Last two field days fast approaching

Later today (4-30) and next Tuesday are the last two field days for this semester; we should be able to make some substantial progress with who has signed up;

great news for the future of the project; a couple of the very best students, John and Monet, came by and quite separately asked about continuing with their work! couple of really nice students who I am sure will work themselves into leadership positions in the summer and fall seasons;

I'll report back on Tuesday what we did this week-end in the field;

Couple of bumps in the road…..but a great finish

Field work on Friday and Saturday was exhausting; projects keep moving forward but there is soooooo much more to be done! We had some success on Friday afternoon with the connecting trail. It is such a pretty stretch that you have to love it; but we pushed ahead and then got turned around and then couldn’t pin down the exact direction we had to move in; not good when the field work leader gets confused!!! Google Earth (thank God for Google Earth) solved that later that evening but we now we still need to cut a couple of hundred feet through some major brush and brambles; we can do it if we put the right kind of crew together for one or two days.

Next day (Sat. 4-24) was Arbor Day at the center so we changed routines and planted 200 shrubs and trees with visiting families, youth groups and of course the scouts. It was a blast and the St. Johns students did all you could ever ask of them; they dug the holes for the little ones and let them get the thrill of putting in the tree and putting in the final cover and water; it is a really tough planting site ( below are before and during photos) just cleared of all of the porcelain berry and bittersweet so we’ll have to give them some extra attention this growing season to prevent vines from coming back to quickly; going to take a couple of growing seasons until this site can stand on its own.

In the afternoon we took a long walk around the entire preserve to see how the work from last season held up. We got back to the amazing freshwater spring; we gave the bank a light trim and watched the flow for more than 20 minutes; it is always a tough photograph in that you are shooting through a moving current of water trying to show the active spring flow (-that’s a thought - maybe this is the place I should try out a first video clip???). the digital picture still came out pretty good (although it can't show the active flow) so I'm including it here; everyone loved the spring especially the idea that you could drink from it as it came out of the ground; The water is always cold, clear as could be and absolutely delicious; I also got a couple of nice scenic shots of the valley landscape (first photo above) and of course a couple of photos of the students at days end. It was a long, hot, and exhausting day but we saw a good bit of the preserve and did quite a bit of work along the way.

We are way ahead of last year at this time so this may be turn out to a great field work season.

Thanks to students from both classes who worked so hard this week-end.

Field work reaching a peak

Thursday April 22, 2010 A date like that can stop you in your tracks! Today is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, I can remember what it was like back then; we were young, idealistic and just getting started; how much didn’t we know back then! we’ve come a long way but so many things still move in the wrong direction; what’s it going to be like 40 years from now???

Tonight is the eve of a couple of great field work days – regular field work starts up on Friday afternoons; it should be a good day but Saturday is special; in the morning we will do an Arbor Day planting with loads of kids (organized by the education staff at the center) it should be a blast; then in the afternoon I’ll be leading a fairly large group way out into the preserve - first to check out how the work from last year held up but also to extend that work and see what comes next; most of the students are new to the area this year so they will see it with fresh eyes; this time of year I’m sure they will love what they see; Next time I get the chance to write I’ll be looking to tell about their first adventure into the preserve.

A Field Work Surprise….

Friday field work afternoon-April 16, 2010. . It rained early and it rained late but today’s crew found a warm and dry window; that was a pleasant surprise but that wasn’t the only surprise of the day.

We picked up where we left off last week and continued to push the connecting trail toward where we left off last season. It is only a couple of hundred more yards but these are some of the hardest. This trail segment hasn’t been opened in years and the overgrowth is almost impassable; we are running this trail on top of an elevated berm that separates the wetland preserve from the surrounding commercial properties. It was slow going last week and I was expecting the worst; I’d have been happy if we could progress another 10 or 20 yards; doing things in bite size pieces makes the work manageable and adding more hands makes it all the more fun;

We started slowly and cut and clawed our way through two stands of vine covered trees and another of heavy wild rose. The stands were so thick you could hardly see what lay ahead; but when we cut through the last heavy stand the growth turned out to only be knee deep. Certainly it needs a bit of trimming but nothing that you couldn't walk through. We stepped through into the sunlight and I said let’s walk up and see what we’re up against; the more we walked the lighter the growth became until we stepped into a young secondary growth wetland woods;

I haven’t been to this spot in a couple of decades and the way in was so overgrown that probably very few people (maybe no people?) have been in this area in a very long time. What was it like? It was very quiet. It was very green with the new growth of spring all around us. I was struck -it was absolutely ‘charming’! now that’s a word that I don’t use very much inside New York City; there are many natural areas that are valuable, scenic, ecologically rich, historically important, unusually interesting, simple beautiful and a host of other noteworthy descriptors. This little section trail may not have many of those characteristics but it was a pleasure to discover something so truly ‘charming’. This little woodland trail (which also provides a very nice overlook) doesn’t have a name (yet) but it will be a highlight of the trail system once it is complete.

Getting the job done. Way to go!!! AF and KP cutting out some of the Porcelain Berry along a remote part of the trail; One vine was an inch and a half thick, over ten years old and more than 100 feet long; it probably isn't even the longest but it has thousands of cousins that need the same haircut.

Field Work Fridays.......

Field Work Fridays,,,,,

After a full week in the office I can’t help but have a touch of anticipation for what Friday may bring. This is the middle of semester and also the middle of the field work season and Friday afternoons have come to be called Field Work Fridays. It started last fall when I decided to merge the Academic Service Learning requirement in some of my classes with the need for environmental restoration and improvements in the preserve; students needed worthwhile and realistic projects and the preserve needed lots of attention and TLC. It started with a small handful of students and through some good word of mouth it grew to more than 60 students from five different classes putting in over 600 hours in a couple of months; they did great work and their written reflections on what they accomplished were wonderful. Melissa who worked as hard as anyone last semester came by today and asked if we still had the projects for this semester; she’ll be there for sure even if its not part of her courses this term. Way to go MD !!!

So here it is a Thursday night in April with the third field work Friday of the season set for tomorrow; We had only two students the first week and then only three the second week but there are eight signed up for tomorrow; that’s the way it grew last year too. I’ll let you know how things work out – weather is not looking great but it’s the people not the weather that make it into a great day; and who knows we could luck out with that too;

the journey begins...

This is the first post to what I hope becomes a valuable and thoughtful weekly blog; anyone who lives outside this immediate area probably never heard of this place which I call the Alley Pond Park Wetland Nature Preserve.

It is a"natural area" that sits on the eastern edge of New York City (Queens County to be exact) and holds some exceptional ecological and environmental value; I place the term natural area in quotes above because this area is NOT by any means pristine nature; but that makes it all the more interesting because it is one of the finest examples of how nature survives even when it is surrounded by a great city;

I know this area personally and professionally and work in the preserve with my students on a regular basis; there is much to learn here and to share with interested readers; along the way I hope I can communicate even a small amount of my love for this area and what it means to me; I love pictures and am working to do more with videos so when the time comes I'll try to share those with you too; I expect this to be a slow start and take time for others to share back but I welcome your thoughts and comments.