Meet Christopher Wood, Urban Park Ranger In Fort Greene Park

Fort Greene Park has a new urban park ranger named Christopher Wood!

The Bed-Stuy resident is celebrating his first anniversary with the Parks Department in a few days, but is already a veteran tour leader for historical tours of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument and the park, as well as for tree walks. He is also a son of the American Revolution, as one of his ancestors was held on one of the British prison ships back in the 18th century.

Wood joins Fort Greene Park Director David Barker in overseeing the stewardship and programming of Fort Greene Park. Meet both of them in-person at the park Visitors Center Open House this Saturday!

Describe your role as park ranger of Fort Greene Park.

We do three things: education, enforcement, and animal rescues. Environmental and historical education is done through in-school visits with local elementary and middle schools and by taking school groups around the park, teaching them about everything from entomology to ornithology, in a fun hands-on way. At Fort Greene Park, I do tours of the Monument, historical tours of the park, tree walks, and more. There are also a lot of free public programs for anyone; these programs change regularly.

We also do some enforcement to make sure that patrons of the park are safe and that no one is littering and harming wildlife in the park. Finally, we check on injured animals and do animal rescues.

What are your goals for the park? / What can people look forward to?

What I’m trying to do here is have an active presence in the park so people can feel welcome to ask questions about programs, the Monument, trees, or nature. I’m trying to get more programs for the public, including pop-up programs. If a family’s around, I might take you on a walk-around about history and trees.

Park rangers also do something called Weekend Adventures. We have always had a few in Fort Greene Park.

What are your office hours?

I’m around in the park between 9:30am-5pm Tuesdays through Saturdays. The Visitors Center is open daily except Monday and special occasions.

Where in Brooklyn are you from?

I live in Bed-Stuy and am from rural New England.

Did you study a park- or environment-related subject while in school?

I grew up outside a lot and always had an appreciation of the outdoors. it’s something i feel everyone should experience. i majored in Environmental Conservation at the University of Connecticut and I want to help people appreciate and understand why we need to be concerned about conservation.

I heard you are a descendant of a Prison Ship Martyr. What is his story? Did you know that before joining Fort Greene Park? How does it feel to work around the Monument?

I was not aware before joining Fort Greene Park. My ancestor is Lyman Hall, a Declaration of independence signee from Georgia. The Prison Ship Martyr story is an often overlooked piece of American history, so I didn’t know he was on a prison ship until I came and saw his name on the Monument’s list of prison ship martyrs. I do believe he was one of the ones who made it off. Lucky for me.

I have a good amount of American pride, especially with my family heritage tracing so far back here. I have a duty to educate people about American Revolutionary history. It’s a source of pride and responsibility to help take care of the Monument.

What do you consider your biggest achievement while in the Parks Department?

I’ve implemented some fun kids games and songs. I enjoy helping kids have a fun time learning history and science through tactile, hands-on experiences. I want people to have fun in nature before learning about nature so that they can then understand why it’s worthwhile to know the science behind the subjects.

What is your favorite thing about/to do in parks? About Fort Greene Park?

In bigger parks like Prospect Park, I love getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city, bringing my guitar. In Fort Greene Park, I love riding my bike around the bitable paths and playing guitar under a tree, maybe meditate a little. I also love looking at the trees, seeing the different kinds. Every park has different kinds of trees.

What’s special about Fort Greene Park trees?

Architects Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and Calvert Vaux were very smart about their planning, making sure there were ornamentals. There are really nice old trees and a wide variety of them: a lot of conifers, Austrian pines, Himalayan pines, elms, a beautiful row of horse chestnut trees on DeKalb Avenue, and even osage orange trees — only a few parks have them and Fort Greene Park is one of them. There’s one by the DeKalb entrance and one on the path close to the north side of the Monument.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Come to the Open House! We’ll have old colonial era games on Saturday. Bring your family and we’ll have a lot of fun family-bonding games. Everything from old American bowling (aka nine pins) to Game of Graces, which is a fun hoop game.