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Grant Funding Helps Sustain Our Water Education Program and the Acquisition of the Humes Property
Grant Funding Helps Sustain the Long Island Water Education Program and the Acquisition of the Humes Property In April, the Land Alliance was awarded a $40,000 grant in support of our acquisition of the 28-acre Humes property in the Village of Mill Neck. This acquisition has the potential to be transformative by preserving one of the highest conservation priorities for the Land Alliance. Furthermore, the property’s central location in our designated area and potential community conservation uses – from passive recreation and appropriate public access to agriculture and habitat restoration – will provide the organization with unprecedented opportunities to demonstrate the values of connectivity for both wildlife and people. The New York State Conservation Partnership Program transaction grant will cover the indirect costs and expenses associated with this important acquisition, which will close in July. To learn more about the Humes Preserve, visit www.northshorelandalliance.org/places-to-visit/humes-preserve/ We also received $40,000 to cover two years of expenses for our educator, Karen Mossey (pictured at top), and supplies for our Long Island Water Education Program, which launched in elementary and middle schools in the 2014/15 school year. Our three-session program uses hands-on, interactive lessons both in the classroom and at a nature preserve to teach students about Long Island’s aquifer and surface waters. The lessons are designed to enable students to understand how they function and how they’re threatened. The program not only raises awareness about these issues, it encourages a proactive approach to conservation among younger generations. In its first year, the program reached over 1,000 fourth, f ifth and sixth graders in nine schools in four school districts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. In the coming school year we plan to add additional classes in some of these schools and two additional school districts. T his year, the Land Trust Alliance’s New York State Conservation Partnership Program invested in 76 projects totaling $1.8M to increase the pace, quality and permanence of land conservation throughout New York. The Land Alliance received the largest award granted and we are very grateful for this most generous support. If your school would like to participate, please contact the Land Alliance at 516-922-1028 or info@northshorelandalliance.org.
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Teaching a New Generation About Long Island Water
Teaching a New Generation about Long Island Water Our educational programming has been building for some time. Through our outreach, educational panel discussions and our Walks in the Woods, the Land Alliance has felt the need to have a stronger presence in local schools. At the same time, there is increasing recognition that Long Island’s water is perhaps our community’s most precious and possibly most vulnerable resource. Still, many Long Islanders are unaware that the source of their drinking water is the aquifer under their feet or that nitrogen is the number one contaminant of our harbors, Long Island Sound and the ocean. For all of these reasons, a generous donor has offered to fund a part-time educator to enter local schools to implement a three-lesson series of programs that will start in the classroom and move outdoors. Students will learn about Long Island’s groundwater, surface waters and watersheds and stewardship of this essential resource, while using interactive models, diagrams, maps and aerial photos. Designed for fourth graders, the program can be modified for use with other ages or with after-school students. A selection of follow-up activities participants can do on their own or with their classroom teachers will be included, and state and federal education standards will be addressed. With an introduction in the classroom, the first lesson will introduce students to the aquifer from which their drinking water comes. Students will learn how water enters and leaves the aquifer and how contaminants and excessive use can threaten water quality and quantity. The second lesson, to be conducted on school grounds or within walking distance of the school, will identify the concept of watersheds. This will include a discussion on where rain goes and describe storm water runoff and its connection to the health of our streams, ponds, bays and Long Island Sound. Students will assess how their activities can be harmful or beneficial to our surface waters. The final lesson will take place at a local nature preserve where there is a pond, stream or beach. Students will identify where they are in a watershed and the role local topography plays in shaping the water body at the site. They will also make comparisons between the preserve and nearby developed land and discuss features that may impact water quality. Through any of a number of activities (including water quality or soil testing, a beach exploration, planting native plants, a study of wildlife at the site and pulling invasive plants), participants will become familiar with the preserve and interactions among its inhabitants. This will help students recognize how their actions can affect the quality and quantity of its water for preserve visitors and inhabitants alike. We hope that the implementation of this program in local schools will encourage students, and, in turn, their families, to become stewards of the waters that make Long Island such a desirable place to live. If your school would like to participate, please contact Jane Jackson at 516-6922-1028 or info@northshorelandalliance.org.
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