High school freshmen assemble at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge to protest it's closing during Trump's shutdown of the government

QNS


About 120 ninth-grade students from Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in Forest Hills, rallied at the shuttered Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center on Thursday in an effort to raise awareness on how the ongoing federal government shutdown is impacting their education, school and communities as a whole.   

Students presented their solutions to environmental issues on Jan. 17 and advocated for the opening of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center — located at 175-10 Cross Bay Blvd. — where they’re unable to complete their fieldwork investigations, due to the government shutdown.

The students acknowledged the hardworking rangers at the refuge — and other national parks — who aren’t being paid, saying, “They’ve done so much for the bay such as cleaning it up, and making sure people have a good time.” 

Together they chanted, “Don’t shut down my education…whose parks…our parks!” as they concluded with their final message: “Speak your mind, reach out, make your voice heard, after all power comes with unity.”


Each year, ninth-grade students in Living Environment class work with the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the National Parks System, to study ecological systems and human impact in a real-world setting. At the conclusion of every semester, students present their findings at the Visitors Center as part of their final presentation of learning.

Wildlife refuge proposed for LIC tracks

From Curbed:

A proposal has been released to open up the Montauk Cutoff, a short abandoned rail line of Long Island City, to the public as a haven of urban wilderness. Brooklyn Grange and Bang Studio released the plan, dubbed the Wild Line, with an intent to "transform the Long Island City community by injecting a new sense of life: creating new kinds of habitat for animals, humans, birds, insects, and microorganisms."

The plan revolves around three guiding principals. The first is to "create a gradient of wilderness" in which the Wild Line becomes more wild as it moves from north to south. The second is to leave the Smiling Hogshead Ranch, a community garden that’s located by the north end of the tracks, in tact so as to co-exist as a neighbor to the Wild Line. Finally, they envision controlled public access from three different access points. The southern end will hold a wildlife preserve totally off limits to the public.

Sounds fun. How many millions of taxpayer dollars will end up being funneled into this?

Mission: To catch a kinkajou

Cesar Castillo

From the Queens Chronicle:

A photographer made an unusual find near the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Center on Thursday: a tropical animal called a kinkajou lounging in a tree.

Not knowing what it was, lensman Cesar Castillo on Friday sent an email out to the birding community via the NYSBirds-L listserv, with a link to the photo he took and had posted to Flickr.

Later it was determined that it must be a kinkajou because olingos do not have prehensile tails — that is, tails that can be used for grasping things, such as food or tree branches.

The Queens Chronicle informed volunteer wildlife rescuers Cathy and Bobby Horvath of the discovery and forwarded Castillo’s photo to them. The Horvaths operate a service called WINORR, Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation, in North Massapequa, LI. Bobby Horvath is a firefighter with the FDNY, and the couple often takes in wild animals found in the city.

Cathy Horvath said the animal must have been dumped there, and that she and her husband would go check it out and determine how best to capture it. And she offered words of caution to anyone who might come across the kinkajou.

“They’re a little bit fresh,” she said. “If they’re not tame, they’re a little bit bitey. They look soft and cuddly, but they can mess you up.”

Hundreds more birds killed at "wildlife refuge"

From the NY Observer:

With all the excitement of the summer and everyone making plans for the 4th, it's unlikely that you will have noticed that some of the city's other residents, our park's native Canada geese, are disappearing.

The continued round-up and slaughter of New York City's geese continued yesterday with the removal and destruction of around 500 geese in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, which was caught on video by local geese activists Goosewatch NYC.

The cull is part of a larger bird removal program carried out by the United States Department of Agriculture, which has been ongoing since 2009. Another round-up was carried out two weeks ago at Inwood Hill Park, where all but one of the resident geese were taken.

David Karopkin, the head of GooseWatch, said in a statement today that: "I am more committed than ever to fighting these roundups in NYC, and everywhere. It is disgusting and cruel, it doesn't accomplish anything, and it needs to end. "

Mr. Karopkin told us this morning that he was present at the collection of the geese and was threatened with arrest while attempting to document the proceedings.

