A NEW SEASON

Today is Monday, September 5, 2011, Labor Day. It is the unofficial end of the summer season although nature’s calendar doesn’t bring the equinox for another 16 days. There is plenty of summer season left but schools and colleges all around the country started up last week and this week and there is that distinct psychic shift from summer pastimes to a full schedule of school and work.

I returned to full work schedule several weeks ago and with the first classes this last week I met dozens of new students in my classes and around the college. I also did a great deal of planning and organizing for the coming field work season so I will have much more to write about in the coming months.

Two key meetings took place this last week - one with the faculty members who want to share in the work this term and the other with a special set of students who will become my field supervisors this semester. The faculty are organized into a group called a departmental learning community and we will run at least four events over the course of Sept. to Dec. The first event is our orientation event to introduce all of our students to the field site and the kind of work that they can engage in for their Academic Service- Learning requirements. We plan to host this event in conjunction with National Estuary Day which is the large public event on Saturday Sept. 24 at the center. As we get closer to the date I will try to post all of our plans and activities.

The other meeting at the start of the field season was with a set of students who have come through the field season in previous years and who came to me asking what else could they do. They are organized into a leadership team and will be at the field site on their own schedule and will become my site supervisors on a daily basis. If they can keep the work flowing smoothly and make sure that everyone works safely and productively they will be a tremendous asset to the field work. Besides working with the new students each member of the team is going to select and design something of their own creation. Then each of them will take the lead in getting that element of the project accomplished between now and the end of the term. I can also write much more about their activities after this coming Friday when we are planning a group trip to the preserve to reacclimatize them to the project and to look at some of the possibilities.

CAN WE RESTORE THE WETLAND NATURE PRESERVE???

I think one of the most exciting aspects of the science of ecology today is the growing ability of scientists to restore ecological systems. For centuries we have damaged and even destroyed ecosystems. Sometimes this was deliberate; oftentimes it was unintentional. But the growth of our towns and suburbs and cities, our roads and rails, our infrastructure gobbled up forests and wetlands, turning them into every conceivable human artifact.

The ecological awakening that began in the 1960’s and 70’s has reached the point where at least the most indiscriminant and blatant losses of natural areas must be publicly reviewed and often mitigated. Loss of ecosystems (and their almost incalculable values) to nearly every human action still occur everyday but the environmental laws and regulations and public opinion now serve as a substantial counter weight to unquestioned destruction. Projects that provide the whole range of human welfare - housing, transportation, commerce and even environmental protection - must move forward. This is what most people see as progress. But today, when land is changed, when resources are extracted, or when profit is made at the expense of nature, it is reasonable and proper to require the parties to restore some or all of what they have destroyed. They can do it and we must require that they do it.

Ecosystem restoration is applied science. It is applied ecology with a specific goal in mind. The term should be understood for its functional and not its literal meaning. It is probably impossible to restore a damaged ecosystem to its original pre-existing condition. The actors (i.e. plants and animals) and the stage (i.e. the soils and ecosystem flows) and even the theater (i.e. our global climate) are no longer the same. We simply cannot recreate exactly what existed before we arrived. Never could, never will.

But that is not really the goal of ecological restoration. The term Ecological Restoration (I love to call it by the initials E.R.) as defined by the Society for Ecological Restoration International is a much more useful and attainable goal.

“Ecological Restoration ER is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed.”

This is a topic that goes far beyond this short piece but the interested reader is referred to which will give any willing learner a wonderful overview of this new aspect of ecology.

In the Wetland Preserve there are several efforts underway right now to restore sites within or just outside the preserve border. If you like to use Google Earth use the following lat/long coordinates to view these from above.

1. On the west bank of Alley Creek, very close to the center, (40⁰ 45’ 44.95”N and 73⁰ 45’ 07.23”) there is a two acre upland and marsh restoration.
   

March 2011 and June 2011

And even before the work is complete the egrets are voting their approval

2. Just north of the preserve, on the north side of Northern Blvd., (40⁰ 45’ 49.80”N and 73⁰ 45’ 16.89”W) there is a much larger wetland and upland restoration as part of the Alley Creek CSO abatement project.

3. Closer to the shores of Little Neck Bay is a slightly older and very successful marsh restoration completed in the 1990’s (40⁰ 46’ 03.34” N and 73⁰ 45’ 12.64” W) as part of a Port Authority mitigation for runway extensions at LaGuardia airport.

