Storm water capture and filtration within the landscape’s planting systems identify critical components of the site design. Watershed effluents from “upstream” animal exhibits and habitats are directed through the project site and require treatment before entering Cope Lake and the Bronx River.

The landscape design utilizes three primary typologies of landscape systems to establish a functional and sustainable hydrologic “treatment train.”

• Woodland buffers slow the down grade migration of water.
• Wetland garden tiers represent the critical line of defense of biological filtration, sediment dropout and encourage infiltration and groundwater recharge.
• Wetland garden basins anchor the wetland system and allow water to pool and settle before treated water enters the Lake.
• Wet meadow serves as the water’s final filtering and absorption journey as it travels through dense masses of wetland grasses, shrubs and forbs.
• The wet meadow is revealed as a richly textured, patterned and seasonally dynamic planting composition that introduces a new landscape typology to the zoo’s woodland landscape.