Staten Island · Richmond County
Staten Island Greenbelt
Nature Preserve / Trail System
- Location
- Central Staten Island, multiple access points along Richmond Avenue, Rockland Avenue, and Manor Road
- Size
- 2800.00 acres
- Hours
- Dawn to dusk
- Type
- Nature Preserve / Trail System
The Staten Island Greenbelt is a 2,800-acre network of parks, forests, wetlands, and trails stretching across the central ridge of Staten Island, making it one of the largest urban nature preserves in the eastern United States. The Greenbelt is three times the size of Central Park and preserves a continuous corridor of natural habitat across the island.
The Greenbelt encompasses multiple individual parks and preserves including High Rock Park, La Tourette Park, Willowbrook Park, Reed's Basket Willow Swamp, Buck's Hollow, and numerous smaller parcels that together form a connected green landscape. The Greenbelt's trail system offers over 35 miles of hiking paths through varied terrain.
The Greenbelt's forests include mature stands of oak, beech, hickory, and tulip trees growing on the glacially shaped hills of Staten Island's central ridge. The terrain includes kettle ponds, stream valleys, swamp forests, and open meadows that support a remarkable diversity of plant and animal species for an urban area.
The Greenbelt Conservancy, a nonprofit organization, works with NYC Parks and other agencies to manage, protect, and promote the Greenbelt. The Conservancy coordinates trail maintenance, habitat restoration, environmental education, and public programming that connects Staten Islanders to their natural heritage.
The Staten Island Greenbelt is the borough's most defining natural feature: a vast, continuous forest that gives the island its distinctively green character and distinguishes it from every other borough. For the communities that surround it, the Greenbelt provides daily access to wilderness that most city dwellers can only dream of.
The preservation of 2,800 acres of forest and wetland within the boundaries of New York City is an achievement of enormous significance. The Greenbelt ensures that even as Staten Island continues to develop, its ecological heart will remain wild, providing habitat, recreation, and the simple, irreplaceable experience of walking through a forest in the city.