My colleagues and I have been studying Tibbetts Brook as part of our investigations into the historical ecology of New York City, which started out with the Mannahatta Project, about Manhattan, and have now expanded to cover all five boroughs of New York city. Historical ecology is important for urban sustainability because it places our current perspective on the city into a natural history context; it tells us how nature makes places; it helps expand our imagination; and finally, it helps us set metrics for sustainability success.
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