USDA officials say that the clearing of the geese is necessary in order to prevent air traffic accidents, such as the infamous Hudson Miracle plane crash in 2009.

Mr. Karopkin and associates however allege that the removal of geese is cruel and unnecessary, and that the USDA are guilty of public deception.

The government is apparently trying to nearly halve the Canada goose population in 17 Atlantic states, to 650,000 from 1.1 million.

The geese are loaded onto a truck and taken away:



Now, while I know some of you will say this program is necessary in order to reduce the goose population, the fact is that the program has no effect on the population of the birds nor has it prevented bird strikes. The most common birds to get sucked into planes are starlings and gulls, not geese. This is the government trying to make like it look like they took action when they did nothing of the sort. The geese they rounded up are likely year-round residents that don't fly very high and aren't a threat to aircraft. I guess someone needed a contract. Again.

The sordid history of the Four Sparrow Marsh project

From the Daily News:

Construction on a project that includes a major car dealership has quietly started on a controversial piece of land in Mill Basin twice tied to scandal-scarred politicians who have tried to help developers buy the land from the city.

In April, the Bloomberg administration announced it had sold the 110,000-square-foot parcel near the Four Sparrow Marsh and the Belt Parkway to Brooklyn auto dealer Lilaahar (Sammy) Bical, owner of Kristal Auto Mall, one of the biggest Cadillac dealers on the East Coast.

Bical was helped in his bid to obtain the land after paying tainted state Sen. John Sampson (D-Canarsie) a $10,000 "retainer fee" to help arrange a sit-down with Bloomberg administration officials, the News reported last month.

Those meetings occurred in early 2012, and this past March the city sold him the land for $4.2 million.

Sampson and his lawyer, Zachary Carter, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The FBI is investigating whether Sampson broke the law by seeking and receiving retainer fees from Bical, and another businessman, in an unrelated case, who sought his assistance in dealing with the government, sources said.

Originally, the city planned to sell the land to Forest City Ratner to build a mini mall. That plan was scuttled in September 2011 after a Forest City Ratner official was revealed to have asked disgraced former state Sen. Carl Kruger for state funds, according to a criminal complaint.

As part of the new deal, the city also sold Toys R Us the land it currently occupies for $13 million.

The first part of construction, which has just begun, entails carving out a spot for a new parking lot for the toy store, which park advocates charge is being built on protected marsh land. The expanded car dealership will later be built on the old Toys R Us parking lot, city officials said.

Conservation groups and park advocates plan to sue to block the city's sale of the land on the grounds that it lacked proper state approval.

Turtle preservation plan

From the NY Post:

In a desperate bid to keep slow-moving turtles from causing delays at JFK, Port Authority officials are installing a massive barrier that will keep the critters in their natural habitat.

The plan is to deter the diamondback terrapins’ path with 4,000 feet of 8-inch-wide plastic piping along runway 4L, which juts into the bay near some of the native reptiles’ favorite area marshes, according to researchers.

“We’re trying to find a balance between nature and aviation,” said Port Authority spokesman Ron Marsico. “We don’t want to see the turtles get hurt, and this should keep the airport running smoothly.”

The turtles have made the airport’s runway part of their annual trek as they come on shore to nest, slowing service by forcing pilots to use other runways.

Marsico said airport employees removed around 1,300 turtles by hand last year during June and July, and that the new barrier will encourage the animals to nest elsewhere.

Dr. Russell Burke, a professor of biology at Hofstra University and a researcher at Jamaica Bay, thinks the plan will be effective, but is concerned that the barrier could make turtles more vulnerable to predators like raccoons.

City destroys "Forever Wild" area

Four Sparrow Marsh in Brooklyn was spared from Ratnerization in 2011. A new hearing was held in 2012, but then the project was kept very quiet until now.

When is a nature preserve not a nature preserve? When Parks owns it and Michael Bloomberg is mayor. Then it's just another development site. And one that the EDC is keeping a secret. They removed all mention of it from their website even though they are the lead agency overseeing the project. Which probably means that what NYC Audubon shilled for has been drastically altered.

