Eric W. Sanderson

Eric W. Sanderson is the inaugural Vice President for Urban Conservation Strategy at the New York Botanical Garden. Formerly he was a Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Sanderson is the author of the best-selling book, Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (Abrams, 2009). The Mannahatta Project, conducted over decade, investigated the historical streams, ponds, springs, shores, hills, forests, and wildlife of Manhattan Island on the eve of Henry Hudson’s discovery in 1609. The project led to a web map and site (since rebranded welikia.org), an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, and major press coverage, including a profile in The New Yorker and a cover of National Geographic Magazine. Sanderson is currently pursuing the Welikia Project, on the historical and contemporary ecology of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and surrounding waters, and Vision maker.nyc, an on-line forum to help the public to envision and share ecologically functional and climate-resilient designs for New York. Sanderson wrote, Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs, an investigation of the ecology of the 20th century American economy, which was published in 2013. In 2016 he co-editted Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City's Jamaica Bay. Sanderson has published extensively in wildlife and landscape conservation, with over 90 papers, book chapters, and technical reports, which have collectively amassed over 13,000 citations (Google Scholar, Oct. 2022). He is currently writing the follow-up to Mannahatta, tentatively titled, The Welikia Atlas, on the five-borough historical ecology of New York City. Sanderson holds a Ph.D. in ecology, with emphasis in ecosystem and landscape ecology, from the University of California, Davis. He is based at the NYBG in New York City's greenest borough, The Bronx.