Con Edison Supports Natural Spaces Around Jamaica Bay and the Rockaway Peninsula

New funds will be used to continue Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy’s environmental restoration, coastal cleanups, and workforce development program

This month, Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Conservancy (JBRPC) received a grant from Con Edison to protect the environmental health of Jamaica Bay, advance its broader ecological restoration, and develop a workforce for local parklands. We are so grateful for this continuation of Con Edison’s yearslong support, which will bolster efforts to ensure New York City’s largest natural area can be enjoyed by future generations. 

These funds will support JBRPC’s Jamaica Bay Wetlands Fellowship, an annual program that trains young adults between the ages of 18 to 25 years old to be the next generation of wetlands managers. Over a six-month period from spring to fall, this skills-building program trains fellows on wetlands maintenance, monitoring, restoration, stakeholder relationships, and nature-based solutions — experience needed to be hired into nature-based roles. The fresh resources will enable JBRPC to expand the Fellowship by extending employment for a small cohort of Fellows through fall plantings and early winter cleanups, and enhance the Fellowship experience through additional skills training and certification, “learning exchange” with other wetlands and natural areas programs the city, and an overnight experiential learning trip to another urban estuary on the East Coast. 

Wetlands Fellows remove debris from Hamilton Beach Park in Queens

Wetlands Fellows monitor health of the West Pond Living Shoreline at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge on Broad Channel

The grant also subsidizes JBRPC’s community stewardship programming, which includes organizing regular volunteer cleanups within parklands around Jamaica Bay and along the Rockaway peninsula from spring to fall, with an additional emphasis on boardwalk and beach cleanups during the high summer months.

JBRPC Volunteers remove debris from Rockaway Beach and the boardwalk, Summer 2025

JBRPC Volunteers clear debris from Canarsie Pier’s shoreline, Winter 2025

Thanks to previous, years-long support from Con Edison and other funders, JBRPC can already claim significant impact in environmental stewardship and workforce development:

• Our environmental restoration and volunteer stewardship initiatives span 10,000 acres of parklands around Jamaica Bay. We clear invasive plant species from natural habitats, repaint park infrastructure, remove graffiti, mulch park landscaping, maintain over 9,000 feet of public trails and collect hundreds of pounds of harmful microplastics — working alongside colleagues at NYC Parks, NY State Parks and the National Park Service.

• We are proud to see the growing recognition the Wetlands Fellowship is receiving from our parks agency partners. More than ever, Fellows are being directly integrated into the maintenance and restoration plans for local parks, not as an afterthought, but as a trusted and skilled workforce. Agencies have come to rely on the Fellows for their reliability, work ethic, and positive impact. Agencies are often short-staffed, and to know they view our Fellows as go-to collaborators means the program is meeting a real need for both people and parks.

This grant for JBRPC is part of a larger $15 million of grants Con Edison is awarding to community-based nonprofit organizations across New York City and Westchester County. In this way, Con Edison is supporting clean energy career training, preservation of green spaces and community-led climate adaptation in the New York City region.