I hope I'm wrong.






Photos by Rob Jett

Gateway units getting some grub

From the Daily News:

Jamaica Bay, a hidden jewel in New York City for nature lovers, could become a destination complete with food stands and rental stands for kayaks and bikes.

The Parks Department and the National Park Service are putting the finishing touches on a request for proposals to place concessions at several locations around the bay in Queens and Brooklyn.

The new concessions are part of a larger plan between the two agencies to cooperatively manage the 10,000-acre site, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Parks officials unveiled the plan at the Community Board 14 Parks Committee meeting last Thursday. They posted a map of the area that showed several locations where concessions could be created.

But the agency declined to discuss the proposal until the RFP is released next week.

Is this really a good thing?

From DNA Info:

More camping sites, bike trails and enhanced boat access could be coming soon to Jamaica Bay Park, according to a new initiative signed between the city Parks Department and the National Park Service.

Under the agreement, which builds upon one signed in October last year, more than 10,000 acres of federal and city-owned park land will be merged into a “single seamless park,” said Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar.

The initiative will also help fund research that can continue to help preserve the area's fragile ecology, authorities said.

The park houses almost 300 species of birds, including some that are endangered, and has been under threat because of its proximity to JFK Airport and raw sewage discharge.

The land covered by the agreement is part of the 27,000 acre Gateway National Recreation Area.

A new “friends” group, similar to the ones in Central Park and Prospect Park, will also be formed to help plan and raise funds for the park, authorities added.

The public has also been invited to chip in with their ideas on how to make the Jamaica Bay Park better under the joint management.

Of course, because when one thinks of management excellence, the NYC Parks Dept comes to mind...

Banding owls at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

Gillibrand prefers killing over humane goose control methods

From Metro:

It’s open season on Canada geese, if Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has her way.

Today, the day after a plane in Westchester County had to make an emergency landing after two geese struck its windshield, Gillibrand introduced legislation that she vows will “cut the bureaucratic red tape” and allow “for the swift removal of Canada geese” around the city’s airports.

In the past, geese have been removed by being rounded up, stuffed into crates and gassed to death by agents with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For the past two years now, the USDA has culled geese within a seven-mile radius of John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Under a plan supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, USDA agents killed 1,509 wild geese in parks throughout New York City and 167 more in Long Island in 2010. Last year, 575 geese were killed.

But they’ve been unable to get into one area that is the main home of the birds: The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a 9,000-acre estuary and bird sanctuary that surrounds JFK’s runways.

The refuge is maintained by the National Park Service, and the federal government has been resistant to allowing USDA agents in there until it can complete an environmental impact study.

Gillibrand’s proposed legislation would not only allow agents into the preserve, but it would also require them to kill the birds during their June and July molting season.

“That’s when their new flight feathers are coming in and they can’t fly,” said Edita Birnkrant, the New York Director of Friends of Animals. “They get them when they’re flightless. They pen them and they can’t fly away.”

Adults and goslings alike killed

Geese are nesting right now, said Birnkrant, so it’s both adult geese and goslings that will be killed under Gillibrand's plan.

Birnkrant called Gillibrand’s suggestion to kill more birds “ a kneejerk reaction that won’t work.”

“We can’t get rid of every bird in the city and deciding to slaughter them is counterproductive,” she said. “Wildlife repopulates itself. Even if they do kill the geese, more will come back to these areas because it’s an attractive place to live.”

Birnkrant proposes using bird radar technology, which she said the Air Force uses. She said it detects flocks of birds, and pilots either delay take-off or maneuver around the birds. She also suggested modifying the birds’ natural habitat in Jamaica Bay Refuge, such as planting dense grass and shrubs and replacing the Kentucky bluegrass that grows there. That grass, she said, "is like candy to the geese."

Jamaica Bay between two worlds

From the NY Times:

A giant salt water puddle, pooled over 20,000 acres beneath the leaky eaves of southern Queens and Brooklyn, the bay lies at the far end of the Rockaways A line. And to ride that line from Times Square to Canal Street to Broadway Junction, and then through Ozone Park to Howard Beach and Broad Channel, where suddenly there are marshes offshore and ibises and egrets in the sky, is to understand that with a simple 90-minute trip one can find a wilderness within the city limits.

