The Thain Family Forest is a 50-acre (20 ha) section of old-growth forest along the Bronx River in the New York Botanical Garden, for a time known as the Native Forest and historically as the Hemlock Grove. Its heritage dates in part to pre-colonial Lenapehoking. New York City acquired 4,000 acres (~1620 ha) as parkland in 1888, and in 1895 the New York Botanical Garden site was chosen here primarily due to the presence of the forest, which covers about one-fifth of the garden grounds. Founding director Nathaniel Lord Britton described the site as "the most precious natural possession of the city of New York". The canopy is in various zones such as oak, hemlock, beech, sweet gum and mixed. The eastern hemlock, the forest's original namesake, declined in the early 20th century, due to the hemlock woolly adelgid and the elongate hemlock scale. Its 2011 redevelopment was supported by John Thain and Carmen Thain, and included the removal of non-native species as well as the expansion of native ones. Several walking trails traverse the forest. Appointed in 2021, Eliot Nagele serves as the director of the Thain Family Forest.
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Thain Family Forest in the context of The Bronx
The Bronx (/brɒŋks/ BRONKS) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. The borough shares a land border with Westchester County, New York to its north; to its south and west, the New York City borough of Manhattan lies across the Harlem River; and to its south and east is the borough of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx, the only New York City borough located primarily on the U.S. mainland, has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km) and a population of 1,472,654 at the 2020 census. It has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density of the boroughs.
The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. The Bronx is also home to Yankee Stadium of Major League Baseball.