Happy Two Days After Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary, UESiders…

And Congrats to the Hubble Space Telescope on it’s 30th Birthday today…

Celebrations exclusively online, of course, but still a moment to focus on good stuff!! 

Meanwhile, on our home island… 

COVID updates from our Electeds:

CM Kallos…  CM Powers…

This week’s Virtual Town Halls: 

Monday, April 27th, 6pm – Hosted by CM Keith Powers and Council Speaker Corey Johnson on needs relative to COVID-19…  The impact on rent and housing, open spaces, resources for seniors and more.  To RSVP (a must)…  (Attendees are eligible to pose a question…)

Tuesday, April 28th, 7pm – Hosted by AM Seawright and on the subject of education  with guests Adrienne Austin, Acting Deputy Comissioner for Community Empowerment, Partnerships and Education and Maud Maron, President of Community Education, District 2.  To sign up (you must)…    And choose an online venue…

Some bits of activism:

For those with concerns about the health of the U.S. Post Office…

Concerns shared by Rep. Maloney…

If you also care about America’s public libraries… 

Or should you think Bank of America – joining Citibank and Morgan Stanley – should back off from Arctic drilling…

Or oppose hunting bears in Yellowstone Park…

Of course, given NYC archaic waste water “system”, only makes sense there’ll be some COVID swimming about… 

Moving on to the light diversion category:

Ten virtual tours…

Free virtual NYC tours…

Two chances to see one great eco webinar from the folks at Solar One…  Subject: How solar can help renters, building owners and businesses in NYC save money on their electricity bills!!  Free!!  To choose your date and sign up…

Cleaning routines to keep our homes virus free…

The heart of Bryant Park…

NY Historical Society’s historic Recipes of the Week… 

Fifty fun, free things to do while hanging out at home…

Couldn’t attend this month’s CB8’s Landmarks Committee meeting online?  Then check out the video (and scroll down)… 

And for kids:

Games from the MTA with a transit twist…

The week in the furry, feathered and finned:

Quoting The Patch:  “New York City Council held its first-ever remote meeting using the videoconferencing service Zoom on Wednesday and an unlikely star emerged from the municipal proceeding — Upper East Side Councilmember Ben Kallos’ cat!!”

Hello, Pandora!!

NYS DEC Seeks Birdwatchers to contribute to 2020 Breeding Bird Atlas!!  Yup,
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos’s just put out the call for citizen-science volunteers to help in the development of this comprehensive, statewide every-two-decades survey  detailing New York’s breeding bird distribution!!  To learn more and sign up…

Twelve things to know about lemurs…  (One’s only 2 1/2 inches tall!!)

A dog dines out…  (Thanks, reader Roger Vitkansas!)

The first wolf seen in northern France in 100 years…

And from the Hudson River Almanac:

4/15 – Brooklyn, New York City: An immature bald eagle had been seen a few times in Green-Wood Cemetery (Kings County) in Brooklyn this month. Another birder reported the eagle taking a fish from the cemetery’s Sylvan Water in the northwest area of the cemetery. I saw the bird today in a white pine being scolded by crows. My photo revealed that the eagle was banded with a silver U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (US F&WS) band (0709-08255) on its right leg and a black band (R/7) on its left.  – Matthew Wills

That Injured Eagle

[The left-leg band had been manufactured in 2005 as part of a series of black bands delivered to the US F&WS. From there it was sent to New Hampshire and finally to Connecticut where it was applied to a nestling bald eagle by Jenny Dickson on May 11, 2018, at the New Haven Evergreen-Cemetery.

Back on the Wing

Nearly two years later, it was photographed on April 15 by Matthew Wills in Green-Wood Cemetery (note the symmetry), Kings County, Brooklyn, near the Upper Bay of New York Harbor. It is fun to wonder where the eagle had traveled—and they are travelers—for the last 706 days, in an ongoing journey that finally led the bird to a place only 120 miles from where it had been hatched. Tom Lake] 

Not forgetting  the Fish of the Week (Do be ready for a chuckle!):

4/12 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 67 is the cutlip minnow (Exoglossum maxillingua) number 41 (of 230) on our watershed list of fishes.

