Former A&A Landfill

About the Program
The former A&A Landfill program seeks to restore and maintain grassland habitats across the 18-acre site for a variety of native grass and shrub land habitats. The site is managed by CSX Transportation on Staten Island, New York. Of the 18-acre area, 14 acres have been maintained in grasslands since 2014 through the use of standard vegetation control methods including mowing, delayed mowing, chemical treatments and reseeding. The area is actively monitored both for vegetation responses and wildlife use.  

Practices and Impacts

• A strategic mowing program with established no-mow zones maintains areas of the site as grassland, while minimizing the carbon footprint associated with maintaining those habitats.
• Team members work to establish pollinator habitat enhancement patches within the grassland to increase the presence and species diversity of native flowering plants used by a variety of pollinators.
• The on-site efforts also include maintenance of nesting habitat (i.e., nesting boxes) for American kestrels, eastern bluebirds and tree swallows. 
• The team actively manages an 18-acre area for invasive herbaceous broadleaf plants, such as Japanese knotweed and common mugwort, invasive grasses like phragmites and invasive woody vines such as Japanese honeysuckle. Team members utilize a combination of chemical and mechanical control methods.