The New Year is only two weeks old and things at Wave Hill are already off to a great start as we continue to prepare ourselves for the winter snow that is sure to come. As the Curatorial Fellow in the Visual Arts Department, I have had the opportunity to enjoy the gardens and gallery at Wave Hill during the changing seasons from summer to fall and now to winter (though of late it has felt much more like spring than the frigid temperatures we’re used to). Whether it’s due to the beautiful sunsets over the Hudson River and Palisades or the warmth inside the tropical house, winter at Wave Hill is proving to be a very special source of inspiration. With that in mind, what I’m especially excited about is our Winter Workspace program.

For the third consecutive year, artists are taking over Glyndor Gallery and converting it from exhibition space into their own studios. This year, 10 artists, working in a variety of media and formats, will be in residence during two, six-week sessions, from now until late March. The Winter Workspace provides artists not only with a space to create new work and continue ongoing projects, but also the opportunity for daily interaction with a natural environment not often encountered within the urban landscape of New York City. The first group of artists has quickly taken to their studios and begun to make regular appearances in the gardens and Marco Polo Stufano Conservatory, while continuing to explore and learn more about Wave Hill.

Danielle Durchslag at work in her Winter Workspace studio space. Photo credit Joshua Bright

The five artists in the first session, which began January 3 and lasts until February 12, are Carrie Beckmann, a watercolorist who paints directly from nature and can normally be found working in the Conservatory; Danielle Durchslag, who is using cut and layered paper to represent Wave Hill’s natural surroundings; Sabrina Gschwandtner, who has covered her studio floor with 16mm-film strips (some found stock and some she’s shot at Wave Hill) that will be sewn together to create illuminated quilts; Nick Lamia, who is experimenting with plein-air drawings as a source for multi-dimensional abstractions; and Adam Parker Smith, who has been busily painting colorful, wall-sized assemblages of plants and flowers based on observations at Wave Hill. Along with creating their own work, the  artists will also lead public workshops during their time at Wave Hill. More information about the workshops can be found here.

Throughout the course of the Workspace, I will be spending time with each artist individually in their studios and the gardens to see what they’ve been working on. Keep reading Wave Hill’s blog to learn more about each artist, their work, and how they’ve been spending their time at Wave Hill. Check in next week to meet the first artist I’ll spend time with, and our first workshop leader, Nick Lamia.

Just to the right of the front steps to Glyndor Gallery is a rangy shrub that has straggly growth with rather nondescript foliage, and it suffers from the indignity of being completely ignored for most of the year. It is called fragrant wintersweet – and for a very good reason: it does indeed bloom in the winter, and with a wonderful, sweet scent.  In most years, the buds stay tightly closed through December, awaiting the odd mild spell in midwinter – not so unusual, since such periods occur most winters – when they pop open to reveal small, greenish-cream colored flowers that are touched with the slightest blush of deep crimson.  This year, it is blooming exceptionally early, and profusely, a result of a very mild November, following the brief cold snap that gave us the heavy snow fall in late October. 

The flowering time of many plants relies upon “vernalization”, a period of cold, the intensity and duration of which varies according to each species.  Other factors, such as length of daylight time and increasing temperatures, are important, too.  Wintersweet clearly requires only a short spell of cold weather to induce flowering once warmer temperatures return.

This week the crews focused on trail work. What is trail work, you might ask? Mainly it consists of log hunting, making water bars and trail bars and creating woodchips. Mulching and planting are also important to trail work. To give you a taste of what these tasks entail, here are some stories we’d like to share with you. Consider yourself lucky you’re only reading about them!

Once upon a Tuesday, John and Lidia, members of the Canopy Climbers crew, set off on an adventure to gather mulch. Mulch consists of decomposing plants and bark and such. In order to gather it and take it back to our site, we had to use a wheelbarrow.  The mulch pile is located at the bottom of Wave Hill’s Herbert & Hyonja Abrons Woodlands. The Woodlands are on a hill and our site happens to be on top of it. We had to push the wheelbarrow, and our two shovels, down a really rocky path to reach the mulch pile, where we shoveled mulch into the wheelbarrow until we thought it was full, and then pushed it uphill all the way around the Woodlands area and along that really rocky path again. Our crew leader’s reaction when we finally reached her:  “We need more.”

Off we went again down the really rocky path back to the mulch pile. The shoveling recommenced.

