Bay Ridge Parrots Face Uncertain Future

Two wild Quaker Parrots at Bay Ridge's Dust Bowl.

The wild parrots which have long lived around one of Brooklyn's last sandlot baseball fields, an area dubbed "The Dust Bowl," will soon face down a $3.2 million renovation of the field that will significantly alter their ecosystem. As reported in the Brooklyn Courier Life newspaper, the project, whose funding was secured by City Councilman Vincent Gentile, involves construction of a "secure synthetic multi-use field consisting of new dugouts, new accessible entrances, six new handicap-accessible drinking fountains and new synthetic turf" and is scheduled to begin this Fall. After completion, the Dust Bowl area will be off-limits to the public, and only be open to authorized sports teams supplied with keys.

While advocates for the project have claimed that steps will be taken to protect the wild parrots during construction, it is highly troubling that synthetic turf will now replace what has been a natural environment of sand and turf, upon which wild birds, including the parrots, regularly forage upon. Synthetic turf is made from recycled rubber tires, and physicians have already raised concerns that it becomes toxic under certain conditions. It cannot be known what long-term effects this will have on the local fauna, or, for that matter, the human population. Losing open access to the Dust Bowl, one of Brooklyn's last genuine "sand lot" fields, is also a concern. Why must humanity always insist on replacing something natural and wild with something artificial and sterile?