Resource: NYC Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project

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STEW-MAP (the Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project) is New York City’s first ever map of the more than 5,000 civic environmental groups working in our amazing city.

The first phase of STEW-MAP is a survey for organizations to self-identify themselves and their work in environmental stewardship:

If you are a gardener, a park advocate, a dog walker, a beach cleaner, a kayaker, an environmentalist, an educator, or a community organizer – we need your help in putting your group on the map! …

Please complete [a] brief online form [ENGLISH] [ESPAÑOL] in order to be a part of this new effort.

A dozen different citywide greening groups and 20 other organizations are working together with researchers from the US Forest Service and Columbia University to develop this project.

The assessment will ask you questions about your organization’s mission, size, capacity, geographic areas of interest and partner organizations. Your efforts will result in a series of publicly-accessible, citywide Stewardship Maps and will help inform the development of citywide, participatory Stewardship Roundtables.

The assessment should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. If at any time you have any questions regarding the assessment or the overall STEW-Map project please feel free to contact the project researchers, Dr. Dana R. Fisher from Columbia University’s Department of Sociology and Erika S. Svendsen of the US Forest Service at the project’s e-mail address: stewmap@columbia.edu.

Although the survey will ask for your name and contact information, all personal identifying information will be substituted with randomly generated identification codes once the survey is
completed. If you feel uncomfortable at any time, feel free to stop the assessment.

If you have any questions or concerns about the study you can contact Dr. Fisher at stewmap@columbia.edu or the Institutional Review Board of Columbia University at 212-870-3585 (IRB Protocol #AAAC3958).

We thank you for your organization’s participation!

It’s interesting to me that the Columbia Department of Sociology is involved in this effort. It would be interesting to collect the involvement and experiences of individuals engaged in local stewardship of their neighborhoods. In this regard, the “organization” language is a bit off-putting. What if I don’t belong to, or speak for, an organization involved in stewardship?

[Note: Be sure to read the comment below from Lindsay Campbell, explaining their focus on groups and organizations in this stage of the project.]

I chose to answer the survey anyway, as an individual, using this blog to represent my “organization.” Although I haven’t used the term much, here is where I address many of the issues associated with stewardship, including:

  • Land use practices
  • Sustainability
  • Recognizing and valuing native flora, fauna, and natural areas
  • Ecological restoration

and so on. I try to enact and influence changes on my little patch of land and my neighborhood, whether in my gardens, for street trees, or open and green space. I hope that I educate and inform others both through my efforts, and by highlighting and promoting work that others are doing. I try to be a steward of the place I’m in.

via Susan Siegel, Executive Director, Flatbush Development Corporation, private correspondence

News: A Green Center for Refuge Visitors in Jamaica Bay

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In the New York Daily News yesterday:

A new $3.3 million visitor center for the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge opened last week after more than five years of design and construction. …

Once certified, the building will be the first in the National Park Service’s Northeast Region to meet a stringent standard for green buildings known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, said Carol Whipple, the project manager.

– Eco-friendly Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Opens, Rachel Monahan, New York Daily News

The 10,000 acres of the wildlife refuge provides an important stopover for migratory birds. In all, more than 330 species of birds call it home. …

The lighting is 90% natural.

On a warm summer day, the breeze from open windows pulled upward by a wind turbine on the roof keeps the central hall plenty cool without air conditioning.

The building also maximizes the sun’s rays in winter, including windows aligned for the sun’s winter path and its warmth collected in a dark, heat-retaining floor. …

Additionally, all the materials came from within 500 miles, including recycled redwood siding and easily renewable materials such as the bamboo and cork floors and the natural-fiber cabinets.

They also reused the old concrete structure on the site. The urinals are waterless, and the landscaping outside relies on native plants.

Links:

First Macro Shots

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Alstroemeria
Alstroemeria flowers
My new macro lens arrived today. I would say that I was like a kid on Christmas, except that I am notorious among friends and family for carefully unwrapping any gift I receive so as to not tear the paper so I can save it.

The very, very first shot I took was of my router. Not that interesting. I deleted it. The Alstroemeria is the second macro shot I took. One of our next-door neighbors was coming home, and she had a bouquet in her arms. The other shots are from my backyard.

Itea “Little Henry”
Itea "“Little Henry”"

Ilex verticillata, Winterberry (female)
Ilex verticillata (female)

Nepeta calamintha, Catmint “Walker’s Low”
Nepeta calamintha "“Walker's Low”"

Note the bonus ant in the above photo!