 “I think that’s enough,” says Lidia.

“No, we can fit in some more,” John answers. John spoke too soon. Once the wheelbarrow was filled to the brim, he struggled to push it up the path. Feeling guilty, Lidia asked if he needed some help.

“You can push it downhill once I get to the top.”

Satisfied, Lidia continued walking and John continued panting. We reached the summit and John put the wheelbarrow down at the start of the downhill slope, gesturing to Lidia to take over.  It was so heavy! Before we knew it, the wheelbarrow was pulling Lidia down. Whoa, Lidia loses her balance! She had stepped on her pant cuffs and soon the wheelbarrow was on its side and the mulch was spread all over the road. John sighed, but being the gentleman he is, went off to find some hand shovels to fill the barrow back up. Radiating embarrassment, Lidia began filling it up by hand. We reached the crew once more. Our crew leader’s reaction to the new barrow full: “We need more.”  The moral of the story: you will never have enough mulch.

It’s hard to summarize the ins and outs of trail work in just a few paragraphs. It is not necessarily something that can be taught. Most of it is trial and error and improvisation. All the tasks seem trivial, but when it’s all done and you take a step back, you can really see how the fruits of your labor result in a wonderful trail. 

Log hunting is where trail work begins, because you need to find decent-sized, solid logs to lay along the sides of the trail. These are called trail bars and they mark the length and width of the trail, as well as helping to keep soil and leaf litter from washing onto the path. Logs are also used for what we call water bars, which are laid across the trail, angled strategically to divert water from running down the trail, or down whatever slope where the water bars are installed. By helping direct and slow the flow of water we are helping to prevent soil erosion. To put in the trail bars and water bars, we would dig log-sized trenches, place the logs in the trenches and then pack soil around them to hold the logs in place. In some cases, especially where logs were placed on a slope or steep edge, stakes would also be put in to keep the log from rolling out of place. These stakes we fashioned from the branches and limbs of fallen trees, or parts sawn off from our logs.

As we noted previously, mulch is used in large quantities. Along either side of the trail we planted native species to help beautify the trail and to replace all the invasive weeds and such that we pulled. These newly planted native species will help protect the trail because their roots take firm hold in the soil and prevent it from eroding as easily. The large amounts of mulch we used were placed around the trunks of the new trees we planted so that they could provide nutrients for the soil. This will help our plants adapt to their new conditions, as they were previously planted in pots and would need to get used to the change in soil. We had many plants which needed to be mulched, although we were careful to keep the mulch from being too close to the base of the plants, in order to prevent rot.

Most of the native species of trees and shrubs we planted and mulched were planted through jute mesh, a form of netting made of natural, biodegradable materials. We spread it over the soil and staked it in before making a hole in the mesh for planting. The mesh helps hold the soil in place. As it decomposes over time, it leaves a terrain that looks like it had never been worked on.

All in all, that is the tale of trail work. We hope you enjoyed learning about that aspect of the hard, but rewarding work we take part in daily!

Important players in the glorious pageant of spring are the early flowering magnolias.  In his special report on the major trees of Wave Hill, arborist Bill Logan of Urban Arborists notes that our magnolias are “the strongest collection in the garden”. 

To this  ”particularly fine group” came an exciting new addition this spring. In 2009, in honor of the Year of the Trees, Logan prepared a report on Wave Hill’s major trees.  Included with his suggestions for future planting was the addition of a large, overstory tree Magnolia acuminata to help complete this family of trees’ representation.  Our new cucumber magnolia, as it is commonly called, was selected by Scott Canning, Wave  Hill’s Director of Horticulture, along with Brian McGowan, Assistant Director of Horticulture. The site chosen is on the lawn above and east of Wave Hill House. It was planted on April 26. Still full with buds then, it blooms a little bit later than the early ones.

Historically, this type of tree was used by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in its program for developing cultivars, providing the big breakthrough in breeding yellow-flowered magnolias. One of these special cultivars is located south of Wave Hill’s front gate, by the lower entrance to the Herbert & Hyonja Abrons Woodland. There the glorious Magnolia x ‘Elizabeth’ bears creamy yellow, sweetly scented flowers. This grand tree is a cross between M. acuminata and M. denudata.

