About

Betsy McCully is the author of City at the Water’s Edge: A Natural History of New York (Rutgers University Press, 2007). Spanning a billion years, the book offers a “deep time” perspective on New York, casting the city as a human habitat in the Lower Hudson Bioregion—a place shaped by powerful natural forces over eons and a place more recently reshaped by human hands. Her new book (now under contract with Rutgers UP) treats the environmental history of New York since colonial times, with particular focus on how New Yorkers have not only reshaped the city’s topography to accommodate their city, but also tried to address pressing environmental problems even as they were creating them (under contract with Rutgers UP). McCully began researching both books twenty years ago, and has amassed a wealth of materials drawn from libraries, archives, interviews, and years of “walking the terrain” of New York. She has given numerous talks on New York’s fascinating and complex natural and environmental history. An Associate Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY, she coordinates an annual Eco-Festival, which won the 2008 CUNY Sustainability Award. She also maintains an educational website, www.NewYorkNature.net. When she is not writing, lecturing, or teaching, Betsy finds time to go birdwatching with her husband in the environs of New York City and beyond.