Freshkills Park Talks: Learning from Barren Island and Dead Horse Bay

Once a pristine barrier island, Barren Island played host to horse rendering plants and fish oil factories in the 19th century; the island was connected to Brooklyn by filled land in1920s to create Floyd Bennett Field. A landfill established in 1953 began spilling its contents into Dead Horse Bay in the early 1980s, leaving thousands of artifacts along the beach daily. The area is now part of the Gateway Recreation Area and draws year-round explorers and amateur historians combing the beach for treasures from the past.

Howard Warren teaches elementary science at the Trinity School in Manhattan. He was first introduced to Barren Island and Dead Horse Bay in the early ‘80s and has since become one of the City’s foremost experts on the area. He has integrated its study in a variety of engaging environmental curricula, bringing students and their parents to the site to clean up the shore, collect fish for study, test the water chemistry and study artifacts. Mr. Warren will discuss the site’s history and politics and share lessons learned through long-term, collaborative investigation of the site and its secrets.

Freshkills Park Talks is a lecture series on topics related to the reclamation and development of Freshkills Park. The series is organized by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation in conjunction with a variety of citywide partners. Visit the Freshkills Park project page for more information.