Van Cortlandt Park’s volunteer forest crew meets every Wednesday morning to pull invasives and restore the woods along the park’s northern edge. It’s free, it’s outdoors, and it’s the closest thing most of us will get to real forestry work without leaving the five boroughs.
- Next session: Wed Sept 2, 9 am–noon (also Sept 9 and 16)
- Where: meet at Woodlawn Playground, Van Cortlandt Park (Bronx)
- What: forest restoration and invasive species removal with park volunteers
- Cost: free
- Also in the rotation: Trail Work Thursdays (9 am–noon, VCPA Learning Garden) and Forest Fridays (9 am–noon, Van Cortlandt Classic Playground) at the same park
Three volunteer mornings a week in one of the city’s biggest parks — if you’ve been looking for a low-friction way to do something useful outdoors, this is it. A few hours with your hands in the dirt, and the woods around Woodlawn are measurably healthier for it.