The Mannahatta Project is a

Wildlife Conservation Society The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...

research project in

historical ecology Historical ecology is a research program that focuses on the interactions between humans and their environment over long-term periods of time, typically over the course of centuries. In order to carry out this work, historical ecologists synthesiz ...

led by landscape ecologist

Eric W. Sanderson Eric W. Sanderson, a Landscape ecology, landscape ecologist anVice President for Urban Conservation Strategyat the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, director of the Mannahatta Project and the author of ''Mannahatta: A Natural History of New ...

that principally ran for 10 years, from 1999-2009, reconstructing the island at the point of first contact between the Dutch ship ''

Halve Maen ''Halve Maen'' (; en, Half Moon) was a Dutch East India Company '' vlieboot'' (similar to a carrack) that sailed into what is now New York Harbor in September 1609. She was commissioned by the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic to ...

'' and the Lenape in 1609. The work culminated in the publication of ''Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City'' in 2009, and has subsequently developed as the Welikia Project and in influence on other environmental initiatives.

Project and book

The project has explored the great biodiversity and ecological complexity through a historical geographic information system based on georeferencing of the British Headquarters Map of 1782 and the Randel Farm Maps made for the

Commissioners' Plan of 1811 The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original design for the streets of Manhattan above Houston Street and below 155th Street, which put in place the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots that has defined Manhattan on its march uptown ...

, while also detailing the formative impact of

Native American use of fire in ecosystems Prior to European colonization of the Americas, indigenous peoples used controlled burns to modify the landscape. The controlled fires were part of the environmental cycles and maintenance of wildlife habitats that sustained the cultures and econom ...

. It culminated in 2009 for the 400th anniversary with the publication of the book ''Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City'', which also includes a speculative look forward to the effect of climate change on New York City and hopeful human adaptations in the year 2409. An exhibition at the

Museum of the City of New York A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

was held the same year. Sanderson estimates that in 1609 the landmass of the land now called Manhattan contained 66 miles of rivers and streams, numerous fishable tidal inlets, 70 kinds of trees, "627 species of plants, 85 species of fish, 32 species of reptiles and amphibians, 233 species of birds and 24 species of mammals." Additionally, Sanderson describes the 1609 landscape as one tended to by the Lenape peoples with geological evidence suggesting the indigenous peoples leveled forests and fields of grasslands, potentially engaged in small scale farming.

Later phase and influence

A follow-up project for 3 years was the Welikia Project ("my good home" in Lenape), examining the whole

geography of New York City The geography of New York City is characterized by its coastal position at the meeting of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in a naturally sheltered harbor. The city's geography, with its scarce availability of land, is a contributing fact ...

, which ran from 2010-2013. A planned sequel book is tentatively titled ''The Welikia Atlas: A Natural History of New York’s Five Boroughs''. The 2007 book '' The World Without Us'' includes a chapter "The City Without Us", inspired by the Mannahatta Project, that imagines a future depopulated New York City. As a benchmark in environmental history, the Mannahatta Project has influenced restoration ecology initiatives in the region. The

Billion Oyster Project The Billion Oyster Project is a New York City-based nonprofit organization with the goal of restoring one billion live oysters to New York Harbor by 2035 through education initiatives. Because oysters are filter feeders, they serve as a natural ...

aims to restore the estuary to its state in 1609.

References

{{reflist 1600s in the environment 2009 non-fiction books Books about New York City Environment of New York City History of Manhattan Lenape Maps of New York City Wildlife Conservation Society Landscape ecology Natural history books Natural history of New York (state) Research projects Environmental history