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Enhancements at the Roosevelt Community Garden
Whole Kids Foundation Garden Grant We are incredibly grateful to the Whole Kids Foundation for their generous $3,000 donation to support our efforts at the Roosevelt Community Garden. This funding has allowed us to create a sensory and vegetable gardening area for children ages 2-11, where they can plant, explore and pick freely. This new area features child-sized raised beds for easy access to plants, along with gardening tools and toys and materials for educational programs and other gardening resources. Next spring, we look forward to enhancing this area with native plants that offer different textures, colors and scents, further engaging children in the garden. The enthusiasm we’ve witnessed from the kids is inspiring. Thank you again to the Whole Kids Foundation for supporting our mission to cultivate the next generation of gardeners! NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets Grant With the support of a $13,000 grant from NYS Ag and Markets Program, we purchased solar-powered equipment for the Roosevelt Community Garden. The solar-powered lighting extends our operational hours from 6 am to 9 pm, while a solar generator allows us to expand our programming and power electronic devices like gardening tools, cell phones and audio-visual equipment for workshops. This addition significantly enhances the garden, creating a more welcoming atmosphere for all visitors. Families can now gather for evening activities, such as our recent multicultural potluck supper on September 21st. This initiative reflects our commitment to fostering a vibrant, safe and inclusive community space where everyone can connect with nature and one another. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who contributed to this project, ensuring that our garden continues to thrive as a central hub for learning and collaboration.
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Expanded Programming at the Roosevelt Community Garden
Roosevelt Community Garden Back to School Wellness Nature Walk On September 12th, the Land Alliance hosted a successful Back to School Wellness Nature Walk in partnership with Dr. Suanne Kowal-Connelly, MD, FAAP, Director of Pediatric Clinical Quality at Harmony Healthcare LI. Twenty attendees, including 10 enthusiastic youth from the Roosevelt and Freeport areas, gathered at the Norman J. Levy Preserve. Led by dedicated Land Alliance volunteers Wendy and Peter Martin, participants explored the trails, learning about various plants and wildlife, along with the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. On November 16th, we will host a wellness event at the Roosevelt Public Library. This event will equip parents with practical solutions for a healthier lifestyle as the holiday season approaches. Attendees can look forward to a panel discussion led by nutrition and health experts, as well as engaging in cooking and planting activities for kids. The primary goal of these events is to engage more youth in outdoor activities while highlighting the importance of healthy eating, staying active and understanding the value of a healthy lifestyle for overall well-being.
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New Composting Hub at the MacDonald Property
Composting’s value in ameliorating climate change impacts and its public popularity couldn’t be more evident. But at the same time, composting programs’ budgets are being cut in New York City and Long Island alike. At a time when New York City’s community composting program cuts may cause layoffs and disruption of existing services which could reduce waste processing capacity by as much as 25% (https://www.wastedive.com/news/dsny-community-compost-budget-cuts-big-reuse-les-ecology-center-compost-power-nyc/700572/), the need for education about the benefits and how-tos of composting is greater than ever. And little is being done in our community; it is time for us to pick up the reins. As a first step in what we hope will become a larger initiative, the Land Alliance jumped in and constructed three compost bins at our MacDonald property in Matinecock. The compost system will allow processing of vegetation debris on site. Grass clippings, leaves and other vegetation debris from the property will be contained, turned and moved among containers by volunteer and an experienced landscape contractor maintaining the property. Over time we plan to add material from other properties. In addition, we are conducting a series of educational workshops led by local experts and educators on composting at home, food waste and soil analysis and benefits through composting. Community members will learn to understand the value of this practice to enhancing natural communities, reducing waste and minimizing soil erosion. This new program was made possible through a grant from the New York State Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP) administered by the Land Trust Alliance. Match funding from National Grid, alongside the NYSCPP support, is allowing us to upgrade irrigation, set up tables and benches at the property and develop planting areas that will include a blueberry enclosure, fruit trees, a pollinator corner and a small meadow on which the compost will be used. Interpretive signage and deer fencing will round out our project. Composting helps complete the nutrient cycle by recycling plant material and returning nutrients to the soil onsite. MacDonald’s habitat value will be enhanced in an area of intense development pressure. It will welcome a community of diverse economic and cultural backgrounds to learn about composting and its support of our native plant and local wildlife that depend on them.
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Cushman Woods Meadow Transformation
About two years have passed since we launched site preparation for the Cushman Woods meadow. The first step was forestry mulching, which involved the use of a powerful brush-cutting tool to cut and shred years’ growth of undesirable vegetation. It included porcelain berry vine and multiflora rose on about five open (but badly) invaded acres of Cushman Woods Preserve. This area is located along a utility line in the northwest part of the property. Then came monitoring and removal of invasive mile-a-minute weed, unhealthy and invasive trees and vines (that clung to desired meadow trees). This was followed by the planting of new trees to screen the debris area.  The extensive tree work and the addition of four lovely benches were funded by Oliver Grace and the Oliver R. Grace Charitable Foundation. A milestone was reached when the Cushman Woods meadow was seeded late last fall with warm-season native grasses and wildflowers. Funding for site preparation, meadow design, seed and installation was provided by the Cushman family and the Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District. The photo above shows the wild rye coming in early to help combat regrowth of invasives before the natives can establish.
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Restoration of the Williams Preserve
Williams has come a long way since Mary and Tim Williams donated this beautiful 4.5-acre Lattingtown parcel to the Land Alliance last June. We are embarking upon an extensive preserve-wide habitat restoration. Our restoration ecologist consultant Peter Meleady generously donated the plan. Thus far, we have been readying the site for plantings. We plan to begin implementation this spring, thanks to a $42,000 grant from the New York State Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP) and New York’s Environmental Protection Fund. The NYSCPP is administered by the Land Trust Alliance, in coordination with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. We are also installing irrigation lines. They will enable us to have water for plantings proposed for the lower part of the property, along the pond edge and to establish a small grassland area. Many thanks to Spadefoot Design and Construction for donating services related to infrastructure upgrades. Our volunteers have done a great job of cutting English ivy from majestic oak, tulip and sycamore trees, uncovering and extending the stone staircase that leads from near the pond to what will be the meadow and digging out multiflora rose from the creek. They uncovered an expanse of spring ephemeral trout lily where we found only a handful of flowers last year. Our latest Walk in the Woods on a rainy Saturday showed participants our progress and provided a bit of the property’s history, along with a glimpse of what’s to come. Additional funds will be needed to complete the project. If you would like to contribute to the development of this wonderful new public preserve, please contact Jane Jackson at 516-922-1028 or jjackson@northshorelandalliance.org or click here to donate.
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