The bay is “the one place in New York where nature is so dominant that it makes the city a backdrop,” Brad Sewell, an environmental lawyer and blogger, recently wrote.

Of course, that backdrop has caused the bay considerable trouble over the years. Since the industrial revolution, it has served as a dumping ground for items that the city does not wish to see: its garbage fills, sewage treatment plants and occasional dead bodies.

But in the past 10 years or so, as the greening of New York has taken hold, an alliance of officials, environmentalists and local advocates has emerged to save the bay from what makes it so distinctive — which is to say, from its condition as a wild place in the country’s biggest city.

Today, Jamaica Bay has reached a kind of inflection point, poised between what it is and what it could become.

Hindu rituals threaten Jamaica Bay ecosystem

From the NY Times:

As the Hindu population has grown in Queens over the last decade, so too has the amount of ritual debris — clothing, statues, even cremation ashes — lining the banks of the bay in Gateway National Recreation Area.

But to the park rangers who patrol the beach, the holy waters are a fragile habitat, the offerings are trash and the littered shores are a federal preserve that must be kept clean for picnickers, fishermen and kayakers. Unlike the Ganges, they say, the enclosed bay does not sweep the refuse away.

The result is a standoff between two camps that regard the site as sacrosanct for very different reasons, and have spent years in a quiet tug of war between ancient traditions and modern regulations. Strenuous diplomacy on both sides has helped, but only to a point.

...as new immigrants arrive, unaware of the rules, and others refuse to change their ways, park rangers have intermittently forsaken good-cop sensitivity for bad-cop force: installing signs, closing the parking lot at night and threatening to hand out $75 fines, to little avail.

“It’s been a mounting problem for years,” said Kathy Krause, the supervisory park ranger. “The breakdown of these items is very, very harmful.”

Cremated remains are a particularly touchy subject. The scattering of ashes in water is among Hinduism’s most sacred rituals, necessary for a successful transition to the next life. The practice has drawn concern from park officials; they issue special permits for spreading ashes on a case-by-base basis, but Hindu leaders acknowledge that some bereaved families do not wait for permission.

Locals upset about JFK runway plan

From the Queens Tribune:

The Jamaica Bay Task Force, a group of private citizens and organizations concerned about the bay, met April 7 at the American Legion Hall in Broad Channel to discuss the potential the RPA's plan has to damage the ecological makeup of Jamaica Bay. The meeting was attended by more than 150 residents and civic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens), who flew back to New York from Washington D.C. during last week's budget negotiations just to make an appearance at the meeting.

Don Riepe of the American Littoral Society showed photos of birds and animals that live 150 yards or less from the airport. Some of them live and thrive along the boundaries of the airport. The bird populations, he said, could interfere with air traffic coming in and out of new runways in nesting areas.

Capt. Vincent Calabro, a fisherman who fishes in Jamaica Bay, fought the labeling of Grassy Bay as "dead," showing pictures of fish he has caught within yards of JFK, including two-to-three-foot-long striped bass, flounder and fluke.

Besides environmental concerns, some were worried about noise issues and the potential for disasters like the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 into a Rockaway neighborhood in 2001. One proposal calls for a new runway to be constructed on the west side of JFK that would send air traffic directly over Broad Channel at low altitudes, a problem that has already plagued Howard Beach, South Ozone Park, Rosedale and the Rockaways.

The implementation of NextGen, new air traffic control technology, will allow planes to fly closer together, meaning planes would be flying over residential neighborhoods as often as every 30 seconds.

Photo by godsavebklyn on Flickr

Mike replacing marsh with mall

From the Wave:

If developers have their way and the city can cut a deal with environmental naysayers, Rockaway residents may one day have a new shopping destination just north of the Gil Hodges Marine Parkway Bridge in Brooklyn.