A Cutlip Minnow

The cutlip minnow is one of 32 carps and minnows (Cyprinidae) in the watershed, representing nearly fourteen percent of the 230 species. They are small, rarely more the 120 millimeters (mm) long. The cutlip minnow is native to the Northeast United States and are found in small clear-water streams ranging from the Saint Lawrence River watershed south to the Carolinas.

C. Lavett Smith describes them as “drab, with subdued colors, heavy-bodied, nearly terete in cross-section, an all-together ‘somber fish.’” Perhaps their most notable behavior is their predilection for plucking out the eyes of other fishes.

Poor Bunny!

The center lobe of the cutlip minnow’s lower jaw is sharply hardened. They use it, not unlike a scalpel, to core out fish eyes. When you come across a one-eyed white sucker, yellow perch, or goldfish, you can be quite certain that there are cutlip minnows in the area. This is a life history that could have been devised by Stephen King.   – Tom Lake

Yours in greenness and wishing all health,

UGS

 

Dear UESiders,

Amazing how disciplined UESiders are being…  Staying in unless something essential needs doing in the outside world…  By far the majority with masks…  Patient and keeping the correct distance when waiting on line…

Keep it up, people!!

The Week in Virtual/Tele Town Halls:

Tuesday, April 21st, 7pm – Hosted by AM Seawright, the topic this time out being  “Cyber Security & Scam Prevention” with special guests from Ernst & Young and  community member Alex Bores, a cybersecurity specialist at Merlon Intelligence.  Join on your computer via http://zoom.us/j/131837787 or by calling 646-558-8656 and entering Meeting ID: 131 837 787#, then press # again to join the call.

Thursday, April 23rd, 7pm  — The first of two, hosted by State Senator Krueger, entitled “Chasing COVID:  Understanding the Effect of the Virus on Public Health with guest expert Dr. Denis Nash, Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology, Executive Director CUNY Institute for Implementation Science and Population Health.  (Part 2 will address “Taking Care of Your Own and Your Family’s Health”.)  To register…  And to access the event… 

The latest COVID updates from our electeds:

CM Kallos…    State Senator Krueger…

As ever, some tidbits of activism:

No relenting on opposition to the proposed Williams Pipeline…

The Commissioner of the NYS DEC weighs in on the loosening of EPA regulations… 

Bring on the miscellaneous distractions:

Many a bee in the new Carl Schurz Park Notes…

The Times takes us beyond our four walls with a ton of travel-centric podcasts…

And to a smog-free Los Angeles has cleared, snow-capped Himalayas that’re visible from parts of Northern India for the first time in residents’ memories. That while, seismologists are reporting that the upper crust of the Earth has quieted.

Best instructions yet – complete with pattern – on making a mask…

Of course, NYS Conservation Officers are practicing social distancing while on the job…  (Are they ever saving lots of birds!!)

Plenty of rescues – folks seeking solace, we bet – on our NYS Forest Rangers’ plates… 

FYI, toilet paper’s made from – at least in part – recycled paper which is now, thanks to COVID,  in increasingly short supply…   

And for the kids:

The annual New York Recycles Poster Contest is on…  (scroll down and, as you do, note composting is ongoing elsewhere in NYS!!) 

Animal time: 

The LA Times on a Yosemite reclaimed by critters…

Meanwhile, wild boars have descended on Barcelona. The Welsh town of Llandudno belongs to the goats now. 

From the Hudson River Almanac:

(Who knew the’s an ongoing effort to re-establish the alewife –  name of one of our summer farms, yes, but also a NY fish – in the Bronx River!!)

