BOTANICAL EVALUATION OF THE GOAT ISLAND COMPLEX, NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK
P. M. Eckel
Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Pkwy
Buffalo, NY 14211 U.S.A.
www.buffalomuseumofscience.org

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Green (or Bath) Island
Green Island is the largest of the islands in the American channel of the Niagara River at Niagara Falls. About half of its acreage is "made land," extending downriver (see survey map of 1883).

The flora of this island was first altered by the Porter family, who owned it after 1815, when they constructed the second and third bridges across it to Goat Island, starting in 1818 (Porter, 16 Ann Rep Comm, 1900). They next built a "commodious bathing house" and toll-keeper's dwelling, followed by Porter and Clark's Paper Mill (Kenyon in Dow, 1921; Scott & Scott, 1983). Billiard rooms were added to this complex (Bernard in Dow, 1921).

The proximity of such a mill to the rich Goat Island forest, located in the middle of the American channel, renders strong implications of possible selective use of the Goat Island timber for the mill, although no evidence of cutting in the forest nearby has ever been observed by any published testimonial. The Porters themselves characterized their decision to built the Green Island mill as a "desecration" (Porter, 1900).

The disbursements to Peter A. Porter for stationary, listed in the budget accounts in the early reports of the Commissioners, may indicate the Porter's operated a printing and stationary business based on their own paper products derived from their Green Island mill.

Description of the paper mill industry and its processes is beyond the scope of this paper, but rags may have been the initial source of raw material for Porter's paper, as the first ground-wood pulp mill established in New York was in 1866 on the Hudson River (Recknagel, 1923). In 1867 the sulphite process for pulping wood without cotton (rag) fiber was developed and the pulping industry began to flourish to the detriment of New York's unprotected forests. Production peaked in 1917 in New York, declining ever since due to exhaustion of trees as a natural resource. The mills were mainly in the Adirondacks, with several "in the vicinity of Niagara Falls." In 1923, five pulp mills were located at Niagara Falls, one in the village of Tonawanda on the Niagara River - these due to the availability of wood from Canada, good markets, and the water power nearby (Recknagel, 1923). Resource material (i.e., timber) was scarce in western New York, but Niagara Falls was considered a "consuming center" for this material, and its pulping industry was strong as long as material could be shipped in from sources outside the state. Early tourists wrote of these mills, including William Kingston, who passed through a lumber yard on the way to the Goat Island bridge "belonging to one of many saw-mills with which the American Falls are adorned" (Kingston, 1956). Some of the names of these mills were the Niagara Falls Paper Co., later to become the International Paper Company which used water from the Niagara Falls Power Company canal (26 Ann Rep Comm, 1910), the Pettibone-Cataract Paper Company, operated by L. W. Pettibone, the Cataract City Milling Company, managed by Capt. Gaskill (29 Ann Rep Comm, 1913, Mizer, 1981), the Cliff Paper Company, operated by Jacob Schoellkopf, Niagara Wood, by Walter Jones (Mizer, 1981). Later would come Defiance Paper, Niagara Wallpaper and Kimberly-Clark Paper, Warder Paper Box, etc. (Mizer, 1981). It would not be too improbable to assume that some of the eradication of the softwood forests of the Niagara River Gorge went to satisfy the mills, perhaps during their declining years.

Green Island, in addition to supporting various industries, besides the paper mill, conducted a warm and a cold bath (Wied-Neuwied, 1843) - hence the island's first name: Bath Island. Around 1831, one visitor discovered on Green Island "a large paper mill, as well as other mills, in operation; there is also a house where the weary traveler may find most comfortable refreshment, and where I partook of ... dinner" (Fowler, 1831). This establishment also sold "Indian curiosities, walking-canes," and housed the "custos" of Goat Island "to whom, by payment of one shilling for each person, we were made free of the insular territory" (Kingston, 1856). "Bath Island was once almost entirely covered by buildings when the reservation was established .... The Island is almost bare of trees or shrubbery, and presents a bleak and unnatural appearance. It should be properly graded and planted as soon as possible" (6 Ann Rep Comm, 1890).

