The 260-acre Clay Pit Ponds Bird Conservation Area on Staten Island contains wetlands, ponds, streams, woodlands, fields, and sandy barrens that provide critical breeding grounds, migratory stopovers, food, and shelter for birds and other wildlife. One hundred and eighty bird species have been identified here, including 57 species of Neotropical migratory songbirds. Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve was established in the 1970s through a series of land acquisitions in cooperation with local and state agencies, including land adjacent to Sandy Ground, the historic Black community settled in 1825 by freed Staten Island slaves and the first Free Black Community in New York State. The park opened to the public in 1980 and is the only designated state park preserve in New York City and one of five in the state. The land also reflects an industrial past: after emigrating from Germany to New York City following the Great Fire of 1835, Balthasar Kreischer built nearby brickworks in the 1850s using clay mined from what is now the preserve, and the brickworks and large-scale clay mining ended in 1927. Because this habitat is surrounded by dense development, it functions as an island within an island, where large contiguous habitat is especially important for sustaining bird populations and diversity. Human development has also altered the ecological balance by increasing some predators such as domestic cats, raccoons, and skunks and by encouraging invasive non-native plants that threaten habitat integrity. New York's Bird Conservation Area Program, enacted in 1997, was the first of its kind in the United States and was created to protect bird populations and habitats through agency planning, management, and research. Clay Pit Ponds includes significant ecological communities, notably a red maple-sweetgum swamp, one of only seven examples in New York State, and post oak-blackjack oak barrens, the only confirmed occurrence of that community in the state, helping make the area an important refuge and migratory oasis for a significant diversity of birds.
