They primed the pump!
Brooklyn Botanic Garden bigwigs unveiled a sprawling new wetlands area on Sept. 15 — part of the park’s innovative new water circulation system that its honchos claim will save more than 21 million gallons of H20 per year.
Forgoing the standard ribbon-cutting ceremony, officials unveiled the Shelby White and Leon Levy Water Garden by pouring buckets of water into its pond and releasing a turtle to make its new home there.
The garden is an attraction in its own right, offering one-and-a-half football fields’ worth of space containing thousands of new trees, shrubs, bulbs, ferns, and unusual species of flora including the black tupelo tree, which blazes a vibrant red in the fall.
But the green space is also the first phase of a system that circulates liquid around other water features in the park — including the pond in the beloved Japanese garden — via a series of brooks and underground pumps.
It will give garden staff a lot of control over the park’s fresh water stores — including the ability to retain liquid when storms hit so it doesn’t run off into the city’s sewage system.
The garden officials are aiming to finish the entire conservation system sometime in 2018.