In 1899, the island's name was changed from Bath to Green Island in honor of the Hon. Andrew H. Green who strove so zealously and efficiently to protect the Reservation, the Falls and, incidentally, the Queen Victoria Park in Ontario from incursions by private industry (16 Ann Rep Comm, 1900).

In their zeal to remove anything artificial from the Niagara Reservation, Olmsted and Vaux recommended (1887) that the erosion control structures be removed and all the "made land" be washed away until the contours of the island returned to their natural condition. Somehow, this action "shall have accomplished a most attractive view will be had of the rapids and the shores of Goat Island - dark and exceedingly beautiful." This recommendation was never followed.

Green Island "is composed largely of made land, the material being stone and coal cinders. A covering six inches in depth of excellent loam from the embankment has been spread over the upper end of the island." In 1891 "the margin of the island has been graded and covered with green sward .... The island has been sown with grass seed, and planted with cedars and spruce" (8 Ann Rep Comm, 1982). In 1893, twelve plants of a horticultural variety of Discless Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus vitacea) and six of Boston or Japanese Ivy (P. tricuspidata) were planted around the Commissioner's office (10 Ann Rep Comm, 1894); the following year eighteen more Japanese Ivy vines were planted. In 1896 the "artificial cribwork on the southern shore of Bath Island has been removed and the greater portion of the shore of the island riprapped with large stones ... of a most important and permanent character in protecting the banks from erosion and giving the shores a natural and rustic appearance"; subsequently, the shores "have been graded and planted with shrubs and covered with turf" (13 Ann Rep Comm, 1897).

A picture of the island published in 1893 showed the little office building for the Commissioners maintained there at the time, and the denuded surface dotted with what appear to be small trees (evergreens). None of these evergreens exist there today. Because Green Island supported the main bridge to Goat Island, there was perpetual construction on it, for example the island was disrupted in 1902 by the construction of the stone bridges, and regraded and sown with grass seed (19 Ann Rep Comm, 1903). In 1909 the road across the island was completely rebuilt and "concrete walks six feet wide on either side constructed between the bridges, a grass plot being left between the road and walks" (26 Ann Rep Comm, 1926). Fixing, improving and replacing the roads, paths and bridge, and laying water, telephone and electric lines, etc., continued as the decades wore on.

It may be assumed that Green Island was totally denuded at the time of the Reservation's establishment. If one examines the photographs of this island beginning with those submitted by Thomas Welch, first Superintendent, little has been done to reforest it after Welch had the buildings removed, their basements filled and the surface graded. Once Welch brought a surface up to sod, to prevent erosion and hide the disturbance of structures, policy has rested content not to proceed to reforestation. Exotic species of trees and shrubs have been planted about the present lawns. The extensive thicket of Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) on the island's eastern end may have been planted for the same reasons this species of alien shrub was planted on Luna Island (see below). It appears from the presence of certain native species on today's river margins that to some extent the native vegetation had established itself, but that it has been subsequently removed.

The oldest trees on this island appear to be on the north end, toward the mainland. It is at this end that the most natural wooded thickets occur today. Evidence is abundant that these native populations can gradually spread over the island without further assistance, but the establishment of their seedlings is stopped by the current practice of mowing, except for the wet margins. A tiny population of Laciniate Toothwort (Dentaria laciniata) at the western extremity may indicate a more extensive wooded thicket there previously. It is primarily Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana) that readily recolonizes this island.

Holes in the banks on the southeast side indicate populations of native mammals.

* Acanthopanax sieboldianus ACANTHOPANAX. 1988.

* Acer negundo BOX ELDER. Beginning to establish itself, 1988.

Acer nigrum BLACK MAPLE. 1988.

* Acer platanoides NORWAY MAPLE. Forty-inch diameter tree, 1988.

Acer saccharinum SILVER MAPLE. Three trunks, SE edge river, 1988.

Acer saccharum SUGAR MAPLE. One specimen 110 inches in diameter, 1988.

* Aesculus hippocastanum HORSE CHESTNUT. West end. 1988.

* Alliaria officinalis GARLIC MUSTARD. 1988.

* Arctium minus COMMON BURDOCK. Lawn margins, 1988.