A venerable specimen of this second variety is the white flowered beauty just inside the main entrance, on the lawn in front of Glyndor House. The day this photo was taken it was enjoying the petal-falling moment. Underneath its tall branches, gradually greening with new leaves as the white petals fall, someone has drawn up a chair for a splendid spring seat.

July 22, 2011―Hey, Wave Hill readers! This is Emanuel, Lidia, Jared and John here, with Emanuel humbly narrating this entry! We’re all brand new interns at Wave Hill’s awesome 2011 Forest Project Summer Collaborative. We are a secretly organized group of bloggers, handpicked from two of the best crews Forest Project has ever seen. For the last three weeks we have been working in the Woodlands at Wave Hill. Our first three weeks have consisted of weeding invasive species, specifically mugwort, garlic mustard, and porcelain berry (Lidia’s worst enemy). To the untrained eye, this task may seem exceedingly easy, but to us masters of the forest, it can be daunting and exhausting at times. The mixture of heat, sweat and dirt is challenging but rewarding. We decided to widen our scope and question whether the other interns felt that this activity brought them closer to nature and to each other or farther away from it, creating a fear of the wild. Our covert team of operatives snuck through our meeting space, gathering information on how our buddies felt. (Seriously, we’re not actually covert, as you’ll see!)

In 98 degree weather, with a blistering sun beating down on our necks and sweat-soaked shirts sticking to our bodies, Lidia and I stumbled down the stairs towards the outdoor area of our home base. Someone had leaked private information that Cynthia’s crew was lurking around there and we immediately took advantage of the news. Once the heavy door slammed behind us, their heads all turned, looks of surprise on their faces.

“You tryin’ to spy on us?” Cynthia joked. Lidia and I shook our heads and shrugged it off as the rest of her crew laughed. (Little did they know that we actually were spying…)

I began the questioning. “So… it has been in the high nineties all week long, you have been weeding nonstop and you have not been paid yet. Doesn’t this make you feel a little distant from nature, and even angered about what you are trying to protect?” Lidia and I, both expecting agreement, were shocked by what we then heard.

Imani told us that for her it was all about the crew. “I LOVE my crew,” she exclaimed, to which everyone around her began nodding in agreement. “I mean, if it was just me out there pulling weeds, yeah of course it would be awful.” Jolifer quickly voiced her agreement.

“We are always singing and dancing, and just having a good time.”

“Doesn’t the heat get to you?” I asked the crew.

“Yeah, it can get hot,” Annarose chimed it.

“I used to hate being outside, but now I really like the outdoors. I am happy just sitting in grass or dirt, and I never would have thought that before,” Jolifer added.

Meanwhile, John and Jared were looking for the other crews. They marched up to Greg’s crew, who were deep in conversation about their skit for the end-of-week Awards Ceremony. The crew saw them and abruptly the conversation ended.

“Are you guys spying on us?” Greg taunted. (We are protective of our skits.)

“We are here to ask some questions about work,” explained Jared.

Giovanni welcomed them. “Sure! Fire away.”

John began to ask question after question, most of them revolving around how everyone felt about weeding and the hard work.

The Q&A ended with the question of all questions. Before heading back to his crew table, Jared asked, “How do you feel about the pay?”

The answers were resoundingly similar. “It’s money. Any kind of money is good.”     

For many of us, this is our first job. We are receiving our first paychecks and dealing with our first responsibilities. We are ready to perform the tasks outlined by our leaders without complaints. Many of us leave Wave Hill every day ready to jump in the shower and take a nap. Little do we realize that every hour we spend in the field has an impact on our attitude toward nature and how we affect our communities. 

Lidia and I, like our peers, are anxious to receive our first checks this Friday. Other than the money, though, one of the benefits of the work I do every day is creating relationships within my crew. We have a number of inside jokes. Since none of my friends from school have been around this summer, I look for company and laughs with the highly entertaining people in my crew. Lidia feels the same. She says that she agrees with Imani the most, because although all Lidia wants to do during lunch is sleep, she’s ready to go back to work when she sits down at her crew table, and is immediately smiling. The guest speakers that have visited Forest Project have created an explosion of questions for Lidia and she wants to know more every day. Not only about nature and which tree is what, but how her actions now and in the future, can help realize the dreams of people like urban arborist Bill Logan and conservation ecologist Eric Sanderson, two heroes who have already been guest speakers at our program this summer.