4. Oakland Lake and Ravine erosion control and replanting is a small restoration involving forest, slope and riparian systems and is nearing completion, ( 40⁰ 45’ 13.11” N and 73⁰ 45’ 31.97 W)

I’ve always said just give Nature a fighting chance and it can repair much of what we have done. That may be true but E.R. promises to do even more. It aims to give Nature just a wee bit of an advantage, a good starting boost if you will. When that happens Nature can do amazing things.

THE WATERS WE SHARE - PUBLIC MEETING

Just a couple of days ago (July 1) I posed the idea that I would like to write about things that extend beyond the border of the preserve into the larger “watershed”. Well, as they say ‘timing is everything’. On the evening of July 7 I had the opportunity to attend a public hearing hosted at APEC about the Harbor Estuary Restoration plan. The meeting was delivered by the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) but with co-sponsorship by the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program and the Port Authority of NY/NJ. Don’t let the term New York Harbor deceive you because the way the harbor is defined it includes a huge area of New York and New Jersey (see brochure website listed below).

The plan is ambitious in scale, scope and timetable. It lays out how this region might ‘restore’ the health and vitality of the estuary through water quality improvements and by restoring key ecological habitats over the next 40 years! The harbor region is divided into 8 restoration regions and Little Neck Bay and the Alley Wetland Preserve are included in the “Harlem River, East River and Western Long Island Sound” unit. This may sound like a strange association of different places but actually it is a unified watershed with all of the lands draining into the tidal channel of the East River. I’ve written on other occasions about the special nature of the East River and would like to revisit those ideas someday soon but for now I can say that because of its connection to both Long Island Sound (to the east) and New York Harbor (to the west) the Upper East River is a very special connecting water body. You really can’t understand the nature of the water flows in this region without coming to grips with the tidal nature of this channel.

As for the meeting itself, Lisa Baron of the USACE presented the comprehensive view of restoration opportunities. Five specific habitats are the targets for restoration. On the maps that were presented I noticed that Little Neck Bay stood out prominently in at least three of the major restoration categories –coastal wetlands, oyster reefs and eelgrass beds. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have oyster reefs and eelgrass beds in the bay once again! The bay has plenty of room and plenty of opportunity for all of these ecological improvements. I would also add that this valley also has an undetermined potential for the other two target systems -islands for water birds and maritime forests although these were not shown in the current plan.

Large scale, regional restoration needs to be done in a coordinated way but it also needs to be done on a case-by-case project-by-project basis. This plan is trying to do both- maximizing the site specific projects while coordinating the big picture for the region. There is much for all of us to learn from this. The following three web sites will take the interested reader to a good starting point.

The Waters We Share website
http://www.harborestuary.org/watersweshare/

The Waters We Share brochure
http://www.harborestuary.org/watersweshare/pdfs/HEP-Brochure.pdf

Comprehensive Restoration Plan
http://www.harborestuary.org/watersweshare/resources.htm#crp

Next time I think I need to write specifically about some of the restorations that are already underway in and around the preserve. We certainly do live in exciting times.

PUTTING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE

Writing about the Alley Pond Park Wetland Nature Preserve is endless. When you consider the number of different plants and animals and the number of ecological system and the complexity of the biogeochemical processes , it would take forever to document the true nature of this preserve. The preserve also captures many of the philosophical relationships between human kind and the natural world.

Nature neglected.

Nature forgotten.

Nature ever-changing.

Nature resilient.

Nature in the City.

Nature beloved..

All of these and many more can be found just a few steps inside this great preserve.

Now, while there will never be a shortage of topics to write about, I also have to consider the position of this preserve within its larger context. Geography is important. Where things are and how they are connected need to be understood if you are to really understand the nature of a ‘place’.

One of the most productive ways to understand the geography of this preserve is in terms of its 'watershed’. The idea of "watershed" is a fundamental geographic idea and is essential to the development of landscape. The watershed of the wetland preserve is a much larger unit than the preserve itself. (See map at the end of this post) It is defined by water flows and hydrology. Water is the liquid connective tissue analogous to the blood and the circulatory system of the human body except that the water in this area is largely open and renewable and not flowing in a closed loop physiological system.

Our particular watershed sits on the eastern most edge of New York City and includes parts of Nassau County as well. With the wetland preserve at its beating heart, the Alley Creek watershed contains a variety of upland terrestrial ecosystems ( Long Island terminal moraine) and down stream estuarine and marine systems (Little Neck Bay) .

It is also a highly humanized place. Place names like Oakland Lake, Udalls Cove and Ravine, Crocheron Park, Lake Success, Little Neck Bay and Fort Totten are the veil that hide a wonderfully rich natural and human history.