* Berberis thunbergii JAPANESE BARBERRY. "Planted, forming thickets on the eastern and western margins," 1986.

Betula papyrifera PAPER BIRCH. One young tree, W end, N shore, 1988.

* Cercis canadensis REDBUD. Three trees planted, SW grove.

* Chenopodium murale NETTLE-LEAVED GOOSEFOOT. Day, 1883 (problematical). Day may have reidentified this specimen as Chenopodium urbicum for his 1888 publication.

* Convallaria majalis LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY. East end, old planting, 1988.

Cornus racemosa PANICLED DOGWOOD. River margins, 1988.

Cornus stolonifera RED-OSIER DOGWOOD. River margins, 1988.

Dentaria laciniata CUT-LEAVED TOOTHWORT. Extreme west end, 1986.

Fraxinus sp. ASH. Abundant all along the island margins, 1988.

* Ginkgo biloba GINKGO, MAIDENHAIR TREE. Along asphalt path, male and female trees, 1988.

* Heracleum mantegazzianum GIANT HOGWEED. [Obs.] 1988.

* Ligustrum vulgare PRIVET. Impenetrable thicket on the east margin, 1988.

* Lythrum salicaria PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE. Along wet island margins, west end, 1986.

* Morus alba WHITE MULBERRY. Becoming established, 1988.

* Nepeta cataria CATNIP. Day, 1888. 1984.

Ostrya virginiana HOP-HORNBEAM.

Parthenocissus sp. VIRGINIA CREEPER. On rocks on island margin, 1988.

* Parthenocissus tricuspidata Planch. JAPANESE or BOSTON IVY. On stone pedestrian bridge, 1988.

Platanus occidentalis SYCAMORE. Several, 1988.

Potamogeton alpinus var. tenuifolius ALPINE PONDWEED. "Rapids of the Niagara River, near Bath Island," Zenkert, 1934.

Prunus virginiana CHOKECHERRY. Abundant and conspicuous all along the margins of the north-western side, some 18, 10, 15 and 21 inches in diameter, 1988.

* Rhamnus cathartica BUCKTHORN. 1988.

*Rhodotypos scandens JETBEAD. "Planted," 96122617.

Rhus radicans POISON IVY. [obs. 1988].

* Robinia pseudacacia BLACK LOCUST. A number planted in the western lawns, 1988.

* Rosa eglanteria SWEETBRIAR. Day, 1888.

Rosa cf. rugosa RUGOSE ROSE. [obs. 1988].

Rubus odoratus PURPLE-FLOWERING RASPBERRY. A few specimens on the river margins, 1988.

* Salix alba WHITE WILLOW. 1988.

Salix rigida HEART-LEAVED WILLOW. West end, river edge, 1988.

Sambucus sp. 1988. Doubless this is Sambucus canadensis L., the edible richly purple-berried Elderberry. The other, not so palatable, species, S. pubens or Red-berried Elder, grows to the north near the gorge at Whirlpool Woods and Schovell's Knoll at Artpark in Lewiston in limestone or sandstone scree or rubble. The Elderberry enjoys the rich, moist soils of the river margin.

Taxus sp. GARDEN YEW. Island margin, east end [obs. 1988].

# Taxus cuspidata Sieb. & Zucc. JAPANESE YEW. A deep old planting of this alien species occurs on the island margin on the eastern end, as mentioned above. It is currently (April 20, 2007) obscuring the presence of the plinth of a bust commemorating Jacob Schoelfopf, as well as the view of the rapids of the northern channel of the Niagara River where it divides upstream before plunging over the brink of the American Falls.

Tilia americana BASSWOOD. Young sapling observed, 1988.

Typha latifolia BROAD-LEAVED CATTAIL. Western river margins, 1988.

* Verbascum thapsus MULLIEN. 96122616.

Viburnum opulus var. opulus GUELDER ROSE. SW river margin, 1988.

Ulmus thomasii ROCK ELM. "Planted," Day, 1888.

* Vinca minor PERIWINKLE. Dense carpet on island margin, 1988.

Vitis riparia FROST GRAPE. 1988.