William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge

The park was named in honor of Staten Island native William T. Davis, a renowned naturalist and entomologist who along with the Audubon Society started the refuge with an original acquisition of 52 acres (210,000 m2).

There are degraded areas of the marsh in which the common reed (Phragmites australis), an invasive species, has supplanted the native cordgrass; this generally occurs in the high marsh zone where the soil is saturated but infrequently inundated.

In addition to the invasive common reed, some sections of the refuge especially along Travis Ave. are overrun by Japanese knotweed.

[2] In the east of the refuge was the burial site for six people murdered and dismembered by the Bonanno crime family associate Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1992.

The formation then becomes entirely subterranean until it reaches the refuge where a small section breaks the surface in a swamp off Travis Ave.