Ridgewood Reservoir Turned Hidden Gem, Thanks to Project NYCH20 and a Parks Partnership
A hundred and fifty years ago the Ridgewood Reservoir served as the water source for Brooklyn, when it was its own city. The three basins in a 50-acre space in Highland Park have since been dormant. Two bogs and a basin of water was overrun by human vandals as well as invasive species of plant life, effectively choking the ability for the area to be a useful ecosystem for plants and animals. Well that’s changed.
We attended one of the early meetings of NYCH20, run by founder Matt Malina, nearly a decade ago when he and his team started leading the charge to change the area at the basins and make it an ecosystem. It seemed to us like an ambitious goal that might have been impossible to accomplish, but a worthwhile exercise nonetheless.
We Took A Stroll Last Week
We took a walk to the three basins last week after understanding that NYC H20, along with the parks department have had an eye-popping amount of success. Could they actually make the area beautiful so people could walk, run, play and enjoy the nature of the spot? Well, we were blown away by the transformation of the space. Birds, frogs, turtles and other critters frequent the area, and it’s not a stretch to feel like you are in the far reaches of upstate NY, with plant life and nature just oozing. Hats off the NYCH20, along with hundreds of volunteers and some contractors hired by the parks department, have, over the last decade, created something we all can be proud of. They admit there is a lot more to do, and maintaining this part of the park takes thousands of hours of work every year, but we have to recommend our readers visit this site for running, walking or just gazing. Park in the lot at the Highland Park Greenway, along Vermont Place, just south of the Jackie Robinson Parkway.
