Greenhouse Gang is back! Join us May 5th as we kick off Spring with our first hands-on event!
NCA welcomes volunteers and horticulture enthusiasts to help us expand our native nursery, propagated from locally collected wild seed. Plants grown in our greenhouse are used to supplement our restoration projects around the Creek, maintain the rooftop meadows at Kingsland Wildflowers, and integrated into our Newtown Native Nursery. This is an ideal opportunity for those looking to support an attractive habitat for our local ecology.
Come join us for Open Hours at Kingsland Wildflowers — learn about the green roofs, native plants, and an opportunity to buy native plants!
We’re excited to bring back our Autumn Open Hours and give the community Newtown Native Nursery hours to amplify your greenspace in the Fall!
Come join NCA select Saturdays from September 5 to September 19 to see the green roofs at Kingsland Wildflowers and explore (and purchase) plants from our Native Plant Nursery.
More details via Eventbrite
Join NCA and @nycwater at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk Phase 3 for a clean up + planting volunteer event! This is a perfect opportunity to connect with DEP’s community coordinators and learn more about the Nature Walk.
The evening will include the removal of aggressive plant material and planting of 400 native perennials. Whether you’re an experienced gardener, planting for the first time, or simply looking for a meaningful way to support our pollinators and create a biodiverse habitat, everyone is welcome. This is a great opportunity to learn about native plants, connect with neighbors, and take part in meaningful, community-based environmental stewardship.
More details via Eventbrite
Join NCA for a Creek-side hang as we close out summer with TINA, our experimental saltmarsh tank.
TINA is our experimental saltmarsh tank, planted with hundreds of native SparTINA alterniflora grasses and Atlantic ribbed mussels. For the last several months, tens of thousands of gallons of Creek water have passed through the tank, allowing the mussels to feed on excess nitrogen, plankton, and bacteria from sewage pollution.
As we head into Fall and the trial phase comes to an end, we’ll be returning all the marsh grasses and ribbed mussels to active restoration sites within Newtown Creek.
Curious to learn more about the next steps for TINA and other intertidal restoration projects in Newtown Creek? Join us Creek-side at Kingsland Wildflowers, as we look reflect on this project and envision cleaner Creek futures.
Tasty NA beverages and vegetarian food will be served! More info and registration on Eventbrite.
Explore the impact and legacy of the Greenpoint Oil Spill and Meeker Avenue Plume
Join Newtown Creek Alliance for a walking tour through Greenpoint and East Williamsburg, tracing the footprint of one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history and the more recently designated Meeker Avenue Plume Superfund site. We’ll walk the streets above these underground contamination sites, discussing how decades of industrial refining left millions of gallons of petroleum and toxic solvents beneath homes and businesses and what ongoing cleanup and community advocacy look like today.
Along the way we will visit sites tied to the spill’s discovery and remediation, pass through residential and industrial blocks still affected by vapor intrusion testing, and discuss the connections between this contamination and Newtown Creek itself, a federally designated Superfund site itself.
This tour is free, space is limited. We ask that all attendees fill out a liability waiver and photo consent form prior to joining, found here.
Join Newtown Creek Alliance or a unique walking tour to discover the lack of waterfront access along the Queens side of the waterway. Along the way we will visit decommissioned rail lines, community gardens, fenced off shorelines, multiple bridge crossings, and discuss the various opportunities for creating access and environmental restoration along this long neglected and polluted waterbody. We ask that all attendees wear closed toe shoes and be prepared for walking on rugged industrial terrain.
In total, the walk is approx. 2.25 miles long. This tour is free, space is limited. We ask that all attendees fill out a liability waiver and photo consent form prior to joining, found here.
Newtown Creek Alliance invites you to Plank Road for our participation in City of Forest Day!
City of Forest Day is an annual day of activities across the city to raise awareness of the importance of the New York City urban forest, and the essential role New Yorkers play every day in caring for the “lungs” of our city.
