Project Goals Revisited

It occurred to me that since the field work has ended for this academic year, I can expect to welcome a whole new crop of students and service workers next semester;

Since I only started recording this blog in April 2010 and since the project started way back in Sept. 2009, I never did write up anything about the “project goals” that I had initially established last year. Goals are important for many reasons but one reason is that it helps new people understand why things are being done and what happened before they joined the project.

I just took a moment to revisit them and they have stood up very well this year. There were three goals established back in Sept. 2009. All three have been moved forward this last year; These goals are, of course, never ending. They will continue for many years to come but they do form a roadmap for the journey and help us understand where we are going. (BTW: I always liked the saying 'life is a journey not a destination' which internet attributes to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and to Aerosmith but I heard it first from Don Henley of the Eagles)

I think it will be useful to have these GOALS written out for the next set of field workers to think about - so here they are:

Project Goals:

Improve the overall accessibility of the Alley Pond Park Wetland Preserve and make it available to a new generation of visitors and naturalists by improving all trails and trail side conditions.

Enhance the ecological character of the preserve by controlling the most aggressive invasive species, encouraging native plantings, protecting and improving wildlife habitat and repairing the scars from years of neglect and overdevelopment.

Provide modern, safe and improved visitor interpretive services to the public in the form of guided and self-guide excursions throughout the preserve.


These goals still hold up and will provide the directional framework for the project to move forward next year.

VERY GOOD NEWS TO REPORT….

Last night (5-20-2010) I attended a very special meeting which holds great promise for the future of the preserve. The APEC Exec Committee (Rita Sherman, Rich Blum, Irene Scheid and myself) met with a potential donor (who shall remain anonymous for the time being) to discuss the issue of invasive plant species and the restoration of some key native species and ecosystems.

It actually turned into two meetings because Janice Melnick (NE Queens Parks Administrator) and Mike Feller of the Natural Resources Group (NYCDPR) also reported on some parallel funding and planning efforts within NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation.
Parks is looking at funding for a true watershed approach to park planning eventually leading to a landscape restoration plan/project for the large areas EAST of Alley Creek. Their rising interest in this sensitive ecological area is a welcome addition to our own efforts.

The contributor, who we were speaking with for the first time, has similar interests –to limit the spread of the most aggressive invasive plants and to restore some native plants (hopefully WEST of the tidal creek) to improve the biodiversity of the preserve.

Taken together these two planning and planting initiatives could greatly enhance the ecological richness and diversity of the whole preserve. How exciting is that!!!

We all agreed that this is no one-shot-deal. All of our efforts need to be long-term and continuous. To start we will need 3 to 5 years to plan, treat, restore and re-plant selected areas. Eventually we would develop a comprehensive stewardship program that would maintain and expand the progress we have made.

We have been moving in this direction for quite a while but now with the prospects of FUNDING and EXPERTISE adding to our initial efforts this area is approaching a development threshold!

I’m actually excited to see how this is going to turn out!

There is an old maxim that says: “the best way to predict the future is to make it happen”.

Here is my hope and my prediction of the future. : “In five years this area –the Alley Pond Park Wetland Nature Preserve- will be one of the finest urban, nature preserves in this region and indeed in the entire country”. Help us make it happen.

Yellow highlight line is 1.52 mile perimeter trail around the wetland preserve.


Final post for this season is going to be a Google Picture of the preserve with our completed trail penned in; G-EARTH is absolutely amazing!

If you have Google Earth the coordinates of the preserve are centered on:

40 degrees 45’ 37.48”N and 73 degrees 44’ 51.81” W

and it is well worth viewing on a high resolution monitor that allows you to zoom in and control the altitude views. We have much more to continue with this summer and in the semesters ahead but I am very happy with the tangible and intangible results from this last year.

Reflections on this field work year

Thanks for all the hard work!

I planned to write every three or four days but I took a couple of extra days to finish the semester. This extra time also gave me the chance to reflect on how the field work progressed this year. It’s been a busy semester and a great year.

We began back in September with a long all-day field walk introducing the new students to the preserve and the watershed of the park. After that we began our formal Academic Service-Learning component in October with students from about five classes putting in over 600 hours of supervised field work; we picked it up again in March and April and did another student cumulative total of 153+ hours many of which are described in earlier posts to this blog.

What did we accomplish? and what comes next? We have many tangible outcomes to point to -a more accessible and visitor friendly trail system; dozens of trees that have been rescued from strangling vines, and over 1700 young native tree and shrub plantings that need our TLC this summer. . But I am most moved and encouraged by the intangibles of the project; what the students said to me while they were working or how they showed their own initiative or what they wrote in their reflection papers proves to me that we are on the right track; I could pick up almost any one of their reflective essays and find highlights to share with you but one in particular captured the sense of what many people had to say. In a much abbreviated form here is what one of the students had to say:

“Many students at St. Johns are from the urban city setting. Many of us do not get out and explore the outdoors. I myself am one of those many students. ……We learn about wetlands and forests in geography class. However there is no better way of becoming familiar with nature than to actually go out and see what she has to offer. ……At the beginning of AS_L I just needed to earn some extra credit. However half way into it I actually wanted to do the work. I love the outdoors and I commend a good honest days work and this type of work make you feel good inside………….My partner and I planted trees and I really hope they flourish; every tree is a value to us and should never be taken for granted; …… When I approached Alley Pond Park I was amazed that there was a nature preserve right here in my city. We need a place like this in New York City to keep us in tune with nature. Our efforts will benefit many for the years to come.”

I think this is a sincere and honest reflection that conveys some universal themes expressed by so many of the other students -the value of field work and outdoor education, intergenerational equity, nature in the urban environment, personal satisfaction, team building and working with peers.

The other indication that makes me sure we are on the right track is that more than a few students spoke to me as we finished for the day or for the season; their conversations always went something like this; “hey professor, thanks for the chance to do the field work, it was great, I’ll never forget it; I had no idea that anything like that existed around here; maybe if you have more work to do you can give me a call? I would definitely like to do more and see how things turn out.”

We are definitely on the right track.

Final Field Days of Spring-Friday April 30

This was one of the last two field work days for the spring semester; only a few of the students who worked these days had been here before so I think it was quite an eye opener for some; for the few who were here before, they stepped right up and did some fine work and made some fine choices about finishing what they had started;

Since we ran into that connection issue last week, on Friday Raelynne, Kevin, Ryan and Bianca started work in the reverse direction to connect up to where we had left off last week. That section of the trail wasn’t too heavy in terms of overgrowth so with a couple of grass whips for Phragmites and low brush and loppers for entangling vines and a good bit of sweat they made some quick progress; while we were taking a water break I walked ahead to see what we were up against; I could see where we needed to go so, in my mind I picked the shortest connecting route up a shallow slope; when the break was over and we were ready to start again I showed them where I wanted to go and Raelynne, very quietly and very politely, said “maybe we should take a look over here”? She had found something of a ‘desire path,’ partially hidden from view and not cut or trimmed, but definitely walkable and something that, by following a contour, avoided the worst of overgrowth; I was easily convinced and I just got out of their way as they opened up what they had stumbled upon.

They surprised me and they surprised themselves by how much they had done and how far they had come along the trail; they finished the connection and when I measured it in Google Earth it was roughly 1300+ feet; that is about as close to ¼ mile as you can get and they did it in ONE great afternoon;

It never ceases to amaze me when you have the right group of people working together on a mutually agreed upon goal how much they can do! thanks to all of them for a great outcome;

the picture below shows the trail segment that we completed so far this spring;