Dear UESiders,

As Shark Week 2020 approaches…

And UGS’s annual August/September newsletter vacay begins…

Big Green Congratulations:

* Many a petition later, the Governor signed a bill prohibiting the dumping of fracking waste anywhere in NYState…  Kind shameful it took till 2020, but it’s law now thanks to all to raised their online voices!!

*Good, too, on UESiders who stood with our uptown neighbors and saved the Putnam Trail from Parks’ inevitably less-than “design”!!

In the Could-Be-Really-Good Department: 

*Remember CM Kallos’ proposed bill to end use of child/human-damaging pesticides in NYC Parks?  Well, the bill stalled in City Council with, of course, Parks continuing to deploy the awful stuff…  But now somebody clever’s come up with a petition directed at/to Speaker and mayoral aspirant Johnson asking that he, at long last, bring the Kallos bill to a vote…  A petition that if you’re against pesticide use in our parks, you can sign…

On the inevitable other hand:

*The governor’s removed the Environmental Bond Act from the November ballot…

*What happens when $106M’s cut from NYC’s Sanitation budget??  (Local coverage, sure…  International embarassment, too!)

(*Happy reminder:  Compost collection’s back at the Union Square Market  Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays!  And this’s the 30th Anniversary of LES compost collection!!!)

And this (hopefully) relentless, conscience-stirring prod:

CENSUS, people!!  So easy…  So quick online!!  We already so need every cent possible coming to NYC!!  DO IT!!

More than time for this week’s wisdom from Numera Una Market Manager Margaret:

“Dear Green Marketeers,

Looking like we’ll be back to the new “normal” set-up at 82nd Street this Saturday!!

Not that we won’t still be pleading with one and all to PLEASE PARK ON ANOTHER BLOCK…  Or, at the very least, on the north side of the 82nd to allow our farmers/fisherman/bakers/florist a safe set-up!!

Oh and this week, Manager Ciana’ll be off on a hard-earned vacation, but fear not…  Not with Veteran Assistant Tutu in charge!!

So fill your bags with the scrumptuous melons, corn, tomatoes, summer squash, cheese, fish, bread and more you’ll be finding on 82nd’s tables!!

Exciting things going on Sundays up at 92nd Street what with not one but two new  producers joining 92nd’s already great farmers/bakers/florist/ fisherman:

#1.  Grandpa’s Farm features not only beautiful vegetables, but a selection of exotic Mexican herbs to add a little something different (and wonderful) to your recipes!!   Stop by to say hi and ask for suggestions!!

#2.  Then there’s Kimchee Harvest with their flavorful variety of  choice, healthy, fermented veggies.  (Probiotics, anyone?)

These last two reminders:  Social distancing and mask wearing remain priorities.  And for those who prefer a smaller crowd but also don’t want to miss out on their favorite market items,11am remains the optimal shopping time.

Summer bounty’s upon us,

Margaret“

Moving on to diversions a-plenty:

Online classes from the Botanical Garden…  Pre-school and sweet drinks in Philadelphia…  But best things to drink when one’s dehydrated…  Chicago’s new corner store template...  2020’s virtual Santa Fe Indian Market (lectures, docs and more)…  GrowNYC volunteer opportunities (scroll down for in-home choices)…  Timber rattlesnake wrestling with NYS Conservation officers…   As ever, many a rescue by NYS Forest Rangers…  A citizen scientist/Asian Longhorned Beetle Swimming Pool  Study…   A Longhorned Beetle/Swimming Pool Survey…   Why and how of caring for NYC’s natural spaces…  22 NYCity-wide art installations…  A shared community solar webinar…  How to dry/store our summer bounty…  The Governors Island Garden (one of the many great NYC gardens feeding the hungry)…

Pause for briefest bit of activism:

If you think air quality standards should be retained during a lung-affecting pandemic…

No lack of critter-themed diversions, too:

From Cornell’s Bird Cam, a trio of owls move from egg to fledgling…  NYC’s own Museum of the Dog… If you’d like to assist pygmy sloths…  NYC H2O’s online chat with Thomas Hynes, author of  “Wild City:  A Brief History of New York City in 40 Animals”…  Oysters and GoPro cameras…  The hopeful rise of the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee…

Not forgetting latest from the Hudson River Almanac:

7/26 – Beacon, HRM 61: The heat and humidity were debilitating. The heat index (the real feel) had it seeming like 110 degrees F. We got into the river up to our necks, but the near 89-degree water hardly felt cooler. It was no surprise that our seine caught many, many young-of-year alewives (60-70 mm) and striped bass (45-52 mm), and that sameness was punctuated by several young-of-year small mouthed bass (59-62 mm). In the background of each haul were barnacle-dotted pebbles. However, this was not like summer 2016, when the substrate was almost totally encrusted with bay barnacles.  – Tom Lake, B.J. Jackson

Bay barnacles (Balanus improvisus) are crustaceans related to shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. Their exoskeleton is a calcareous cone-like house made of six small calcium plates that form a circle within which the animal lives. Four more plates form a “trap-door” that the barnacle can open or close, depending on the tide. They cement their house to rocks and other hard benthic material (and ship’s hulls, etc.) and permanently set up shop.

