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Director, Greenbelt Native Plant Center and Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank , Department of Parks & Recreation.
"He has made a huge difference in our world. He looks out for New Yorkers and the planet."
On 13 acres on Staten Island, Ed Toth directs the Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC) and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MARSB). Over 25 years, GNPC has grown more than 12.5 million native plants for restoration and conservation projects in NYC ecosystems. After Hurricane Sandy, GNPC replaced hundreds of thousands of plants on destroyed wetland and dunes. While working in Prospect Park Brooklyn in the 1990s, Mr. Toth helped lead the native plant movement in park restorations, but a key obstacle was that native plants were not available. By helping to create and then run GNPC, Mr. Toth created the first and largest municipal native plant nursery and seed bank anywhere in the U.S. In 2011, Mr. Toth founded MARSB, recognizing that to effectively respond to climate change and plant conservation challenges, a regional response was essential. Says a colleague, "He has made a huge difference in our world. He looks out for New Yorkers and the planet."
