Oyster Habitats with Billion Oyster Project
In 2024, Newtown Creek Alliance and Billion Oyster Project (BOP) completed a multiyear aquatic habitat restoration, education and community engagement initiative in Newtown Creek with a view to develop a field station that serves as a focal point for local environmental stewardship. Blank shell Oyster Cages were installed into the Whale Creek tributary of Newtown Creek to provide habitat for wild oysters and multitude of other species. Check out the local news coverage to learn more about the project.
Bulkhead Habitats with Riverkeeper
In 2018, NCA partnered with Riverkeeper on a unique project to pilot an innovative, low-cost and low-impact method to create intertidal habitat for ribbed mussels within typical steel sheet pile bulkheads. Working with community members and volunteers from Billion Oyster Project and the design firm Situ, we established a working version, currently deployed within the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek.
Read the Project Booklet Here.
Ribbed Mussel Survey
Over the course of 2016, NCA completed an exhaustive survey of the Newtown Creek shorelines noting locations and populations of ribbed mussels which reside in the intertidal zone (area between low and high tides). As native filter feeders, these mussels help remove bacteria and improve water quality. They are a keystone species of a salt marsh, and were once very prevalent within Newtown Creek as evidenced by Mussel Island, a shoal within the Turning Basin area which was dredged out for navigation purposes in the early 20th century.
With limited natural shallow water habitats in the Creek today, these mini cleaning creatures have made use of various shoreline substrates that provide enough surface area to attach themselves to. One of the key findings from our survey was that ribbed mussels can be found throughout the entire Creek, with shoreline surfaces being the main factor in allowing survivability. This survey demonstrates the value in designing shorelines and bulkheads with features that can sustain intertidal communities. Click on images to the right for more documentation.