Guggenheim Preserve Guided Nature Walk

Guggenheim Preserve in full summer color with butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

This guided nature walk will explore the Guggenheim Preserve, a 17-acre habitat area nearby Guggenheim Elementary School and close by Sands Point Preserve, with 7 acres of woodlands and 9 acres of wildflower meadow. The Guggenheim Preserve Wildflower Meadow is exceptional for its diversity of native plants, most prominently including common milkweed and butterflyweed that support Monarch butterflies, goldenrods, purple flowering New York asters, little bluestem grass and many other important plant species.

172 species of birds have been reported at the Preserve to date. The Guggenheim Preserve also contains dozens of species of plants with edible and medicinal properties and interesting folklore, including wild grapes, sassafras, raspberries and blackberries, spicebush, lettuce, different types of spinach, dandelion, plantains, jewelweed, wild carrot, burdock, dock, Japanese knotweed, chickweed.

Using butterfly nets, we may catch and gently handle and observe large butterfly species such as monarchs and swallowtails and return them unharmed to the wild.

PW Green (501Pc)P3) was incorporated in 2000 to protect the Guggenheim Preserve and support educational programs there. Invasive species, including mugwort and porcelain berry, are spreading every year and are causing major damage to the meadow habitat. PW Green is actively managing the habitat area by hosting community events to remove invasive species.

For those interested in learning more about the preserve, attached is a “Biodiversity Assessment of the Guggenheim Preserve by David Jakim, 2012.”

 

Meet at the dead end of Fairfield Avenue Entrance to the Guggenheim Preserve, Port Washington, NY. See interactive map above.