The favorite comment about the winter décor this year overheard at Wave Hill House was “I can do that!” Yes, indeed, that is a good part of our natural yet festive decorations.  Gathering from your garden is like going to market before you cook a special meal: Let what is available be the inspiration. We have a multitude of sweet gum balls from our Liquidambar trees just up the hill and I gathered a big bag and box full of these when our Nally interns were raking them up this fall.

Taking further inspiration from a Martha Stewart Living article with a wreath made of these ornaments from nature and sprayed silver, Stephanie Ehrlich and I picked our palette of lavender and silver. With consideration of the woodwork and table in the Mark Twain room, we added a vignette of red and brown and silver, wanting to do something a little different than just the standard seasonal colors. Re-purposing is another important consideration and we have a treasure trove of containers from past galas and parties to choose from in the attic of Glyndor House. That is where we found the silver bowls that make the rich warm reds and browns pop, as they say.

Several objects from last winter’s decoration can be seen, and we have decided to make a tradition of having our pair of reindeer reappear each year in a new and different color.

We picked up additions at the 28^th Street Flower Market under the guidance of the mayor of the flower market, our Friends of Horticulture co-chair Maggy Geiger, who generously purchased a new stash of delightfully joyful items to supplement what we already had. Another florist wholesaler, someone  upstate who Laurel Rimmer, our Assistant Director of Public Programs, uses for her program supplies, was a good source for ample ribbons, faux berries and silver sparkle to complete it all.

Above the handsome mantelpiece are three of the pieces in Nature’s Palette, an exhibition of wonderful work created in Wave Hill’s year-round workshops for adults and families.

One more important note is to always bring the decor back from too glitzy to a more natural tone for Wave Hill, such as the twig wreaths that accompany the silver stars on the walls and the beautyberries from the Callicarpa bodinieri for the mantelpiece in the reception area.

Happy holidays!

What a true delight it was for me to leave behind my meetings, office and the flurry of papers to sit under Wave Hill’s magnificent sugar maple tree and read stories to 20 young children! 

This summer, Wave Hill staff are "mystery readers" Tuesday mornings, when we invite children ages three and older to join us outdoors for a story.

Yes, I was the “secret reader” a few Tuesdays ago regaling the preschoolers with the adventures of the runaway bunny and the bird who couldn’t find his mother (my own children’s favorites).  It brought me back to my years of teaching – those sure were “the olden days” – and the real joy in sitting quietly on a magnificent summer day and gazing into the faces of these beautiful children visiting Wave Hill. 

Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s already been four weeks since the Forest Project Summer Collaborative 2010 began!

This week, all four groups started their trailwork. This involved a few steps—first, the interns went log hunting in Riverdale Park, then gathered rocks, and then made trenches for the logs with axe mattocks and shovels. After sawing the logs, they were embedded them in the soil, carefully and meticulously, so that they would be compacted in the soil. 

This was possible with the help of one of this week’s special guests. Marty, pictured here, is an expert in erosion control, especially in meadows. From this experience, members were able to learn the importance of the effects and the benefits of trail bars, water bars, and erosion control in general.

On Wednesday, as on every other Wednesday, Corinne prepared an exciting jeopardy game for the Plant Science students, in order to help them study for their weekly tests. Every week before the game, they get an hour of study, which is very helpful. This week, more than any other week, our students were eager to win the new, fascinating prize—the Taxidermy Trout. After an intense game, Debbie’s crew managed to win the prize, and named it “Troutilla Barry Manilow II.” 

This week was also one full of excitement and trips. Forest Project was given the amazing opportunity to visit Teatown lake Reservation in Ossining, New York, on Tuesday. Forest Project interns had fun canoeing in the pond and removing the invasive species water chestnuts. They also got to see other forest environments and observe how the members of Teatown worked with their ecological restoration. It was a truly fun experience, especially because the work involved the canoeing, something which many had never done before. The next trip that Forest Project is planning is on Friday, when interns will go to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to visit Eagle Street, a rooftop farm. The interns are very excited to see this “growing” trend. They will also get a tour of Newtown Creek in Brooklyn. This creek has been undergoing a restoration, so visiting the site will hopefully give Forest Project more insights on transforming spaces. Also, there is an artist, George Trakas, who is leading this restoration, and this is one of the projects in the exhibition that just opened here in Wave Hill’s Glyndor Gallery.

