Well I’ve loved nature as long as I can remember, and I’ve always loved NYC too. I’m really fascinated by the ways plants & animals adapt to different situations, and you can find some really fascinating adaptations that they make in heavily urbanized settings. The behavioral plasticity and resilience you find in these settings is inspiring to me as well; if wildlife can adapt to a dense city like NYC, I think it shows a greater degree of adaptability than we often give organisms credit for. It gives me hope.

 Gabriel Willow

Absolutely! I’ve enjoyed drawing since I was a kid, and one of the tools I used to observe and document the natural world was sketching and journaling.  I’ve also created larger art pieces, paintings and mixed-media pieces that always incorporate nature in some way. And I take as much inspiration from writers, painters, conceptual artists, choreographers etc. as I do from biologists or conservationists.

I’ve been pretty certain from a young age that I wanted to be a conservationist, naturalist, and artist. I remember being on a Puffin-watching boat trip in Maine when I was 10 or 12 years old and impressing the on-board naturalist & guide with my bird ID skills; I think he let me get on the mic and tell the other folks on the boat some things about birds we were seeing.

A couple years back they reached out and invited me on one of their tours out to Fresh Kills Park and other more remote corners of Staten Island. I was familiar with the boat line, and they were familiar with my work. I then guest-narrated part of a tour with the American Institute of Architects and incorporated some ecological themes; this was a hit and so they invited me to design a series of tours with them. It’s been a really fruitful partnership. I’ve led harbor tours on a variety of boat lines off-and-on for over 20 years, but I can honestly say that Classic Harbor Line is far and away my favorite. Their boats are so beautiful, quiet, and clean, and the captains and crew are delightful.

I’m glad you asked about the Black-crowned Night-Herons, because while they are one of the most abundantly nesting herons or egrets around NYC, they are also declining somewhat abruptly, and this is an area of concern and study for scientists and conservationists such as those at the NYC Bird Alliance (formerly NYC Audubon). It’s still a bit of a mystery why they’re declining so quickly when their numbers had been increasing in our region for years, but it may be climate-change related, or perhaps tied to their diet. More study is needed. Regardless, the Night-Herons are fascinating and beautiful birds, a bit like if you crossed a heron with an owl – nocturnal feeders with big orange eyes. Once you learn their call and start looking skyward after sunset, you could spot them flying over the Central Park Lake, or sitting on piers & pilings around the waterfront of the city.

In terms of surprising or rare species, I think some people might be surprised to know we’ve seen Bald Eagles on many tours on the Hudson and East River. I’ve also seen Humpback Whales on a couple of occasions!

That’s my whole thing, showing people that there’s lots of nature in the city! I just keep doing what I do, bringing people outside to city parks and waterways and abandoned or overlooked spaces to explore and witness the biodiversity there. You don’t need to go anywhere special for this – you can zoom in on a crack in the sidewalk and find Lambsquarters growing there (it’s a plant with a fascinating history as a staple in regional Native American agriculture & cooking prior to the widespread adoption of corn, beans, and squash that were domesticated in Mexico or Central America). You can look at some tree or bush and find the galls formed by parasitic wasps, or the mutualistic symbiotic relationship between ants and aphids. It’s often just a question of looking and listening more closely, and of course being made aware of what you’re seeing or hearing once you notice these things. That’s where I come in – as a guide, an interpreter of sights and sounds.

The Brother Islands are fascinating from so many perspectives, but the history of North Brother Island as a location for municipal prisons, rehabilitation facilities, orphanages, quarantine hospitals in particular is such an interesting and haunting glimpse into how the city dealt with these challenges in the 19th Century and early 20th Century. It ties together societal issues, urban planning, societal shifts, and now ecology as well (decades of abandonment have led the island to become overgrown and a refuge for birds and other wildlife). North Brother was also the site of the General Slocum disaster and the home (against her will) of Typhoid Mary. So it feels like a rather haunted place, if not in a literal sense, then in the way that the past is always lingering and informing the present. The history of island-based quarantine hospitals in NYC and the way we dealt with infectious disease prior to advances in modern medicine is interesting as well, and has been mirrored somewhat in more recent years as we experienced a global pandemic and the need to socially distance ourselves. North and South Brother Island also stand in the shadow of Rikers Island, which is a very archaic place in terms of it harkening back to a time when many prisons and jails were housed on islands, and also the level of immiseration and mistreatment of inmates. So there’s an element in which exploring the past can highlight social justice issues in the present.

I don’t know if they all directly intersect – I used to DJ a lot more regularly than I do now, but I didn’t, say, incorporate nature sounds into my DJ sets (although sometimes people thought I should). My educational work and naturalist work are definitely intertwined; I don’t see them as separate. Exploring the natural world means sharing those experiences for me, which is hopefully educational. And I think being involved with music and art also informs everything I do as well. Art, music, and nature all feel like fundamental parts of the human experience to me, what it means to be human.

Excellent question! First and foremost, just get outside! Daydream a bit. Get lost in the moment, smelling a flower or closely watching a bee or a bird in your local park or waterway. Also in NYC we’re lucky to have groups for just about everything, so if you want to meet up with a group of other people interested in birds or ferns or mushrooms or insects you can; then you can socialize and learn more by joining a walk or talk. It’s fun! And you don’t need much specialized gear, maybe a magnifying glass or pair of binoculars; a field guide, a sketchbook, or a few apps on your phone.

Another great question! I’d say there’s a mix of personal choices and government-level regulation and legislation needed. Many environmental issues are big and the beauty of the power of government is its ability to coordinate efforts and expand their impact. Like, I don’t think we can ‘individual choice’ our way out of climate change. The concept of a personal carbon footprint is a bit of a distraction in the face of larger climate impacts and carbon emissions of the US military or industry. We need to reorganize society and government on a pretty fundamental level to face the challenges of climate change. Unfortunately, it looks like we’re moving in the opposite direction federally right now. That being said, I do think there are a lot of ways people can change things on a smaller scale or more local level that can have huge impacts. For example, while most New Yorkers live in apartments and are renters, if you live somewhere with a yard, eliminating the use of herbicides and pesticides and planting native grasses and wildflowers can be a huge benefit for native insects and birds. Here in NYC, we have combined sewer overflows or CSOs; when there’s a lot of heavy rain like we’ve had recently, the stormwater goes down into the sewer system and overwhelms the sewage treatment infrastructure. On the one hand, we probably need a total overhaul of our stormwater and sewer systems, which is a municipal-level issue. On the other hand, if New Yorkers are able to hold off taking a shower or not run their dishwasher or do laundry during a heavy rain event, it would greatly reduce the amount of water the system has to deal with (even waiting a few hours can help). Other big issues in cities are reflective glass killing birds, and light pollution messing with insects and migrating birds. While there’s only so much we can do as individuals to address this, if we band together, we can pressure city officials to pass legislation requiring bird-safe glass or reducing light pollution. Or if a group of tenants or office workers organize, they could try to get their home or office buildings to address these issues (and organizing tenants and co-workers is important and valuable for other reasons as well.)

I noticed there was a great outcry when recent city budget cuts targeted public libraries, which is great, we need our libraries! But there wasn’t as much vocal criticism of similar cuts to Parks budgets. So, staying informed and speaking up for parks and other green and blue spaces around the city is also important.

For more information or to make a reservation on Classic Harbor Line’s Abandoned Islands of the East River at Sunset tour, visit sail-nyc.com