Hydrangea flower
Hydrangea flower

This lens will take some getting used to before I can select and frame my subjects effectively. It’s a long lens, 105mm (digital, logner equivalent 35mm), so the depth-of-field is compressed. The advantage is that the combination of long focal length and closest focusing distance of 1 foot can provide 1:1 reproduction ratios: life-size images captured in the camera, which are much larger than life when enlarged. For example, here’s a 1:1 photo of text from the second paragraph of this post:

DSC_2121

Besides shallow depth-of-field, the other disadvantage of a long focal length is increased sensitivity to camera shake. This macro lens also has built-in image stabilization, which counteracts shake by a factor of 2 or more.

I’m really interested in trying out this new lens for insect photography. The lens can focus out to infinity, so I can increase the depth-of-field by shooting from a greater distance. Here’s an example of that in the last shot I took today: leaves from the mystery Ligularia I bought at the Chelsea Garden Center two Saturdays ago.

Ligularia leaves
Ligularia leaves

These leaves are exceptionally ruffled. Although much of each leaf is still not in focus, the overall image accurately conveys the texture and depth of the leaves. This is my favorite of the dozen or so shots I took today with my new toy. I’m looking forward to having more play time with it.

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

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Shrubberies, Chelsea Garden Center
Shrubberies, Chelsea Garden Center

Last Saturday I visited the Chelsea Garden Center in Red Hook.

It was part of our day of car errands. While the roof was getting replaced, the driveway was in use as a warehouse and shop; the car stayed in the garage for three weeks. That may have contributed to our car problems later in the day.

I’d built up a shopping list of outdoor tools and supplies to acquire. We visited Lowes first. They did not have plain cedar mulch, only the “decorator” varieties. They also didn’t have any large bags of Holly-Tone. I passed on the smaller bags, thinking I could get a large bag at Chelsea. I regretted this decision later; Chelsea only had the smaller bags as well, and their prices are much higher than Lowes.

Chelsea’s strength is in woody plants. They had a wide variety of choice shrubs, trees and vines. All were in excellent condition. They were also artfully displayed, as you can soon from the photos.

I didn’t buy any woodies. I bought some unusual shade perennials: an unidentified Ligularia, a beautiful silvery Pulmonaria, and a bright white-variegated Liriope. These will go along the shady path on the north side of the house.

I also picked up some annuals. My preference is to go to one of the larger Greenmarkets for annuals. But I wanted to plant our window boxes before the Victorian Flatbush House Tour the next day. I had also hoped to plant the hell strip between the sidewalk and the street with some drought-tolerant annuals. I bought 18 plants for these two projects. Again, pricier than they would have been at a Greenmarket; only one, maybe two, of the six different species I chose would not have been available there.

So overall, Chelsea is certainly a pleasant visit. Staff was helpful, if a bit stressed by the business they were getting; it felt like they were still getting into their weekend groove. Noone was able to identify the species, let alone variety, of the sole specimen of Ligularia I found. If you have an eye for them, they have a few unusual perennials. I didn’t take but a cursory look at their woody stock, but that seems to be a specialty of theirs, just based on the quantity, variety, and staging.

PS: When you see a car stalled in the non-shoulder area of the Prospect Expressway, honking at them does not help. They already know they are stalled in a dangerous location. And trust me, they want to be there even less than you want them there.

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

Chelsea Garden Center, Red Hook

Teak Window Boxes, Chelsea Garden Center

Perennials for Sun, Chelsea Garden Center

Shrubberies, Chelsea Garden Center

Shrubberies, Chelsea Garden Center

Reminder: First Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow on Sunday, June 24

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Brooklyn Blogade Flatbush Flyer (Wide & Small)
Adrian Kinloch, Brit in Brooklyn, came up with these great banners and flyers to promote the inaugural Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow.

To continue the networking which began at the Brooklyn Blogfest in May, Brooklyn bloggers are taking on the road to a different neighborhood each month. The first event is in June, the neighborhood is Flatbush, the location is Vox Pop on Cortelyou Road.

Please read the announcement post for full details, including how to RSVP for this event. That post will be kept up-to-date with any changes and additions as we learn about them.

News: Brooklyn Heights Fights for Botanical Accuracy

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An assortment of caryopses. Credit: Fir0002


From Monday’s New York Times, in an article about the slow season in New York State’s legislature:

Earlier this year, Senator Michael F. Nozzolio, an upstate Republican, introduced legislation that would make sweet corn the state vegetable. …

But when the bill came up for debate in the Senate on Tuesday, it quickly earned the disapproval of Senator Martin Connor, a Brooklyn Democrat.

“As everyone knows, corn is a grain,” he said. “And I would propose that we make sweet corn the New York State official grain.” …

– As Legislative Session Wanes, So Does Leaders’ Momentum

“The criteria is whether it comes from the reproductive part of a plant or the vegetative part of the plant,” Dr. [Marvin P.] Pritts said. “If it comes from the reproductive part of the plant, it’s a fruit. If it comes from the vegetative part of the plant, it’s a vegetable.”

Botanically speaking, corn is a caryopsis, or dry fruit — popularly known as a grain.