The second week of the Forest Project Summer Collaborative (FPSC) was also the first week of Plant Science and GIS courses at Lehman College for the FPSC high school interns. Plant Science, a four-credit course, takes place Mondays, while GIS, a three-credit course, is on Wednesdays.  Everyone was eager to finally begin their classes and learn new things. On Monday, July 12, 17 crew members headed towards Lehman College (instead of Wave Hill) at 9am.  When they arrived, they were greeted by Dr. Suroj Tiwari, a Lehman College Adjunct Professor who has worked in Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil researching ethno-botany. The first class consisted of an introduction to the course; the students learned about the intricate structure of plant cells and the details of mitosis, or cell division. Dr. Tiwari also taught his new students the chemistry that is basic to the course, explaining the chemical molecules of plants, such as lipids and proteins.  The important of this information will become clear as the course progresses. Dr. Tiwari explained how each class would reveal the links and the bonds between plants and society.

Let’s not forget about what the GIS interns were doing on this beautiful Monday! While the Plant Science students were furiously taking notes at Lehman College, the GIS students had Wave Hill’s grounds to themselves. They began working on a special project to restore our nursery, which has become overgrown and needs much work. For their special project, GIS students used tools such as rakes and shovels to remove the invasive species that had taken over the nursery, giving the baby native plants, such as dogwood and maples, room to thrive. This was a real emergency rescue mission to aid the plants so dominated by invasives and this incredibly hot summer. After a long day of arduous work, the GIS students cooled off by playing with the hose.

This past week, each work crew has completed a great amount of work on each individual site.  There were storms, which has had both positive and negative effects. On Tuesday, the crew members engaged in a regular day of field work, which included weeding invasive species, building trails and working around an obstacle course of poison ivy and thorny multifloral rose bushes. A sudden downpour of rain sent both Lelia and Debbie’s crews running to the gazebo for shelter. There, the two crews set their tools aside and passed the time playing Korean games until Barry came to the rescue with ponchos. Draping their fashionably colorful ponchos over themselves, the crews headed back to the Wave Hill House, where they watched King Corn, a riveting documentary about the influence of corn on society and the surprising extent to which corn is incorporated in our diets.

The following day, the crews were missing the eight GIS members, who were at Lehman College starting a course in geography and mapmaking. There they engaged in intensive hands-on activities, working with 3D computer models. They also worked with Google Earth, an innovative resource that maps global imagery via satellite. Teaching them is an amazing pair of professors, who happen to teach together and be a married couple. After class, the GIS students relaxed on the college campus and enjoyed picking and eating blueberries. Meanwhile, the Plant Science crew members went through a typical day of field work. After lunch, however, a downpour of rain obstructed their work, so they studied for their own college course at Lehman College, through an engaging game of Botany Jeopardy arranged by Corinne, Environmental Educator and Plant Science Facilitator. The winners of the game received pots as prizes.

This Thursday, the crew members experienced their first “site shuffle,” with three crew members rotating to another crew to see how the other sites are like and how each is coming along. Mikey’s site, for example, has many garlic mustard plants, a pest that plagues Wave Hill’s grounds, but it needed more trail work than weeding. Two of the crew members went “log hunting,” searching for logs that weren’t too rotten and could be used as trail bars to mark the trail edges or as water bars to help prevent erosion. The log-hunting expedition, however, was hampered by the storm; the dampness made it hard to find good enough logs, and one of the two logs that were brought back turned out to be rotten. However, it was “enlightening and fun,” as one of the crew members put it.

This week, crew members working at the Day Lilies’ site have been weeding honeysuckle veins which are incredibly long and seem as if they will never end. Another type of weed common to the site is the first- and second-year garlic mustard. First-year garlic mustard is tiny, so it is difficult to weed; the group weeds it together so it can get done quickly. Other unforgettable weeds: porcelain berry, wine berry and multiflora rose (which has been nicknamed Mr. F.). Porcelain berry grows on a tree’s canopy and chokes it, eventually killing the tree. This vine has to be pruned from the bottom and the roots should be pulled out. Wine berry and multifora rose usually grow near each other. These invasive plants are herbaceous, meaning they die out at the end of the growing season, and are very thorny. For many of the crew members it was a challenge having to fight the thorns and take all the bushes down. While some crew members worked on weeding, others were in charge of pulling out trees like the sycamore maples. The group as a whole accomplished a lot, and the site looks very different now. There is more space for mulching and planting to be done. By the end of this week, the Day Lilies crew is hoping to start doing some trail work on the site, but there is still a lot that needs to be done.