Newtown Creek Alliance invites you to join us at Plank Road to help plant trees! Plank Road is a unique street end site in Maspeth, Queens, that we have been working to restore for both wildlife and local workers/residents alike. We aim to engage folks with this rare public Creek access point through hands-on projects that can help improve environmental conditions along the shore and in the Creek itself.
Register via Eventbrite
Past Events
Join Newtown Creek Alliance and ISCP staff on September 8th for a guided exhibition and walking tour presented in conjunction with Hans Rosenström: Conspirare, on view at ISCP. This approximately 2.5-mile roundtrip route follows the industrial Newtown Creek waterfront to Plank Road, offering close encounters with one of New York City’s most environmentally complex landscapes. Along the way, Gus Perry, Restoration and Marine Projects Coordinator at Newtown Creek Alliance, will discuss the ecological and industrial histories of the Creek that informed Rosenström’s site-specific installation. The program begins and concludes at ISCP, where participants can experience the exhibition, including an immersive sound installation featuring field recordings of ribbed mussels at Newtown Creek’s Plank Road.
The event begins at 5:30pm at ISCP with an introduction to the exhibition from curator Melinda Lang, ISCP’s Director of Exhibitions and Programs. The group will depart from ISCP by 6:00pm for the walking tour and then return back to ISCP by 7:00pm. A short reception with refreshments will follow.
More info and registration is available on Eventbrite.
Join us Creekside on Thursday, August 13, at Kingsland Wildflowers for a celebratory and educational evening with our summer TIDALS Fellows! Meet & learn about the wild animals who call Newtown Creek home, engage with the Creek Cart, and learn about the amazing fieldwork our cohort has been working on all summer long. 🌱🐟
Refreshments and veggies hot off the grill will be provided. 🌽🍅 All are welcome!
Thank you to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Office of Environmental Justice for funding this program!
Join us for the 10th Annual Kingsland Wildflowers Festival — a free family-friendly event in Greenpoint, Brooklyn!
- Explore our rooftop wildflower meadows
- Experience art installations, performances and live music
- Learn about native wildlife and ecology, including Newtown Creek
- Engage with participating community and environmental organizations
- Buy native plant species
- Enjoy food and drinks with friends and family
2026 Festival Programming TO BE ANNOUNCED
NCA will be hosting Creek Animals HPPC will also be hosting a Rip-rap cleanup and LIC community boathouse will host a walk-up public paddle.
From 12-3PM the LIC community boathouse & North Brooklyn Community Boathouse will host a walk-up public paddle to kayak on the water. The public paddle is walk-up only and first come first serve, we reccommend coming early to secure your spot.
From 12-4PM the Newtown Creek Alliance will be hosting a drop-in Creek Animals inside the the Queens Landing Boathouse to meet animals from our aquariums that live in Newtown Creek while learning about water quality issues, pollution, and restoration efforts.
From 1-3PM Hunters Point Parks Conservancy staff will lead a volunteer riprap cleanup, talking about the role of riprap versus bulkheads for resilience, the impact of plastic waste on our waterways, and they type of trash we’re seeing, followed by a discussion of microplastics in the environment and the impact they have on wildlife and human health. We will meet to start cleaning up the rip-rap at 1PM or so and then will continue to talk about our findings at the Queens Landing Boathouse and Environmental Center. You can register for the rip-rap cleanup here: https://signup.com/go/mgKYDXE.
Explore the nighttime ecology of Newtown Creek with hands-on marine science, critter ID, microscopy, and more at Queens Landing Boathouse!
Join Newtown Creek Alliance for Critters After Dark, an evening of hands-on marine science and nighttime waterfront discovery at the Queens Landing Boathouse in Hunters Point South Park. Taking place just after sunset and during high tide, this free event invites participants to explore the ecology of Newtown Creek after dark. The evening will kick off with a brief introduction to the creek’s unique environment, touching on topics like algal blooms and bioluminescence.
Particpants will rotate through interactive stations including live plankton tows and microscopy, flashlight waterside exploration, a hands-on critter ID challenge, and a deep dive into Billion Oyster Project’s restoration work. Educators and staff will be onsite to guide activities, answer questions, and share resources
Free and open to the public; recommended for adults and curious learners.