Dr. Pritts allowed that corn, like a tomato, is eaten like a vegetable, “so to a normal, everyday person, it’s a vegetable.”

So what makes a grain, anyway?

In botany, a caryopsis is a type of simple dry fruit — one that is monocarpelate (formed from a single carpel) and indehiscent (not opening at maturity) and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused with the thin seed coat.

The caryopsis is popularly called a grain and is the fruit typical of the family Poaceae (or Gramineae), such as wheat, rice, and corn.

The term grain is also used in a more general sense as synonymous with cereal (as in “cereal grains”, which include some non-Gramineae). Considering that the fruit wall and the seed are intimately fused into a single unit, and the caryopsis or grain is a dry fruit, it is not surprising that in general usage little concern is given to technically separating the terms “fruit” and “seed” in these plant structures. In many grains, the “hulls” to be separated before processing are actually flower bracts.

– Caryopsis, Wikipedia

Glad we cleared that up!

via Brooklyn Heights Blog

Meta: Events on the Sidebar

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I just changed the page layout to include a list of upcoming events at the top of the sidebar on the right side of the page. I’ll keep the focus on local events. In fact, right now, all four events listed are hyper-local, on Cortelyou Road, right down the block from my home:

This is an experiment. Updating it is a manual process, requiring me to change that section of the layout whenever I want to remove an expired event or add a new upcoming one. So, at least for now, I’m only going to include events in which I’m involved, which I’m helping to promote, which I hope to attend, or which I would attend if I could.

First Firefly!

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Blog Widow John and I saw our first firefly of the year as we were coming home just after sunset this evening. Seemed to be only the one. I looked for others up and down the street and didn’t see any.

It’s summer.

Here’s a photo I took of the first one I saw last year. I found it on my hose reel. The date last year was June 17, so they’re right on time or a little ahead this year.

Firefly

Yeah, it’s blurry and out-of-focus. I’ll get some better shots this year. I’m saving up for a good macro lens.

Lampyridae is a family in the beetle order Coleoptera, members of which are commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glow worms due to their conspicuous nocturnal (or, more accurately, crepuscular) use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. The firefly is capable of producing a “cold light” containing no ultra violet rays, with a wavelength from 510 to 670 nanometers, pale yellowish or reddish green in color, with a lighting efficiency of 96%.

There are more than 2000 species of firefly, found in temperate and tropical environments around the world. Many species can be found in marshes or in wet, wooded areas where their larvae have more abundant sources of food.
– Firefly article on Wikipedia

I don’t know what species we have in our area. Let’s see what we can figure out. At first glance, my little guy (or gal) above looks similar to the photo of Photuris lucicrescens accompanying the Wikipedia article:

but there are also some noticeable differences:

  • The eyes of my beetle are not hidden beneath the pronotum.
  • The yellow margin on the prontoum is different.
  • My beetle doesn’t have the center stripes down the elytra.

It’s possible that there are more than one species here in Brooklyn. BugGuide has a photo of a firefly identified as Photinus pyralis that looks exactly like my guy. I’m gonna go with that, for now, at least until I can get some better photos of the fireflies in my yard.

News: Creating Wildlife Habitat in Windsor Terrace

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In the New York Daily News today:

In the densely populated strip of land between Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery, [Jennifer] Hopkins and fellow gardeners are creating oases of green for butterflies and birds.

The goal of the Greenway Project is to link two of Brooklyn’s largest habitats – at least for airborne species.
– Oases of green for butterflies and birds, New York Daily News, June 12

For the birds, Hopkins plants berry bushes, has a cherry tree and keeps her birdbath full. One neighbor has followed in her footsteps and put up a humming bird feeder. Another has a bush where a family of cardinals is nesting. The nearby Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church is also on board and is set to plant a garden this summer, she said.

The article never mentions the name of the neighborhood “between Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery.” It’s Windsor Terrace.

I know of a “Greenway Project” in Brooklyn, but the one mentioned in the article seems to be a different effort. Jennifer, if you read this, please let us know more.

Whatever the name, it’s important to educate and engage private landowners in maintaining and developing wildlife habitat by preserving and planting trees and other non-lawn plants on their properties.

I’ve shown this map on this blog before. It shows the landcover classification for central Brooklyn.
Brooklyn City Council District 40: Classified Landcover

Windsor Terrace forms a corridor between two refuges: Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park. Victorian Flatbush forms a corridor extending south from Prospect Park, pointing toward the bays, beaches, and Atlantic Ocean. I recently saw an ovenbird in my backyard, “rare in the city” according to Hopkins as cited in the article.

Most of the tree canopy in Brooklyn is in private hands. It’s unprotected and vulnerable. If New York City is going to have a million more trees in the next ten years, we need to value and find ways to preserve and protect the ones we already have, including those on private property.