With enclaves such as these, the city now has 77,580 acres of green space, including wetlands, cemeteries, parks and forests, according to the Natural Areas Conservancy, a nonprofit formed under Mayor Mike BloombergвЂ™s administration in 2012. McMackinвЂ™s direction, the park, built on East River piers, is now home to a growing population of rare bees, moths, pollinating flies, butterflies and birds. вЂњNew York City has done a really good job of reclaiming and building postindustrial habitats, and we have incredibly intact wetlands and grasslands,вЂќ said Rebecca McMackin, the director of horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Ganser said such a move would be transformative. Eric Adams, the Democratic mayoral candidate, has said he is committed to raising the budget to 1 percent, while Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa said in a debate earlier this month that he would raise it to 2 percent. Park funding has remained at 0.6 percent of the total budget for decades, while other cities spend 2 to 4 percent, Mr.

вЂњParks should operate as sponges, but instead they are seeing massive flooding,вЂќ said Adam Ganser, the executive director of the nonprofit New Yorkers for Parks. Last month, the remnants of Hurricane Ida overwhelmed parts of the city, killing at least 13 New Yorkers. Heintz said.Д«ut while parks officials say they are excited by these ecological breakthroughs, many cite concerns about the cityвЂ™s relatively low parks budget, which they say poses a threat to natural habitats because of deteriorated drainage systems and understaffed maintenance crews.ДЇunding is more critical than ever, said Ms. New York is now вЂњthe greenest big city on earth,вЂќ Ms. This has included planting more trees, wildflowers and grasses that are native to the area, banning pesticides in parks and spending billions on converting former landfills and industrial wastelands into nature sanctuaries. But wildlife needs habitat, and the animalsвЂ™ return, according to Kathryn Heintz, the executive director of the NYC Audubon Society, is because of the cityвЂ™s 40-year effort to expand and clean up its parks, rivers, forests and wetlands. It would be easy to surmise that nature blossomed and the creatures came out during New York CityвЂ™s lockdown last year. There have been bats and endangered butterflies, wild and rare native bees a coyote in Central Park beavers, salamanders and leopard frogs in Staten Island a bobcat, mink and several foxes in the Bronx, along with endangered alewife herring and American eels traversing fish ladders in the Bronx River while hungry osprey and egrets lurk nearby large wild oysters and tiny sea horses at piers along the Hudson River baby damselflies, the worldвЂ™s most endangered sea turtles and a baby seal in Queens and exotic insects not seen in decades in Brooklyn. This winter they were in places you havenвЂ™t seen them in generations, and they were hunting in Prospect Park.вЂќ Now there are bald eagles all over the city. You didnвЂ™t even see raccoons there were pigeons and rats and squirrels, that was it. вЂњThere were never red-tailed hawks or Peregrine falcons or bald eagles.

Benepe, now the president of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Still, he is stunned at what he has seen around town lately. Adrian Benepe has spent much of his life promoting the outdoors in New York City, from serving as a park ranger in the 1970s to becoming the parks commissioner some 30 years later.

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