Bowne High School raises saplings from historic 9/11 pear tree

From PIX11:

Apple trees may be more common in New York, after all it is the Big Apple. But one pear tree is getting much attention while helping to bring together a community.

Students from John Bowne High School in Flushing, Queens have embraced the seedlings of a 9/11 survivor tree and planted them in a special garden.

100-year old felled tree may return to Astoria

DNA Info

From DNA Info:

A century-old tree that was chopped down by city workers this spring to the dismay of local residents could turn over a new leaf.

An arborist is using a salvaged piece of the massive American Elm — which had grown on 34th Street for decades before it was cut down by the Parks Department in March — to try to clone the tree, which was beloved by neighbors on the block.

Residents had watched in horror three months ago as workers cut down the tree, which the Parks Department said had begun to show signs of decay.

Anna Jutis, who's lived on the block for more than 40 years, kept several pieces of the tree that were left behind as mementos — including a large section of a branch, which she put in her backyard.

Jutis was surprised, she said, when she noticed the piece begin to sprout new branches and bright green leaves a few weeks ago.

"Suddenly we noticed a little branch, and then gradually longer and longer, and more, more all around," said Jutis, a retired paraprofessional. "I was so happy. That tree did not die. That tree survived."

A neighbor who learned of the tree's re-birth contacted David McMaster of Bartlett Tree Experts, who came and took cuttings from the Elm on Monday afternoon and will use them to try and grow clones of the original tree.

"It's going to have 100 percent DNA of the original plant," he said. "To try and get 100 percent of the real tree back to them."

McMaster will bring the 15 to 20 cuttings he took to the greenhouse at John Bowne High School in Flushing, where he and students in the agriculture program will attempt to get them to grow roots by dipping them in a "root generating hormone" and planting them in perlite and water.

Non-profit proposes that kids clean up contaminated park

From the Times Ledger:

A Flushing nonprofit is hoping to start a soil remediation program this summer that would treat soil in a section of Kissena Corridor Park by planting rice and different types of grass.

Green Earth Urban Gardens is appealing for Community Board 7’s permission to start the project, which will teach high school students how to clean up an acre site near the intersection of 56th Avenue and Main Street.

“It’s a way of getting young people to look at the environment and to get them to think of ideas to fix environmental problems,” said Maureen Regan, president of Green Earth Urban Gardens.

Students will use a process called phytoremediation to clean up toxins and heavy metals that could be present in the soil in the Flushing park, said Regan, who has recruited John Bowne High School students to participate in the project.

Regan first thought of the idea after she realized all of the city’s urban gardens use raised beds. This is because growing crops directly in the ground is not advisable as the city’s soil is largely contaminated with heavy metals, she said. Through her research, Regan found the phytoremediation process, which uses plants to uptake contaminants.

In the proposed project, students will test the soil before they plant rice and different types of grass. They will then harvest and burn their crops before they test the soil again to see how much toxins were absorbed by the plants. Regan chose rice for the project because she has experience growing the crop as her father is a farmer in Guyana.

So let me get this straight...we think this site is contaminated, so we're going to send a bunch of kids in there to clean it up?

Peacock corralled again

From NBC:

It's back to school for a Queens peacock that escaped earlier this summer from a local high school and was seen wandering the neighborhood.

The peacock is back at John Bowne High School in Kew Gardens Hills, where it is part of a menagerie of animals that live at the school.

An employee of the school told NBC 4 New York that the agricultural department at the high school keeps lizards, turtles, parrots and other birds at their campus, which is half a mile from where the bird was spotted in Kew Gardens Hills.

The elusive bird was finally nabbed by Animal Care and Control of New York City, which returned it to John Bowne, officials there confirmed Friday.

Community victorious despite DeBlasio

From Brownstoner:

On Friday, Hannah Senesh, a 152-seat private Jewish day school in Carroll Gardens, announced it was officially dropping its plans to try to circumvent a 160-year-old law in an effort to erect a two-story building on an empty lot at the corner of Smith Street and First Place. News that the school had hired a lobbyist in December to gain an exemption to the city law that treats all front yards on the "Place" blocks of Carroll Gardens as public space resulted in a huge backlash from area residents and lots of bad publicity for the school and outgoing City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who had sponsored the change.

Wow that Bill DeBlasio sounds like a real man of the people! I'm surprised he didn't start his political career off in Queens.

Farming popular at Bowne High School

From the Queens Chronicle:

Nestled on a four-acre site near Queens College and the bustling Long Island Expressway is a farm with 150 chickens, numerous rabbits, two goats, assorted peacocks and pheasants and even four alpacas.

The bucolic scene is part of John Bowne High School’s agriculture program that also includes a greenhouse, orchard and field crops. The popular program — the only agriculture department in the city school system — attracts 600 students, known as Aggies, with 80 percent of them going on to college and 50 percent majoring in agriculture, according to Steve Perry, assistant principal for agriculture.

Bowne’s chickens are kept in a warm building away from the roosters. “They are not stressed and lay about 100 eggs a day,” Perry said. “Students dispense feed for them and collect the eggs. There is quite a demand for them at the school store where they sell for $2 a dozen year-round.”

When school is in session, the store is open 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and sells seasonal items such as vegetables in the warm weather and poinsettias, holiday wreaths and flower arrangements in the winter. During the summer, students set up a vegetable stand outside the school at 63-25 Main St. in Flushing.

The profits from all produce, eggs and products raised at Bowne go back into the agriculture program for feed, fertilizer and seed.

“We find that students gain a lot of confidence by working with the animals and for many it gives them a skill,” Perry said. “We become the center of the kids’ community. They are very active in pursuit of their careers.”

Aggies are expected to get 300 hours of work experience either at a pet shop, zoo, veterinarian’s office or through a summer placement program on an upstate farm.