Monthly Service Day

Through Month­ly Ser­vice Days, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s hor­ti­cul­ture team and Friends of Gov­er­nors Island invite you to par­tic­i­pate in a sin­­gle-day stew­ard­ship project focused on habi­tat restora­tion. Dur­ing each project, vol­un­teers will help plant com­mon milk­weed (Ascle­pias syr­i­a­ca) in cel­e­bra­tion of the Year of Milk­weed on Gov­er­nors Island.

Milk­weed illus­trates the close con­nec­tion between native plants and wildlife — monarch but­ter­fly cater­pil­lars have evolved to feed exclu­sive­ly on milk­weed leaves. With their strik­ing orange and black wings, East­ern mon­archs are abun­dant on Gov­er­nors Island dur­ing their migra­tion in late sum­mer and fall, but their pop­u­la­tions have been expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant decline through­out the Unit­ed States over the past sev­er­al years. Inte­grat­ing this vol­ume of milk­weed plants into Gov­er­nors Island’s green spaces will allow mon­archs to safe­ly com­plete their life cycles while increas­ing native plant habi­tats for all Island wildlife.

Month­ly Ser­vice Days are free with reg­is­tra­tion. No gar­den­ing expe­ri­ence is nec­es­sary, though this project will involve bend­ing, lift­ing, and oth­er phys­i­cal tasks. Instruc­tion, gloves, and tools will be pro­vid­ed. Please dress for the weath­er, as Month­ly Ser­vice Days are held entire­ly outdoors.

Please take the 9:30am fer­ry from the Bat­tery Mar­itime Build­ing in Low­er Man­hat­tan. On arrival, vol­un­teers should gath­er at Sois­sons Land­ing where a staff mem­ber will be wait­ing. Fer­ry tick­ets are not includ­ed with this reser­va­tion and can be reserved sep­a­rate­ly at gov​is​land​.org/​ferry.

Can’t make it for this mon­th’s project? Don’t wor­ry! Month­ly Ser­vice Days take place the sec­ond Tues­day of every month. In addi­tion, the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island offers dai­ly vol­un­teer projects for indi­vid­u­als. Click here to learn more about our indi­vid­ual vol­un­teer pro­gram and get involved today.