4/10 – Bronx, New York City:  I’ve been trying to verify alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) presence this spring in the Hutchinson River near Mt. Vernon. These are river herring in from the sea to spawn. So far, using a basket trap with a double funnel facing downstream, I have trapped only a single female (266 mm) a half-mile upstream from tidewater just below the Pelham Lake Dam. – Gareth Hougham

Gareth Hougham searching

[The Hutchinson River is a small Westchester stream that just makes it to the Bronx and then becomes an estuary that flows into Eastchester Bay in Western Long Island Sound. The Hutchinson River is relevant to the Hudson River as it is biologically connected to the watershed by way of the East River. Their alewives are essentially our alewives. This catch may be the first in a very long time. Forty years ago, I spotted alewives at the head of the estuary, but I am not aware of any since. John Waldman]

New York City Parks has stocked adult alewives in the Bronx River, a sister estuarine watershed to the Hutchinson, annually since 2017. The alewives are transported from Brides Brook in Connecticut by staff from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The stocking effort is a partnership with New York City Parks, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Bronx River Alliance. The goal is to jump-start a native population that will be able to use an engineered fishway, installed at the downstream East 182nd Street dam in 2015, to migrate to upstream spawning grounds.

The concept is that the adult alewives may not return to the Bronx River, but that their young-of-year will have imprinted on the place where they were born and will return to their natal stream when sexually mature in 3-5 years. – Katie Friedman]

Then there’s the Fish of the Week:

Fish-of-the-Week for Week 66 is the white sucker (Catostomus commersoni) number 68 (of 230) on our watershed list of fishes. 

A White Sucker

The white sucker, a freshwater species, is one of seven members of its family (Catostomidae) in the watershed. Four are native, including the white sucker, and three are canal immigrants from the Great Lakes.

Suckers, in general, are elongate and terete in cross-section. They have what ichthyologists refer to as an “inferior mouth,” in that it is angled downward. This adaptation allows suckers to efficiently feed off the bottom where they find a broad variety of insect larvae and small invertebrates such as amphipods. With a snorkel mask you can watch them inhale a mouthful of bottom sand and sediment, sort out the edibles, and then exhale the rest.

In spring, adult male white suckers have a broad red stripe (breeding colors) on each side of its body and many tiny bumps (breeding tubercles) on its anal fin and caudal (tail) fin. Breeding tubercles are thought to aid the males in maintaining contact with females. From Colonial times through the mid-20th century, there was a cottage industry in the Hudson Valley for smoking and pickling white suckers. They are a delightful fish! – Tom Lake

Completing your census form is so green, 

UGS 

 

 

 

 

Dear UESiders, 

Opening with apologies to reviver of UGS’s Facebook page/all-around UES green person Linda HOLLAND.  Somehow, we managed to space off and mangle her last name.   Begging your pardon, Linda.

Item #2.  Seems like our mayor’s proposed eliminating all organics/compost collection funding from the NYC budget!!   No kidding.  But yes, of course, for those opposed to such a cut, there’s a petition to sign!!  So, sign it, people!!

Item #3.  The blood shortage persists.  Blood Center donations are by appointment only and there’s no place on earth more scrubbed down.  If there was ever a good reason to leave one’s shelter…    

Item #4.  New Yorkers can’t let the 2020 Census slip through the cracks.  Conveniently online and takes less than 2 minutes to complete!!

Then there’s this from Mega Market Manager Margaret: 

“First for the good news:  Valley Shepherd Creamery will be back this weekend with their wonderful selection of sheep, goat and cow’s milk cheeses.

As for the less good news: American Pride seafood is out for the duration. They are all well but staying home to keep their families safe.

And, shoppers,  please do remember that the market opens at 9 am!!. Due to increased safety precautions, it takes us a bit longer to get set up so please do not come out to shop before 9am!!

Last but hardly least and for everyone’s protection here’s a summary of our market’s guidelines:
*Be kind, patient and respectful. 
*If you’re feeling sick, stay home. 

*Keep a 6 foot distance between yourself, other shoppers, farmers and staff.  We’ve         marked spaces for standing in line. 
*There is no self-service. Farmers will help you get what you need. 
*We have hand sanitizer available athe info tent; practice good hygiene! 
*If possible, please send only one family member to the market to shop!  
*DON’T bring food scraps or clothing donations.  Collection’s been suspended.  

One more time:

MARKETS ARE BUSIEST 8-10am.  IF YOU CAN SHOP LATER, PLEASE DO!!

