-
Grenville Baker Boys and Girls Club Help Slow Down Mile-a-Minute Vine
Persicaria perfoliata, commonly known as mile-a-minute vine or Asiatic tearthumb, is an invasive vine from Asia that poses a significant threat to the health of many preserves. This vine features small, triangular leaves and thorny stems. Removing the plant before it goes to seed is optimal and especially before the berries, each of which contains a single seed, mature. The time to act is when the berries turn from green to pink and blue and are easily knocked to the ground. To mitigate next year’s growth, our dedicated team of volunteers worked this fall to remove the berries from the plants and bag them. This effort prevents the berries from entering the seed bank and germinating. Additionally, we place the bags in the sun in an attempt to heat up the contents and kill any remaining seeds before proper disposal, further reducing the risk of spread. In September, a group of 20 students from the Grenville Baker Boys and Girls Club joined us to cut and bag berries in the Humes Preserve meadow. A week later, five AmeriCorps volunteers lent their support as well. Across our multiple meadows and with the help of many of our volunteers, we successfully removed and bagged over 40 contractor bags worth of mile-a-minute vine and its berries. Thanks to their hard work, we anticipate a lighter seed load next year.
Continue reading -
Volunteers Learn How to Identify and Manage Invasive Species
Volunteers are the backbone of the Land Alliance. Without them we simply would not be able to keep up with all the stewardship work that needs to get done. This year our volunteers have worked cumulatively more than 1,200 hours. They are some of the hardest working people we know, never shying away from a challenge. Whether it be hauling bamboo or removing hundreds of pounds of invasives from a pond or helping monitor preserve trails for damage, our volunteers do it all. Earlier this summer our volunteers and O’Neil Stewards were taken on a tour of Hope Goddard Iselin Preserve to investigate invasive species in the woodland and meadow. The tour was led by Abby, Melody and Kassidy from the Long Island Invasive Species Management Area (LIISMA). Throughout the trails, volunteers were introduced to invasive species that they may not have been familiar with. With LIISMA’s help, the group learned ways to identify invasives, where they like to grow and their impacts to their ecosystem. This knowledge is crucial for our volunteers to be able to distinguish between what they should pull and what should remain. With new invasives species appearing all the time, up-to-date information is one of the greatest tools in our toolbelt for protecting our environment. Thank you LIISMA for helping us and our volunteers stay informed! Sign up to Volunteer with North Shore Land Alliance! To learn more, visit www.northshorelandalliance.org/programs/volunteers-for-open-space/ and click the green Sign Up button or email [email protected]. Hope to see you soon!
Continue reading -
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.
Continue reading -
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].
Continue reading -
Williams Preserve Progress
Our first order of business at the charming Williams Preserve in Lattingtown, donated by Mary and Tim Williams, was to mow the areas along the driveway to facilitate access for maintenance. We then conducted an initial clearing of what will become a tiny parking area, to be installed once we have secured local approval. Since our last newsletter we began the long process of tackling extensive growth of undesirable vegetation throughout the property. A large volume of vines and invasive shrubs has been cleared mechanically, rescuing a number of native trees and shrubs (including a statuesque oak leaf hydrangea) in the process. In addition, a wall that was part of a formal garden designed by Ferruccio Vitale was uncovered. Much of the remaining clearing needs to be done by hand to protect the native vegetation that remains and access hard to reach areas along sensitive slopes and pond and stream edges. Coincidentally, Ferrucio Vitale also designed the formal garden at the Rumpus House at the Humes property. Umberto Innocenti began his work as a landscape architect at the firm of Ferruccio Vitale and Alfred Geiffert, Jr. He left it in 1931 to start the firm of Innocenti & Webel which, over the following decades, became the preferred landscape architects for the Humes Estate. Since the initial clearing was completed, our dedicated volunteers have removed vines by hand from the countless mature, majestic trees that are found throughout the property. They are beginning to remove invasive shrubs and vines from along the creek that goes from the property boundary and under the driveway into the pond. The spring ephemeral trout lily was observed on the bank of the creek in the spring; we hope to find more of this and perhaps other spring ephemeral’s as the property’s restoration continues. The creek is also lined with native jewel weed, which supports hummingbirds, so we are excited to learn more about the wildlife here. A highlight of the work our workers and volunteers has done was the uncovering of a stone staircase installed decades ago to connect the future meadow at the top of the property to the pond below. While it will require a little “engineering” to fully make the connection and become safely navigable, it is a discovery we are very happy about! We are working to develop a phased habitat restoration plan that will map out several natural communities – meadow, grassland, freshwater pond, stream and woodland – with implementation to begin next spring. We welcome volunteers and look forward to the time when St. John’s Church parishioners and summer camp attendees can take a quiet stroll or eat a sandwich by the pond. With many thanks to the Williams family for their generous gift.
Continue reading