I still love to write about the Wetland Preserve but to do justice to that goal, I have to put it in its proper context. The Alley Watershed is that context. So my future plans may include some of the places, creatures and events that exist throughout this surrounding area.

Hot Time Summer in the City

The preserve is sizzling – literally and figuratively. We are in the first official heat wave of the season and it is peaking this week. Expectations are to be close to the record temperature for today and tomorrow and no temperature or rain relief until at least the week-end.

Nature is powerful even when it comes to heat and cold. People always marvel at the power of nature when it is dramatically demonstrated in the roar of the hurricane or the thrust of an earthquake. But nature is powerful in other ways too. Consider the power of biological productivity. This week I had the chance to do a couple of days of early summer field work in the preserve. On Friday I worked with good friends and APEC staff in the distant parts of the preserve on some meadow management and last night I took a couple of hours in the heaviest growth areas on trail segments 5 and 6. All of these areas were essentially clear and open just a few weeks ago. Now they are on the rising curve of the growing season. The amount of growth is absolutely amazing; it is a testament to the biological vitality of the preserve. The growing season isn’t going to peak until mid-summer and already the trails are overgrown and almost impassable. Most of the Phragmites are 4 to 6 or even 8 feet tall and all the other plants are trying to keep pace.

Phragmites is a great example of what we mean by biological productivity. Phragmites is actually a kind of grass but like no grass you would ever expect to grow on your lawn. (See Pharagmites: common reed for some great biological information and insights http://www.invasiveplants.net/phragmites/). It begins to grow in early to mid April and by July when it finishes its above ground growth it is 12 to 18 feet tall! The rhizomes continue to grow underneath the ground until the plant become dormant, which is why Phragmites does so well each and every year. Twelve feet high in twelve weeks – you do the math – this plant can easily grow a foot or more a week in the peak of its growing season! That’s impressive!

These little April green shoots are the young Phragmites which in July that will be 12+ feet tall in the same number of weeks. 12 weeks=12 feet that is some fast growing plant!!!

Where does all of this new plant materials come from? Is it magic? In a sense it is almost magical. It comes from the truly powerful biological process of photosynthesis and cellular reproduction. Each green cell is designed to “fix” Carbon from the atmosphere (CO2). That Carbon is fixed to the other elements Oxygen and Hydrogen in organic molecules (and later with the addition of Nitrogen and Phosphorus) forms all the new cellular materials that support the new plant growth. This sub-microscopic process creates immense amounts of new plant materials every growing season. Every green plant does this and the sum total of their effort is tremendous. The entire northern hemisphere is breathing in right now and turning that inhalation into untold millions of tons of new plant material. On a global scale this is one of the most powerful natural processes and moves more material in and out of the biosphere that all human activity combined.

How does this process relate to this great preserve? It is a real struggle to keep the trails in the preserve open and passable at this time of the year but it is a struggle that we should be thankful for. Growth and regrowth, season after season, year after year, is never ending. Biological production is nature’s way of breathing in and out and growing stronger every year. It is nature’s way and we should understand and cherish nature’s way.

Saving Urban Biodiversity Forum and Arbor Day

Wednesday evening April 27 and Saturday morning April 30^th were two wonderful events.

The Saving Urban Biodiversity young people’s forum and photography contest on Wednesday evening and had an audience of about 100 or more high school and college–aged audience and a great line-up of speakers. Councilman James Gennaro came to make the keynote address and although he had us on edge when he didn’t arrive at the start time he did make it and talked about what the city is doing right now with biodiversity issues. The following speakers from academia (St. Johns) and from city agencies (NYC DEP and NYC Parks) and non-profit advocacy groups showed the wide range of interest in this issue or should I say issues. I’ll try to see if I can copy and paste the agenda at the end of this post so that anyone reading this can get a more exact idea of who presented that night.

Yesterday (April 30) was the annual Arbor Day event at APEC and students from St. Johns turned out first, to help the children plant their trees and second, to do some of their own field work. Both the morning and afternoon were filled with pride and accomplishments. We had a highly overgrown tree planting site to start and did an amazing job of clearing and planting. I know we left it much better than we found it.

In the afternoon, as a smaller working group, we took on a major patch of Japanese knotweed and garlic mustard - two invasive plants that we hadn’t addressed before. These sites need to be revisited to remove anything that is still left but I think the most important thing is to monitor the possible re-growth and see how quickly things try to come back and see if there are any control measures that work better than others. We followed the standard operating procedures with these plants pulling the knotweed with as much of the root bulb as possible and bagging the removing the garlic mustard before it goes to seed. I took some great shots and some before and after photos and can include them here.

