Since its creation in 1967, and many years before, construction waste, run off from Co-op City and river floatables from sites north of the Sanctuary have accumulated in the Thomas Pell Sanctuary. The Sanctuary, which is located on the east bank of the Hutchinson River in Pelham Bay Park, is the second largest salt marsh habitat in New York City. (Only Jamaica Bay is larger.) Because the Sanctuary is a salt marsh, it is not accessible by land and must be cleaned up from the Hutchinson River.
To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a major cleanup effort, mainly because of limited access to the Sanctuary (water access only), lack of knowledge by the community of the existence of this Sanctuary and the cost and complexity of a clean-up.
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The First Annual Thomas Pell Sanctuary Clean-up
On Sunday, September 26 , approximately 65 volunteers came to participate in the beginning of the reclaiming of the Wildlife Sanctuary. As shown on the map, five sites were been selected to be foci of this Clean-Up. Volunteers assembled at the Launch Site at 9am and from there proceeded to their assigned clean up site by boat. Eight canoes and two powered boats were used. Some volunteers elected to remain on shore to prepare the site for recovery of wastes and clean the shores of the launch area.