Thank you for your patience, thoughtfulness and support,

Margaret”

Meanwhile…

Preparatory to restoring organic collection to next year’s NYC budget, add these how-to-keep-composting suggestions from GrowNYC CEO Marcel Van Ooyen to Ms. Holland’s In Situ Compost Smoothie recipe… 

Meanwhile…

Here’s where you – with your more than 10-unit building’s approval and further emphaszing composting support –  can apply for DSNY residential compost collection…   (Another statement on your support for the composting program!!) 

Meanwhile…

How to recycle with most respect for building staff and Sanitation workers’s health…

Meanwhile…

Schurz Park in bloom…  Online learning, exhibitions and just plain fun resources…  Birth of a baby leopard…  Emboldened city rats…  Tele Town Halls future and past…

More green reading galore just below: https://thisweekatthemarket.wordpress.com 

Our best,

UGS

****************************

Dear UESiders, 

Yes, repetition’s our thing for the moment…  Better that than anyone misses out on the week’s primo green info and alerts… 

Commencing with our mayor’s proposed elimination of all organics/compost collection funding from the NYC budget!!   But, natch, there’s already a petition in opposition to sign!!  And please do get it to all your composting friends!!

Then Market Manager Supremo Margaret’s update:

“First for the good news:  Valley Shepherd Creamery will be back this weekend with their wonderful selection of sheep, goat and cow’s milk cheeses. 

As for the less good news: American Pride seafood is out for the duration. They are all well but staying home to keep their families safe.

And, shoppers,  please do remember that the market opens at 9 am!!. Due to increased safety precautions, it takes us a bit longer to get set up so please do not come out to shop before 9am!!.

Last but hardly least and for everyone’s protection here’s a summary of our market’s guidelines:
*Be kind, patient and respectful. 
*If you’re feeling sick, stay home. 

*Keep a 6 foot distance between yourself, other shoppers, farmers and staff.  We’ve         marked spaces for standing in line. 
*There is no self-service. Farmers will help you get what you need. 
*We have hand sanitizer available athe info tent; practice good hygiene! 
*If possible, please send only one family member to the market to shop!  

*DON’T bring food scraps or clothing donations.  Collection’s been suspended.  

One more time:

MARKETS ARE BUSIEST 8-10am.  IF YOU CAN SHOP LATER, PLEASE DO!!

Thank you for your patience, thoughtfulness and support,

Margaret”

Further on the subject of compost:

Add these how-to-keep-composting suggestions from GrowNYC CEO Marcel Van Ooyen to Ms. Holland’s In Situ Compost  Smoothie Recipe… 

Last but hardly least:

Here’s where you – with your more than 10-unit building’s approval – can apply for DSNY residential compost collection…  That while making the need for/popularity of the program  crystal clear at the same time.

On to the week in our Electeds’ covid updates: 

AM Seawrught…  State Senator Krueger…  CM Kallos (scroll down)...  CM Powers…     Comptroller Stringer…   BP Brewer…  Rep. Maloney…

Let them hear about the proposed compost cut, too!! 

And a final item of activism:

Yet another pipeline project’s trying to slip under cover of Covid…

And the next Tele Town Hall:

Tuesday, April 14th, 7pm –  The topic will be public safety with special guests Inspector Kathleen Walsh, Commanding Officer NYPD 19th Precinct and Chief Kevin Brown, Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation Public Safety Department.

(Easy to catch up with the 2 previous Tele Town Halls…) 

How ’bout some enjoyable, mostly green distraction:

What’s (beautifully) in bloom in Schurz Park…

The NYPL’s host of fabulous online offerings…

Then there’re the home activities on the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum’s site…  (Yes, let’s learn how to make silhouettes!!)

Commencing with some armchair tourism via books recommended by The Times… 

Roosevelt Island’s enviably futuristic penumatic tube trash collection system…  (What?!  No invitation-to-rats bags piled on streets??!!)

