Tivoli Lake

Preserve
Environmental Protection Fund
Parks, Stewardship, and Urban/Underserved Communities

Funding Needs:
$390,000.
Tivoli Lake Preserve
The Tivoli Lakes Preserve in the
Arbor Hill section of Albany, New
York is an outstanding example of
urban green space. It is
significant as a nature sanctuary
that despite abuse from
surrounding nuisances and by
activities in the past has been
able to preserve its beauty. It
provides solitude and recreation
for citizens wishing to take a few
minutes to escape the pressures of urban life. There are 8,500
residents living within 1 mile of the preserve.
The W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center (WHBEEC),
with extensive community input, developed the Tivoli Lakes Preserve
Management Plan to provide community-based direction for the
planning, development, and
maintenance of Tivoli Preserve.
Although the property is owned by
the City of Albany, and is one of 11
major City Parks, it has been
inadequately maintained, for the
past two decades. WHBEEC has
stepped into this void and has, for
the past 8 years, provided the
stewardship and resources needed
to make this urban jewel available for all to enjoy. We have invested
large amounts of our operating
capital and staff hours to furnish the
infrastructure needed for public
access. WHBEEC has recruited and
coordinated the activities of
hundreds of community volunteers
who have donated thousands of
hours removing trash, planting trees,
building trails and trimming
vegetation.
A Plan for Community Based Stewardship
W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education
Center will apply for direct funding from state
Environmental Protection Funds to bring the
Preserve up to its full potential, and seek “EPF
line item funding” for future operational and
maintenance costs. The initial funding needed is
$390,000.00, most of which are “one time”
costs related to infrastructure improvements and
equipment. The on going operational costs will
be about $70,000.00 a year.

Our proposal of the Tivoli Lake Preserve Community Based Stewardship is an innovative
mechanism to serve as Tivoli Preserve’s monitor of management issues as they relate to
the operation of the preserve.
The benefits of Community Based Stewardship are:
• Management of the Preserve is in the hands of those who benefit from its use
• Analyzes and implements environmental justice guidelines
• The Tivoli site will have the community input and direction that were previously
missing for proper development, use, and management.
• Fosters transparent procedures and processes that are openly accountable to other
observers and interests
• Resolves issues in a manner that produces community based stewardship
• Creates new and lasting relationships for identifying and serving the common
interest thru collaboration
• Driven and sustained by mutual discovery and learning, empowerment, creativity,
and institutional support for responsible local stewardship
• Commits to shared goals and objectives individually and organizationally
Tivoli has outstanding potential as an urban wildlife preserve. As
originally intended it has the capacity to serve as a model for other
inner-city communities to establish similar facilities. The urban wildlife
park concept was conceived to encourage the use of existing
undeveloped urban open space. Such a concept recognized the need
to increase awareness and enjoyment of wildlife by urban residents
having little or no contact with their natural surroundings. The Tivoli
Preserve has vast potential for nature observation, ecological research,
fishing, and demonstration of wildlife habitat management concepts
and enjoyment of the outdoors in the midst of a major metropolitan
area. The preservation of ecological habitat within urban limits is
becoming increasingly important as suburban sprawl steadily
continues to consume natural habitats of the countryside.

Tivoli Lake Preserve Revitalization Project

The Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP)
vouches for the importance for urban preserves: “The survival of our
urban centers into the future depends upon the ability of the cities to
become safe, clean and enjoyable places to live. An essential part of
making this possible is an increased effort to revitalize the urban
preserves.”
The Tivoli Lake Preserve is essential to the City of Albany since the
disparity of open green space and areas of recreation are clearly
evident in the communities of Arbor Hill, North Albany, West Hill and
Sheridan Hollow.

The project goals are:

