In 1609 Bushwick Brooklyn was a region with no more Western development than it having a name. Recognized by Dutch settler Peter Stuyvesant in 1661 as Boswijck, meaning heavy woods, my area probably lived up to the label as a densely forested region. I doubt New York natives had traversed the space apart from an occasional hunting foray, and my specific city block can be assumed to have taken shape two centuries after Stuyvesant's land annexation.
My rudimentary knowledge of trees and climate tell me that perhaps oak grew here. It appears to be a populous tree on the island of Manhattan according to the Welikia Project, so I assume soil composition didn't vary enough between there and Bushwick to inhibit oak growth. Newtown Creek drained a section of Bushwick nearby where I live now, the tidal body of water serving as an ecosystem boundary and edge for some varieties of fauna. Heavy rains would swell Newtown Creek and provide a fertile place for all manner of plant species, negating the acidic soil caused by oak tree growth.
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