To most people, New York City is soaring skyscrapers, roaring traffic, the crush and noise of millions of people living and working in a relatively small space. Amid the concrete, crowds and cars there is little room for nature.
But inside the city limits are nearly 26,000 acres of parkland, almost 7000 of them natural, undeveloped lands.

This guide to the city's wetlands, woodlands, water, and meadows reveals a side of the city that most New Yorkers and visitors don't know, from the nesting grounds of the little blue heron on Prall's Island, in Arthur Kill, just west of Staten Island, to the great salt marsh in Pelham Bay Park in the northeast corner of the Bronx-not to mention such unusual plants and animals as the pink lady’s slipper and the peregrine falcon. The Country in the City focuses on some of the most interesting natural areas in the city, one in each borough: Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan, Alley Pond Park in Queens, the Staten Island Greenbelt, Marine Park in Brooklyn, and Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. Take map and guide in hand and set out to discover natural New York
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