1) To enhance the wildlife habitat of the ecosystem at Tivoli
Preserve and ensure that it is protected and managed for future
generations to use and enjoy as an outdoor classroom and
recreational area.
2) To encourage community involvement in the process of restoring
and managing Tivoli Preserve such that local community
residents become stewards of the Preserve and surrounding
area.
3) To create a stronger awareness of the ecological and historical
value of Tivoli Preserve and the surrounding
area through environmental education,
interpretation, and outreach.
This grant will purchase the trails equipment and
construction materials to provide the following
infrastructure improvements.
• 3.5 miles of trails have to be widened,
restored and graded for handicap
access.
• A steel bridge will be erected over the
lake out-flow to connect the main
trails.
• A wildlife observation deck is to be
installed on the lakeshore.
• Floating islands will be placed in Tivoli
Lake to improve the water quality.
• The Preserve has many areas that are
overrun with invasive species. This
grant will provide a concentrated
effort to eliminate the Knotweed, Phragmite, Purple
Loosestrife and Locust Clones
• An outdoor amphitheater is
to be constructed for class
instruction by visiting
schools.
• Control erosion - Erosion
often occurs along various
sections of the trails after
heavy rains. Water bars
need to be installed where
 water regularly flows down the gradient of the trail creating
washout areas and channels down the middle of the trail.
• Construction of board walks over low-ground, frequently
saturated sections of trail using ecotiles will greatly
improve the quality of trails and minimize the impact of
hiking during wet seasons.
• Build steps at the steep and frequently flooded sections of
the trails. Sections of the current trail systems are
hazardous to pass because of the unstable footing at steep
gradients.
• Install pole mounted high resolution pan tilt zoom video
cameras and underwater cameras for remote and web
based wildlife observation

U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Rendering of Tivoli Preserve

Tivoli Lake Bio-remediation
Abstract:
Various studies have investigated the use of floating wetland platforms to enhance
wetland capacity; those studies have determined the specific contributions of microbes
and have quantified the microbial component of BioHaven® Floating Islands for aerobic
removal of ammonium, anoxic removal of nitrate, and simultaneous aerobic/anoxic
removal of ammonium, nitrate and phosphate. It has been determined that the microbes
growing within a unit volume of BioHaven® Floating Island material are capable of
removing 10,600 mg of nitrate per day, 273 mg of ammonium per day, and 428 mg of
phosphate per day, where the unit island volume is defined as having a top surface area of
1.0 ft2 and a thickness of 0.6 ft.
 What is a
floating island?

BioHaven
floating islands
are buoyant mats,
planted like a
garden and
launched onto a
waterway. They
are made from a
matrix of fibers
which look like a
pot-scrub or
loofah. The
matrix is
filtration material
made from 100%
recycled plastic,
from drink
bottles, which use the most inert plastic available. Layers of matrix are bonded together
with foam, which also provides buoyancy.

They can be made in virtually any shape or size. Large islands and walkways are
constructed using a modular system, reinforced for extra buoyancy, yet flexible enough to
move with the water.
Floating islands
can be launched
into any
waterway, be it
pond, lake,
stream, effluent
pond, lagoon,
embayment - any
waterway will
benefit from a
floating island,
even the ocean.

They are usually

anchored or
tethered in place,
though they can
be left to float
around freely.

BioHavens were inspired by Nature, in particular, by the floating peat bogs of Northern
Wisconsin, which are associated with clean water and great fishing. Using Nature to
cleanse Nature is a form of Biomimetics.
 BioHavens do
five things:

1. They remove
pollutants from a
waterway,
including
nitrates,
phosphates,
ammonia and
heavy metals

2. They provide
critical riparian
edge habitat – in
fact, new land
mass for use by
all kinds of
creatures, from
microbes to humans

3. They sequester carbon and other greenhouse gases

4. They provide wave mitigation and erosion control

5. They beautify a waterscape

BioHavens are planted with sod,

garden plants or wetland plants and
launched onto a water body.

There the plants are allowed to grow

naturally, and, as they develop, their
roots grow through the matrix and
into the water below. Over time, a
natural eco-system evolves..

BioHavens, and the plants that grow

through them, provide surface area
for microbes to thrive. Microbes
remove pollutants of all kinds, from
the nutrients caused by fertilizer run-
off and organic waste, to
pharmaceuticals such as estrogen, to
heavy metals, such as copper and
zinc.

BioHavens are a concentrated

floating wetland – the huge surface
area of fibers provides many times
more surface area than an equivalent
stretch of bare wetland. Surface area is the key factor for microbial activity to take place,
and microbes (bacteria) are the key to removing contaminants from the water. Plants and
their roots are also important, but more for the extra surface area the roots provide than
for any nutrient uptake the plants themselves account for.

BioHavens were invented eight years ago, have been successfully trialed for five years
and have been on the market since July 2005. They represent a natural, convenient and
cost-effective solution for some of the most intractable and expensive problems on the
planet.

W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center

596 Manning Blvd.
Albany, New York 12210
(518) 463-9760