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A Decade of Service by Friends Academy Students
For ten years, the Land Alliance has had the pleasure of hosting Friends Academy seniors who spend the last three weeks of the school year volunteering for independent service projects. This year we benefited from the good works of five students: Aleaxa Moschetto, Livia Prestandra, Ines Roti, Gavin Sanders and Ryan Zouak. All participated in a variety of activities which we hope gave them a better understanding of the ins and outs of a non-profit organization. Gavin and Ryan worked primarily at Wawapek. They helped with weeding in our habitat restoration area, spreading woodchips in our native gardens, removing invasives and keeping our trails cleared. You may have also seen them at the Hole in One at the Golf and Tennis outing! Livia, Alexa and Ines have been working throughout our preserves. They help with invasive species removal, trail maintenance and planting. They have also been working with the Land Alliance’s volunteers to learn more about the work we do all year round in our preserves. We are grateful for and impressed by their good nature and willingness to learn – traits that will serve them well throughout their lives. Thank you Gavin, Ryan, Alexa, Livia and Ines! Congratulations on your graduation and best of luck in your upcoming years.
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Volunteers Improve Habitat Quality at Land Alliance Preserves
This Spring volunteers have been busy at all of our preserves completing meaningful projects that improve habitat quality and visitor experience. For the past two years, the Land Alliance has been fortunate to work with the Planting Fields Foundation’s AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. This group of nine young adults travels throughout the country while completing hands-on projects for local non-profits. This year’s crew demonstrated excellent teamwork and dedication. It helped to remove invasive shrubs from the woodland at the Hope Goddard Iselin Preserve, move debris out of the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden, prepare the pollinator gardens at the Shore Road Sanctuary and clean up the Ralf Lange Garden at Wawapek. We are so grateful to this hardworking group of stewards that have truly made a difference in our preserves. We wish them luck in their travels! Jericho High School’s Environmental Club Jericho High School’s Environmental Club is a treasured partner of the Land Alliance. It returns year after year to volunteer their time and improve our preserves. This spring, Jericho students visited the Humes Preserve to remove invasive garlic mustard from the meadow and lesser celandine from the woodland garden. Students learned about invasive species issues while engaging hands-on in the management of these pesky weeds. They even had a few wildlife encounters, coming face to face with a vole and a wolf spider during their activities! Thanks so much to this curious and dedicated group of young environmentalists. Bethpage Girl Scout Troop 3535 joined us at the Shore Road Sanctuary Bethpage Girl Scout Troop 3535 joined us at the Shore Road Sanctuary this spring to learn about Cold Spring Harbor’s coastal habitats and wildlife while picking up trash and debris on the beach. This hearty group of 10-year-old girls showed their dedication to serving their environment and community by braving the elements to rid the beach of trash big and small, from used tires to the smallest microplastics. They made sure that no trash remained at the conclusion of their project. Thank you to Troop 3535 for keeping our beaches beautiful! The Grenville Baker Boys & Girls Club returned to the MacDonald Preserve in Matinecock this year to remove invasive vines from trees on the property and clean up litter throughout the preserve. With help from Spadefoot Design & Construction, these middle school students were able to pull loads of vines off trees while learning about the effects of invasive plants on tree health. Thanks to Stephanie Urio and our friends from Grenville Baker for their continued help to keep MacDonald healthy! Grenville Bakers Boys and Girls Club volunteers with the Land Alliance at MacDonald Preserve Care to join us as a volunteer? In the woods, meadows, beaches and gardens of the north shore, our volunteers are working hard to preserve open space and restore native habitats. If you are interested in connecting with like-minded people while learning about nature, please visit us online at www.northshorelandalliance.org or contact Charlotte Brennan at 516-922-1028 or [email protected].
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6th Annual Earth Day at the Roosevelt Community Garden
Nearly 100 volunteers gathered at the Roosevelt Community Garden on Saturday, April 22nd to take part in our 6th Annual Earth Day event. We want to express our sincere thanks to all those who joined us in this year’s celebration. Your involvement had a remarkable effect on our community garden and surroundings, and it helped us prepare for our annual planting day in May. We are grateful for Senator Kevin Thomas’s presence at our garden and his willingness to learn more about us.
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Recycling Matters
As of January 1, 2023, the Town of Oyster Bay has reinstated its glass recycling program after a four-year hiatus. Oyster Bay joins the towns of North Hempstead, Huntington, Hempstead, Islip, Babylon, Smithtown and others across the island in recycling this highly used material. Why is Recycling Important? Americans dispose of some 10M metric tons of glass annually, with an astounding two-thirds of it ending up in landfills. Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity. It is an easy step that we can all take to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators. And we know less land dedicated to landfills means more land for wildlife. And that is something we can all agree is in short supply these days. We applaud the Town of Oyster Bay for reinstating its glass recycling program and encourage you all to recycle your glass jars and bottles with your recycling each week. Why waste precious land for landfills when we can recycle, renew and reuse. Just this simple step will make a world of difference for our environment!
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Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act Signed Into Law
When landowners choose to conserve their land there are several different ways to achieve that end. One important tool is a conservation easement, a voluntary, perpetual agreement between a landowner and a qualified conservation organization, such as the Land Alliance, that restricts the use of the land to protect its conservation values. Since 1979, donations of qualified conservation easements have been eligible for federal tax deductions. To date, according to the National Conservation Easement Database, over 201,525 easements have been donated protecting 33,527,688 acres of land. Unfortunately, there has been some abuse of these tax deductions. In rare, but harmful, instances, appraisals have been inflated in transactions known as “syndications”. These abuses have jeopardized the integrity of conservation easements and the tax incentive that has helped thousands of Americans voluntarily conserve millions of acres of their own land. Now the syndications will be halted thanks to the federal spending bill signed into law by the President on December 29, 2022. Included in the law was the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act, targeted legislation that will protect conservation easements into the future. If you are interested in learning more about conservation easements, please contact Andrew Geisel at [email protected] or 516-922-1028.
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