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NARR: Staten Island is an environmental paradise. It is home to a number of rare plants, one of which is the Torrey's mountain mint. The plant with its short stalks and lovely white flowers that bloom in late summer, is a globally endangered species and the rarest plant in New York City.
On Staten Island, Torrey's mountain mint, grows in an area that is now being cleared to make way for a shopping center. The shopping center will include a Home Depot, a Target and a Bed, Bath & Beyond store. David Burg is the founder and President of an environmental organization called WildMetro. He says that the site's developers are not respecting the 40-foot zone buffer strip that was created to protect the rare plants and development has gone right to the edge of the zone.
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It looks like they came through and leveled everything. It looks like they have dropped a bomb. They have almost bulldozed what was once rich, lush and very unique. This is an area that I had become very fond of and now we are seeing stumps and mountains of earth and just an area that has been cleared and devastated.
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Wildmetro did fight to save the woodland. In October 2004, it filed a lawsuit against the shopping center project but withdrew it when the lawyers for the developers suggested that they would be willing to negotiate. However, the talks did not not occur and Wildmetro was left with no alternative but to watch the destruction of the site and the slow death of the island's once-pristine environment. David Burg says that the destruction of Charleston Woods raises the question of what New Yorkers want to see Staten Island become.
TAPE: The real key issue is what sort of city we want to live in. This is one of the last areas where there was a large parcel of city owned land that wNARR: Staten Island is an environmental paradise. It is home to a number of rare plants, one of which is the Torrey's mountain mint. The plant with its short stalks and lovely white flowers that bloom in late summer, is a globally endangered species and the rarest plant in New York City.
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For many residents of Staten Island watching the bulldozers at work at Charleston Woods has been heartbreaking. Adrienne Stakofsky has lived in Staten Island for 19 years and the destruction saddens her. The owls, the wild deer and the woods were what made Staten Island special, she says, but now with new construction everywhere, she feels that the island is losing its charm.
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Little by little we are losing our open spaces. We are not against development. However, we hope that we can choose areas that are going to be developed wisely. There are places that have already been built or is home for industrial use. We hope those places can be used and we do not have to destroy open spaces. I feel that the consequences will be felt for generations to come.
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With most of the woods already cleared for the shopping center, David Burg says there is nothing that the group can do now for that area. But there are many other spots in Staten Island that are being threatend. The battle for Charleston Woods, though, has helped bring together local environmental groups and residents to preserve the island. Six local environmental groups have formed the Coalition to Save Staten Island.
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It came about because one could see that there are a lot of threats. Not just this one development but there's development across the street, by the waterfront and developments on almost all of the unprotected open space. And its now a really urgent situation if we are going to protect anything. I felt we needed a stronger voice on staten island and the coalition was one way to get it. The coalition is still new and small and growing and we are yet to win any victories but