Building your own oyster research station…

Saving endangered native plants…

Can beer save a river…

Trees as medicine…

A  brief visit to Brighton Beach…

Consider this fun when it’s over and things like your grout’s sparkling…  Deep Spring Cleaning!!

In 2019, DEC Forest Rangers conducted 337 search and rescue missions, extinguished 74 wildfires that burned a total of 212 acres, participated in 29 prescribed fires that burned and rejuvenated 645 acres, and worked on cases that resulted in 2,507 tickets or arrests!!

Critter time:

A museum for gerbils…   (Don’t miss the video!)

How other species handle social distancing when one of their number’s ill…

A baby cheetah being born…

NYS DEC asks us humans to keep our distance from marine mammals…  (For their protection!!)

Dragonflies’ lives on the wing…

Wildlife friendly gardening…  (It’s taking off on the UES!!)

And the Fish of the Week is:

4/3 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 65 is the yellow perch (Perca flavescens) number 163 (of 230) on our watershed list of fishes. 

A Yellow Perch

Yellow perch is a freshwater fish, one of eight members of the perch family (Percidae) in our watershed. Four, including the yellow perch, are native. Three others are canal migrants from the Great Lakes. The final species, the nonnative walleye, is a major gamefish that has been widely introduced in the watershed. Yellow perch are native to North America from northwest Canada, through the Midwest to the Canadian Maritimes, and south into the Carolinas. They can trace their ancestry in the watershed back to the end of the Ice Age, at least 15,000 years ago.

Yellow perch may be the most popular recreational fish in the Hudson River watershed with most ranging up to a foot-long. The New York State angling record is 3 pounds 8 ounces from Lake Erie. Presently, there is a harbor seal in the tidewater Esopus Creek at Saugerties that has been regularly foraging on that tributary’s robust yellow perch population. – Tom Lake

And this last:

(Courtesy of the Organizing Goddess)

Wishing one and all safe, healthy and happy holidays,

UGS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear UESiders,

Yup, it’s repetitive but, yet again, the latest from Manager of Market Managers Margaret is that important:

“We’ve survived another week and are planning for another safe and busy Saturday.

We at GrowNYC continue to believe that open air farmers markets are a safer source of food and ask that shoppers respect the safety of others by observing our new protocols those being:

*Maintain 6 feet distance at all times.  We will be chalking out 6 foot spaces in as many locations as possible so do look for them.

*Please do not touch any produce.  Ask for assistance and staff will help you.

And one last note:  Our cheese producer, Valley Shepherd Creamery, won’t be at ill not be at 82nd Street until further notice.  Hopefully, they will returning soon.

Stay safe and well,

Margaret”

Please do also read this message from GrowNYC CEO Marcel Van Ooyen…

And when not shopping Greenmarket (senior hours in parentheses):

*D’Agostino’s (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M. on Tuesday and Wednesday) – 1074 Lexington Avenue

*D’Agostino’s (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M. on Tuesday and Wednesday) – 1233 Lexington Avenue 

*Morton Williams (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M.) – 1066 Third Avenue

*Morton Williams (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M.) – 1211 Madison Avenue

*Walgreens/Duane Reade (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday) – 1091 Lexington Avenue

*Walgreens/Duane Reade (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday) – 1111 3rd Avenue

*Walgreens/Duane Reade (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday) – 1191 2nd Avenue

*Walgreens/Duane Reade (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday) – 1231 Madison Avenue

*Walgreens/Duane Reade (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday) – 1279 3rd Avenue

*Walgreens/Duane Reade (8:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. on Tuesday) – 773 Lexington Avenue

*Westside Market (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M.) – 1407 Lexington Avenue

*Whole Foods (7:00 A.M. – 8:00 A.M.) – 1551 Third Avenue 

And don’t forget you can use your SNAP to order food…  

UES’s Week in really informative Tele Town Halls:

All 7 of our area electeds are hosting a report and Q&A Tele Town Hall with Dr. Jennifer Rosen, NYC Department of Health Director of Epidemiology and Surveillance on Tuesday, April 8th, 7pm.  To sign up 212-860-1950 or BenKallos.com/events…  

Further on the preventative front:

We’ll be visiting one – if not all – of these sites tonight as we get about making our own face masks:  https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-make-face-mask-coronavirus.html, https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-an-effective-face-mask-at-home-2020-3, and https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/make-diy-face-masks.

