Putting Down Roots: Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project Provides Clean Water Benefits in Upstate New York

The following project was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative—a federal program to help remediate contaminated sites, improve water quality, restore habitats, and conduct other essential environmental projects throughout Great Lakes region.

In the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project (SUFFP) is creating a corridor of edible wild plants to serve as a nutritious new food source for local humans and wildlife. Project coordinators say native plant installations along this nine-mile corridor will benefit the Syracuse community environmentally, economically, and socially by combating local food deserts, reducing stormwater runoff, increasing urban tree canopies, beautifying public spaces, and allowing researchers to study the benefits and feasibility of these forageable food corridors in other communities.

Founded in 2019, SUFFP has worked with over 400 local volunteers to create these nine miles of food forest between the Onondaga Community College campus and Syracuse’s Inner Harbor waterfront in Onondaga County, New York. The program is managed jointly by Syracuse University and the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), and has combined ecological sciences and urban food policy with industries like landscape design to plant more than 451 trees and 211 shrubs and perennials in south Syracuse.

With insight from local community groups, SUFFP identified more than a dozen locations on the south side of the city that would benefit from these edible wild plants, including public parks, schools, community gardens, and empty lots. These locations were chosen to improve areas that were neglected or abandoned during the city’s major industrial changes of the last 60 years.

After locations were identified, SUFFP project coordinators and volunteers installed native plant species like shagbark hickory, sugar maple, apple, persimmon, pawpaw, sage, milkweed, mint, wild ginger, and comfrey, among many others. Once installed, these edible wild plants help Syracuse residents access nutritious food sources and provide numerous habitat and clean water benefits across the Onondaga Lake watershed.

Belowground, the introduction of more root systems to the local habitat means the urban food forest helps filter rainwater before it can reach Nine Mile Creek, Onondaga Creek, and other tributaries that feed into Onondaga Lake, which has recently undergone significant restoration efforts to combat decades of industrial and wastewater pollution. Through their root systems, these plants reduce runoff, remove contaminants and excess nutrients, and retain stormwater. All of this mitigates the economic, environmental, and infrastructural impacts of flooding.

Aboveground, the urban food forest provides shady habitat and accessible food sources for local wildlife like birds, insects, and small mammals. On hot days, this added shade helps reduce heat islands—urban areas where a lack of tree canopy and abundance of manmade materials can endanger residents. The higher temperatures in heat islands put community members at risk of serious health conditions like heat stroke, dehydration, and even death. With at least 40 percent coverage by an urban tree canopy, urban temperatures can decrease by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit, a potentially lifesaving amount.

In addition to the environmental benefits of edible wild plants, researchers at Syracuse University and ESF found that these plants contain high levels of nutrients and antioxidants that are commonly lacking in modern American diets, making them particularly useful sources of nutrition in food deserts.

Defined as low-income areas with a shortage of supermarkets and limited access to affordable, nutritious foods, food deserts will impact an estimated 17.4 percent of the United States population in 2025. With more than 45,000 people in Onondaga County experiencing food insecurity last year, researchers believe learning to identify and forage edible wild plants can help residents supplement deficient diets and reduce the strain of food insecurity.

Although edible wild plants are only one piece of a complex puzzle in addressing the damage caused by food deserts, SUFFP researchers say forageable food corridors are a viable way to empower communities to develop a greater understanding of the food they consume, the confidence and ability to seek out food in their natural environments, and a desire to steward those resources.

Since 2022, SUFFP has received $600,000 in federal grant monies from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to support this work. Awarded via the U.S. Department of Agriculture, these funds have allowed SUFFP to expand planting efforts and host educational events for the public.

In collaboration with community volunteers, entrepreneurs, local schoolchildren, small businesses, the U.S. Forest Service, Onondaga Earth Corps, and other local, state, and federal partners, SUFFP hosts volunteer public planting events, which teach residents how to make the most of wild food sources growing on public property and in their own backyards.

Many of these events center around particular educational themes. For example, a planting event on October 24, 2024, explored native species of significance to Indigenous cultures and resulted in more than 100 perennials, 60 trees, and 35 shrubs being planted. All plants were sourced from local vendors to support the Syracuse economy.

In the future, SUFFP plans to continue its community planting events, with an increased emphasis on animal ecology and wildlife habitat. Learn more at esf.edu/suffp.