BEFORE and AFTER

Forum Schedule

6 PM. Doors Open. Early Registration and Refreshments.

Continuous showing of Photography contest entries.

7 PM Call to Order. Welcome. Introduction of Keynote speaker.

7:05-7:15. Keynote Address Councilman James Gennaro 24^th Council District

Chair of the Environmental Committee of NYC Council.

7:15-7:20 Photo Awards in the 8-13 year old age group.

Transition to 1^st Panel

7:20-8:00 Panel #1 Saving Urban Biodiversity-Defining the Issues

Moderator: Janice Melnick Northeast Queens Parks Administrator

Frank Cantelmo Ecologist and Associate Professor of Biologist.St Johns University

Michael Feller Director, NYC Natural Resources Group

New York City Parks and Recreation

David Burg Urban Ecologist. President “Wild Metro -

Protecting Natural Where We Live”

Marielle Anzalone Author, botanist and urban conservation biologist

Founder of Drosera and NYC Wildflower Week.

Paula Lazrus Anthropologist/Archaeologist

Assistant Professor St. Johns University

8:00-8:15 Photo Awards in the 14-17 year old age group.

Transition to 2^nd Panel

8:15-9:00 Panel #2 Saving Urban Biodiversity -What is being done? What remains to be done?

Moderator Rita Sherman, President Alley Pond Environmental Center

Jane Jackson Associate Director North Shore Land Alliance

Aline Euler Education Director Alley Pond Environmental Center

Dana Gumb Chief, NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection Staten Island Bluebelt Unit

Karen Blumer Author, Long Island (New York) Native Plants for Landscaping: A Source Book

Minona Heaviland Ecologist New York City Natural Resources Group

New York City Parks and Recreation

9:00-9:15 Photo Awards in the 18-21 year old age group.

Award for Best Overall Photo

Transition to Final Discussion

9:15-9:30 What can you do to help urban biodiversity?

Discussion and Final Remarks facilitated by William Nieter

Director Environmental Studies Program St. Johns University

Saving Biodiversity Forum organizer.

9:30 – 10:00 Adjourn and Exit Building

Saving Urban Biodiversity -upcoming event

This is sort of an anniversary. My very first post to this blog was April 13, 2010; I knew it was some time last April but didn’t know the actual date I decided to try this out. Looking back, I realize that I started out hoping this would be something of a weekly project. That seems to have come up a bit short; I wrote much less in the winter months when I naturally spent much less time out in the preserve. If I had to change anything I think that would make the biggest difference. If I spend more time out in the preserve there will be that much more to write about; there is never a time that I go out to the Alley and not come back with something of interest. Let’s see if over the next year I can find the time to get out into the field more often.

Even if the field work has been less than I would like, I have still been working with students and colleagues to move the preserve forward. Over the last couple of months I have been putting together a special event that will be held on the evening of April 27. It is entitled Saving Urban Biodiversity and is looking like it will be a great program. I’ve had a really great committee helping me put this together and we worked it out so it is both a special event and a photo contest.

Why this event at this time? The forum is a free event aimed directly at young people in this community. We will have a high school and college age audience, hopefully 100-150+. My hope is that we can motivate a circle of young people to take on these issues and to address the challenge of local biodiversity. I’ve done a great deal of work on this project and have a couple of talented panels with just the right combination of speakers and presenters. I’ll post the final program when it is printed next week.

The other aspect of the evening is the photo context called A Salute to Biodiversity in New York City. My great friend Rich Blum did almost all of this organizing and put together a splendid contest which seems to have taken off. The event is organized in three age categories in the three topics of wildlife, flora and landscapes so we will have 9 first and second place winners plus a best-in-show. John Charos and the Central Veterinary Associates stepped in as sponsors and are offering the cash prizes to the winners. We are still 10 days away so I can write more about both of these events as we get closer to the launch date.

The only other thing I have to report is that the natural areas restoration of the pump station project has begun. To my eye it is on a surprising scale. I took some preliminary photos yesterday of the work in progress and it surpasses my expectations. I think when it is done it will be a great improvement to the preserve. There is much more to be said about that development but again that would be a separate report. Here are two photos of what I saw yesterday.

I have to say I am happy to be back to this again. I know that I write this for myself and that no one actually reads this but me. (Actually that is not entirely true I did get at least one business scam offer as a result of this blog) Writing this just as a personal reflection might not always be the case but for this last year and for the foreseeable future I am content to write this as a personal log of my connection to the preserve.