At Debbie’s worksite the crew worked diligently on the removal of the few weeds remaining. Located west of Wave Hill House around the border of Riverdale Park, Debbie’s worksite is low lying and prone to being swampy and moist.  This past week, the dampness was more pronounced due to the storms during the week.  This area has been a mecca for invasive species, such as multifloral rose (Mr. F), garlic mustard, and bishop’s weed. Hiding between invasive and native plants, poison ivy has nestled in surreptitiously. To prevent an increase in this potentially dangerous ivy, Debbie’s crew placed mugwort over the P.I to suffocate it and halt its growth. Debbie’s interns also placed mulch over areas they had weeded. The distinctively foul smell of leaf mulch sickened workers, but the end result will eventually nourish the soil beneath it. Hopefully, this will restore the site’s ecosystem and make the soil a lot healthier for the future.

At Nadilyn’s site, the main objective is to pull out all the mugworts in the meadow, which took up more than half of the field. Behind these pesky, invasive weeds laid beautiful, alluring flowers that did not get enough sunlight or attention. Only after having worked for two weeks were we able to remove all the mugworts and discover these beautiful flowers. The good news is that the pulled mugworts are not all that useless―they are high in demand in places where poison ivy is abundant, as at Debbie’s site. The outcome of all the hard work and effort was more than satisfying. By Thursday, Nadilyn’s crew had created several interconnecting paths to serve as a shortcut to the forest and also had a sufficient work area. Now that the not-so-friendly mugworts are gone and the flowers are visible, there has been a significant increase in the number of butterflies and bees in the meadow. On this particular Thursday, we decided to work in the forest next to the meadow for a change. We pulled out second-year garlic mustard and multifloral rose bushes, which were much easier to pull out than the mugworts because the soil was damp.   It is exciting that these new pathways will create an opportunity for visitors to walk through the middle of the meadow and experience it in a whole new way.  

Stay tuned for next week’s blog, when we will have videos of the work sites!

July 11, 2010:  Looking out across the lawns, into the woodlands and then out towards the Hudson River and the Palisades, I am always overwhelmed and awestruck by the view. Wave Hill is such a beautiful and amazing place. The fact that the Forest Project Summer Collaborative (FPSC) interns can have a part in keeping Wave Hill such a beautiful and awe inspiring place is a wonderful opportunity.

July 5th, during 105 degree weather, many people were home in their air-conditioning, recovering from their Fourth of July festivities. Not so with the Forest Project interns. They were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Wave Hill grounds by 9am, some even earlier, and eager to begin their summer of forest restoration and maintenance. Starting on the vast lawn below Wave Hill house, in the already warm weather, interns tossed a ball of yarn from person to person forming a web in the center of the circle, as they braved the heat, memorized names and got to know fun facts about each other. Team-building games continued as the day progressed and interns put together tents while blindfolded, did a creative drawing activity and worked together to use dragon cookies to make their way across a field, without the dragon snatching any.

The week continued, as did the soaring temperatures, but this did not stop the determined interns and their Crew leaders from getting in as much work as possible on their sites. The first Tuesday morning after orientation day, crews were at their sites uprooting mugwort, battling garlic mustard and attempting to tame extremely low, hanging branches. It was way too hot to work in the field that afternoon, so more indoor bonding and team-building games took place, including a Forest Project favorite, Mafia, played in two larger groups.

Although site work was done only in the morning, the four crews accomplished over a day’s amount of work. Heaps of weeds and pruned branches piled high at each site, bags of second-year garlic mustard filled dumpsters and Cushman load after Cushman load, as well as a few wheel barrow loads, and were then taken down to the compost pile. During that first half-day of field work alone, the Forest Project interns far surpassed our expectations, especially considering the high temperatures.

Did the pace of work slow during the week? Of course not! Crew leaders and interns had set a standard with their work from day one and had no problem being even more productive with each passing day. I would say that the first week at Wave Hill was incredible, and by Friday it was evident that FPSC is not only about hardcore forest and ecological restoration, but also about education, fun and forging lifelong friendships.