique.
After sections of the freight railroad were shut down in the 1960s, the High Line turned into a messy and wild environment, unkept and unmaintained. A non-profit organization called Friends of the High Line began to work towards preserving the High Line and turning it into a public park. From as early as 2002, specific species like “lichens, bryophtes and vascular plants at the High Line” were collected and classified (Stalter, 388). With all the data compiled, the results showed that the High Line had “161 species in 122 genera in 48 families” (Stalter, 388).
It is discussed that multiple factors contribute to the public park’s diverse variety of species. Some include human visitation as a “possible source of transported seeds and new species”, and human disruptions like littering, trampling, soil compaction, and fires (Stalter, 300).
Therefore, in an attempt to limit some of the damages caused by humankind, the High Land has many rules, enforced by the park’s personnel. Some of these rules include, NO: walking on gravel/plants, picking flowers/plants, using amplified sounds, using bikes/boards/skates, littering, etc. It seems that the High Line wants its human visitors to create as little a disturbance as possible to its man-made and man-maintained environment.
When I visited the High Line, I did not notice such a wide spectrum of species, as Stalter states there is. I mostly saw bumble bees and honey bees, and many flies. Many of the pollinators I saw, however, where around yellow flowers and purple flowers of the High Land, which were consistently found in patches along the park. I did see some weird red and long bugs and a few birds, too, but other than that, it was difficult for me to distinguish many species from each other since they all looked generally similar to me.