No fun, but important to know…  How the virus’s affecting NYC zipcode by zipcode… 

But considerable cheer in the green in this year’s NYS budget:

Siting Renewable Energy: The State passed legislation to reform the way we site renewable energy generation and transmission projects. The legislation will be critical for reducing emissions, meeting our nation-leading climate goals while supporting green jobs, and helping our economy when the pandemic subsides.

Environmental Bond Act:  $3 Billion Restore Mother Nature Environmental Bond Act provides funding for key investments in local infrastructure and ecosystem restoration that will help communities across New York prepare for flooding, rising seas, and dangerous extreme heat. The bond act will now go to voters for approval on the ballot in November.

Environmental Protection Fund: The landmark Environmental Protection Fund was fully-funded at $300 million. It provides critical investments in projects to improve and protect water quality, enhance recycling, preserve land, promote recreational opportunities, and fight climate change. 

Protect Clean Water: Building on the 2017 $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act, the budget includes an additional $500 million for protecting clean water across the state. This funding is the second installment of another five year $2.5 billion commitment, bringing the states clean water commitment to $5 billion. The funding will go towards preventing and addressing contamination, upgrading drinking water systems and filtration plants, upgrading wastewater treatment plants, replacing failing septic systems, improving sewer systems, replacing lead service lines, and preserving land in drinking watersheds. 

Ban Fracking: The budget codifies the ban on hyrofracking and will encourage the use of renewable energy for generations to come. 

Reduce Waste: A ban on disposable styrofoam will reduce the amount of waste going to landfills and help keep our waterways clear.

And CM Powers suggests these volunteer opportunities:

• Citymeals on Wheels
• God’s Love We Deliver
• New York Cares
• Emergency food organizations

So how about some fun distractions to occupy the housebound hours:

PBS/NewsHour viewing recommends:  “Unorthodox” and “Tiger King”on Netflix…  “Little Fires Everywhere” and “Mrs. America” on Hulu…  And – we couldn’t agree more – “The Incredible Dr. Pol” and ‘Secret Life of Zoos” on Nat Geo Wild (Spectrum channel 130) … 

Then there’re these UGS favorites:  “Global 3000”, “Earth Matters” and “Focus on Europe” on both NYC Life (Spectrum Channel 25) and  PBS World (Spectrum 1278)…  Interesting docs and news from an international perspective on BBC World (Spectrum channel 209) and Japan NHK (Spectrum channel  210)…

For the mathematically inclined…  The World Science Festival presents  Your Daily Equation…

And for when we return to something like blessed normal:

When minds refocus on insect and plant mysteries…  The NYS DEC’s Forest Forest Lab has the answers!!

And when we’re starting seeds indoors next spring…  

Growing with and in Eggshells

If you’re a plant lover, eggshells are your friend. It’s the perfect time of year to start some new seedlings, and you don’t need one of those plastic seedling trays. 

Instead, as you’re cracking eggs, keep the halves left behind. Eggshells are a perfect little cup for your seedlings, a safe and semi-porous environment that your plant infants will love.

When you’re ready to plant, nestle yoAs ur eggshell halves in your egg cartons, add a scoop of potting soil to each, drop in your seed or seeds, cover lightly, and let them sprout! Just don’t overwater them since you don’t have any drainage holes — a light mist with a spray bottle is great. This is a really great activity to do with kids as well over a week or two.

And once you’re ready to plant them, here’s the fun part — just plant them straight in the ground or pot, eggshell and all! Crush your eggshell bottom slightly to get things started as you’re planting your seedling, but the eggshell will decompose slowly into the soil, feeding it with minerals. NIMALS

Briefest animals:

Who knew and how great that sea creatures are policing viruses in our oceans…

Lest we forget and so perfect it’s Invasive Species Awareness Week…

Be ever so healthy and green, 

UGS