The plan is to transform a 15-acre swath of land near Four Sparrow Marsh in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, into a car dealership and retail center. The land lies just south of the present Toys R Us store and just north of the Belt Parkway interchange. It is also just north of the Four Sparrow Marsh, the habitat for many species of birds, some of them on the protected species list, environmentalists say.

Because of the proximity of the marsh, the plan has drawn criticism from local conservation groups.

While members of that area’s community board have warmed to the idea of a new retail center, some conservation groups are worried about the environmental impact of the proposed project on Four Sparrow Marsh.

The plan calls for a 110,000-square foot Cadillac dealership to be built next to Toys R Us on Flatbush Avenue. The project is scheduled to begin the city’s land use process this spring. Developer Forest City Ratner Cos. will oversee the project, breaking ground in 2014.

There are currently two proposals for the retail center. One would allow Forest City Ratner to erect two buildings for a total of 138,000 square feet of retail space for multiple tenants. The other calls for a single 127,000-squarefoot building with one tenant.

At issue is the 67-acre Four Sparrow Marsh, which is currently a nature preserve and the nesting site of several threatened species of birds, like the seaside sparrow. The project could hurt the amount and quality of water in the basin, said New York City Audubon’s Phillips. It could also disrupt the nesting of several species of birds, he said.

The plan “does try to buffer the development site from the natural area. However the buffers are pretty small and we think they are inadequate,” he said.

Under the proposed plan, Four Sparrow Marsh would also become officially mapped parkland overseen by the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation. It would remain off limits to the public as a nature preserve.

God knows we have too much nature in this city and not enough Bruce Ratner projects! Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg, for this wonderful project in line with your PlaNYC 2030 goals. Just like this one.

Goose killing may come to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The 250 geese and goslings that were massacred in Prospect Park in July were only the tip of the goose-berg, new documents reveal.

Federal agents rounded up a total of 1,676 geese from 19 locations in the city and Nassau County — apparently making last summer’s operation the largest intentional waterfowl extermination in city history.

The birds were thrown into crates and hauled to JFK Airport, where they were gassed, bagged, and discarded, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The goose-filled Dumpsters were then hauled to an incinerator in Garden City.

All 19 locations visited by Wildlife Services agents last summer remain a mystery, but documents from the Port Authority — the agency managing the city’s airports — do reveal a few of the sites in addition to Prospect Park:

• In Queens, agents slaughtered geese in Alley Pond Park, Little Neck Bay and Fort Totten.

• Animals on Rikers Island and Randall’s Island were also swept up in the culling.

Some saw the stunning scale of the goose massacre as evidence that the policy needed to change.

“It is certainly the largest waterfowl [massacre] we know of,” said Patrick Kwan, the New York State director of the Humane Society of the United States. “It’s an example of why we need transparency. For 1,600 geese to be killed without New Yorkers knowing what was going on or being able to consider alternatives … it’s not the most effective, efficient or humane method.”

But gassing is the method favored by the city — and it is possible that it will be expanded to include the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge next year.

The chief of resource management at the Gateway National Recreation area, Dave Avrin, said a study was underway to determine how to control the goose population in the area. Previously, Jamaica Bay, which is part of a National Park, was off-limits to Wildlife Services.

“We are going through an Environmental Impact Statement at this time,” said Avrin. “One of the alternatives is to cull them next year, another is not. We’ll determine which one at the end of the process.”

Willow Lake goes wild

From the Daily News:

WILLOW LAKE Preserve is about to get a little more wild.

The city is reforesting part of the area around the smaller of the two lakes in the southern end of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The move is expected to attract more birds, butterflies and other critters to the 106-acre site.

Officials are hoping it will also attract more visitors to organized nature walks in the area. The next one is on Saturday.

About 14 acres will be cleared of invasive plants to make way for trees, shrubs and wildflowers, city officials said. The planting will occur next year.

Mike Feller, chief naturalist for the Parks Department's Natural Resources Group, said he has already seen signs of success.

"Spotted sandpipers have now shown interest in the site and are breeding there," said Feller, who is overseeing the project.

The resident muskrats are still there and the butterfly population will become more diverse, he said.

Photo from Queens Tribune