The Coalition for Wetlands and Forests (CWF), founded in August 2020, strives to protect Graniteville’s environmental justice community on Staten Island. Their mission is to safeguard the Graniteville Swamp, including vital wetlands, which played a crucial role in preventing flooding during Hurricane Sandy. When these wetlands are destroyed and replaced by impermeable surfaces such as parking lots and box stores, water has nowhere to go, causing extreme flooding. In turn, fresh waterways are polluted, endangering residents. This predominantly black and brown community sits in harm’s way. CWF is fighting to compel the state Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and ensure public participation. CWF empowers the community through community organizing, expert analysis, and legal assistance, working towards their goal of acquiring the wetlands and preserving them as a public resource.
Forty-four people died in NYC during Hurricane Sandy. No one died in Graniteville. It was protected from flooding, by the 30-acre Graniteville Swamp. Despite its obvious value to life and property, the wetland was later targeted for use as a strip mall. Though co-founder Gabriella Velardi-Ward and hundreds of CWF members partnered with the Sierra Club, Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, Natural Resources Protective Association, and other environmental groups to prevent development of the wetland, more than 1,700 trees were downed in 2022. If development continues as planned, parking spaces and stores will cover absorbent soil, replacement trees will have but a fraction of the water-absorbing power of the large trees that have been sacrificed, and Graniteville will almost certainly flood. CWF continues to fight hard for Graniteville, and they ask an important question: “Why is it that we who are poor, working class, struggling middle class and/or of color have to absorb all that is not wanted elsewhere?”
David Rothenberg Photography