NYC’s Prospect Park wildlife could take years to bounce back after brush fire: experts

The two-hectare wooded stretch of Prospect Park has been eerily quiet this week since it was gutted by a shocking bushfire.

Dozens of squirrels, birds, raccoons, skunks and other creatures that call the Brooklyn oasis home were forced to flee the burned sector — and it could take years for them to return, according to wildlife experts.

“Wildfires cause wildlife to move; they will avoid active flames and if the damage is severe they will seek new habitat for food and shelter,” Sunny Corrao, public engagement coordinator for the city Department of Parks and Recreation’s Wildlife Unit told The Post.

None of the animals that live in the area near the ravine and the adjacent meadow known as Nethermead in the center of the park were reported to have been injured in the Nov. 8 inferno, which law enforcement officials suspect was sparked by a homeless encampment .

The majority of the wildlife that escaped the blaze may have spread through Prospect Park’s remaining 524 lush acres — or may have made an exodus from the green space entirely in search of new homes, Corrao said.

It may take years, however, for the displaced creatures to return to the once lush patch of canyon, now blackened and burned.

Animals would return when they are able to seek food and shelter in the two-hectare stretch again.

“If trees are still standing, you’re still going to get your flying insects and your birds,” Corrao explained, referring to general wildlife behavior.

But if much of the understory — or the underlying layer of vegetation above the forest floor — was burned away, “you’re not going to have animals using that as cover. So you’re not going to have your small mammals in those areas,” Corrao said.

Christian Zimmerman, vice president of Capital and Landscape Management for the Prospect Park Alliance, said it could take up to three years of planting — followed by long-term care — before forest workers can return the urban oasis to its pre-fire condition. .

Landscapers are still on the ground assessing the full extent of the damage, but workers said the ground cover on the forest floor has been completely burned.

“The ground cover — the herbaceous level — that’s been removed. It burned out,” Zimmerman said.

“There are still small trees, small bushes, and there is larger material, large stands of oak, that are still there. They have some burn damage … They can survive that. It just depends on how extensive it is.”

The first step in the restoration process would be to restabilize the hillside by installing logs and walls in the sloping area – which would be at risk of soil erosion without such retention measures.

The team then hopes to seed a new generation of herbaceous species this spring, a solid list that includes plants like White Wood Asters and Pennsylvania Sedges, as well as different types of ferns.

Despite what is expected to be a lengthy task, the Prospect Park Alliance remains optimistic that it can advance a path back to restoration.

“It could have been so much worse. It’s not that it’s not bad, but it’s a 150-acre forest and two acres were affected by this,” Zimmerman said.

“We love the park, and you immediately go into, ‘How do we fix it? How do you take care of it?'” he said.

“You move on … It’s been here a long time and tragedy happens. Let’s make it better. Let’s, you know, bring the area back.”