Canarsie Park & Canarsie Pier Improvements

Working with our partners at the Natural Areas Conservancy, the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy (JBRPC) provided funding to improve parkland in Queens and Brooklyn.

Canarsie Park

Canarsie Park is a 132-acre park located in Canarsie, Brooklyn, on the western shore of Jamaica Bay. The park offers users amenities including ballfields, basketball courts, soccer fields, spray fountains, playgrounds, a cricket field and skatepark. The park also contains coastal wetlands, beaches, and shrublands. Runners and walkers actively use the trail system.

Trail System

This project will build on a series of successful 2016 pilot projects by NAC and NYC Parks to improve public access and encourage the use of trails across NYC. Trail projects at the park include improvements to existing trails and closing redundant trails through tree planting, resulting in three miles of formal trails at Canarsie Park. Trails are now clearly marked and maps will be available on-site and online. Work was conducted by a combination of staff and student volunteers and completed in 2017.

Clearly marked trails

Trails in Canarsie Park are now clearly marked and maps will be available on-site and online.

3-miles of trail improvements

In Canarsie Park, improvements were made to existing trails and redundant trails will be closed. For the first time, Canarsie Park trails are connected to the Jamaica Bay Greenway - a direct link to Canarsie Pier.

Canarsie Pier

Canarsie Pier is part of the National Park Service Gateway National Recreation Area and is used for fishing, kayaking, picnics, biking and educational programing, and is one of the most heavily used areas in Jamaica Bay. Due to saltwater inundation experienced by Hurricane Sandy, many of the trees on the pier have died. Working with the National Parks Service, NAC and JBRPC oversaw the replacement of 35 trees on the pier. Work included removal of dead trees and the installation of new mature native trees which tolerate salt spray and flooding. The project was completed in 2017.

In October 2018, JBRPC and NAC worked with local students and volunteers to restore part of the shoreline at Canarsie Pier’s south beach. Over 7,000 spartina or cordgrasses were planted.

35 new trees at Canarsie Pier

Dead trees were removed, stumps cleared and new, native trees were planted in the fall of 2017.

Volunteers plant spartina or cordgrass at Canarsie Pier