The Living Marsh is a documentation of the animals, birds, waterfowl, and the environment of the Salt Marsh Nature Center. The Salt Marsh Nature Center is an ecological restoration project that has reclaimed nature’s ecosystem. The tidal marsh is a time capsule in American history incorporating political transitions and their effect upon its ecosystem.

   In 1665 the marsh depicted wide tracts of green grassy fertile salt marsh meadows, filled with plants, and wildlife that inhabited the marsh. 

   By 1935 the marsh had become a dump, major land filling from 1945 to 1962 buried the marshes around Gerritsen Creek under eight feet of garbage and construction debris. Unlawful dumping of chemicals, cars, refrigerators, stoves, tires, pollutants from leaky septic systems, and runoffs from oil stained roadways contributed to the environmental degradation and water pollution of the living marsh.

   The Salt Marsh Nature Center has reclaimed nature’s ecosystem through the ecological restoration of its salt marsh by the City of New York Parks and Recreation, New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Meadow's Dawn