When conditions are optimal, they open their trapdoor and feed by extending feather-like appendages called cirri that filter for microscopic organisms. While they flourish in salty to brackish water, they can close up shop in times of very low salinity for a limited period until conditions improve. Although it is unclear exactly how barnacle larvae arrive upriver from brackish water and attach to suitable substrate, their method of transport may be the flood tide current in times of low freshwater flow.

For a real-time treat, not unlike watching the dance of the comb jellies, place a rock encrusted with barnacles in an aquarium, gently stir the water, watch the barnacles open their trapdoors and extend their feathery cirri, and filter the water. It looks altogether like a water ballet. – Tom Lake]

Meanwhile and well off our turf, but do keep eyes on NYC Board Elections…

And that our neighborhood trees get enough to drink during this weird drought…

Have a healthy and great green summer!!

Until September,

UGS

Dear UESiders,

Fasten seatbeats for a multi good news week:

*Focusing on happy developments UES, most happy to say tech and battery recycling’s returned to Best Buy 86th!!

(Knowing you want to be the best battery recycler, please-please wait till you’ve accumulated enough batteries to fill a 6″X6″ ziplock bag to drop off and – to prevent Best Buy folks getting battery acid on their hands –  those batteries should be packaged in that 6″X6″ bag!!)  

*Happy UES Item 2:  NYPL’s just announced that the 67th Street Library Branch will be re-opening as of Monday, August 3rd!!  (Think grab-and-go pick-up and return services.)

*On the broader Manhattan front, as of this Saturday (i.e. tomorrow), Lower East Side Ecology’s compost collection returns  to Union Square 4 days a week!!  

Okay, so that drop-off’s not on the UES, is tens of blocks distant and a long way to be transporting food scraps, BUT it’s the beginning of back to a bit of green normal!!

(Meanwhile, rest assured CM and co-author of the CORE (Community Organics and Recycling Empowerment) Powers is pushing hard for re-activation of our area’s established drop-off sites!!)

*Going state-wide:

And we quote, “After years of hard work by NYS Health and NYS DEC, NYS has adopted the nation’s first drinking water standard for 1,4 dioxane & the lowest for PFOS & PFOA, protecting communities from these emerging contaminants!”  (For more…)

Not that there aren’t some issues…  There certainly are…  i.e.:

*As in, NYC is now lagging not only behind the rest of NYS but America as a whole in Census response!!  Really, people.  Time to start directing everyone in our circles – especially those lolling about on the Island or upstate – to proceed promptly to the 10-question online form!!

*The need for blood and plasma donation remains really high…  To make an appointment to give… 

Time for Maxima Market Manager Margaret with her market update: 

“Dear Green Marketeers,

What would a 2020 Greenmarket day be without some craziness?  This week that being another change in the 82nd Street set-up because…  Believe it or not, the school yard’s being repaved this Saturday!!  This despite repeated promises that it would not happen on a Saturday!!  The good news is it’s just one day and, although there’ll be trucks coming and going in and out, they will absolutely not be driving through the market.  Instead, they’ll back into 82nd and on into the schoolyard, then drive out the way they came in!!

Better news still is that Sunday at 92nd will be so, so calm and orderly!!

And tables at both will be brimming with summer bounty at it’s finest!!

Happy August,

Margaret“

Moving on to a tidbit of activism:

*Nope, NYS isn’t completely protected from deadly fracking waste…

And a green summer activity to consider:

Checked out the trees on your block lately?  Really showing the effects of this summer’s rain deficit, huh?  So, how about we – or enlist our building staffs –  slake their thirst with several buckets of cool water, say, once a week??  (You know that when planted each baby tree costs us taxpayers $1,200-$1,600 each??)   (While you’re at it, why not check for naughty insects??)  

Diverting diversions of the week:

Why we should not only brake for but love opposums…  FDNY tips to prevent electrical fires (good for young folks viewing, too)…     Ocean Wildlife Fact Sheets…  And unlikely ocean creature friendships…  Our own Columbia U may have come up with a 30-minute COVID test…  CM Powers’ approach to saving small NYC businesses…  Upcoming virtual programs from the great Hawk Mountain…  Yearning to be a NYS Outdoors Woman?  Here’s how…  Hell’s Kitchen’s creative solution to DSNY’s diminished waste collection…  Hunter@Home’s August 11th online “Road to WWII” lecture…  Consumer Reports on food additives to avoid…  Citizen scientists and a NYS Turkey Survey…  Rock dust and climate change…  A Central Park duck rescue…  Daily online tech classes from the NYPL…  Daily free concerts…

The Hudson River Almanac weighs in:

7/20 – Manhattan: Our Hudson River Community Sailing program captured a lined sea horse in our eel mop today. We will keep it in our aquarium for educational purposes and will release it soon. – Miles Hupert, Russell Jacobs

7/21 – Manhattan:  Hudson River Park’s River Project staff members went out to check a series of minnow and crab pots suspended from a floating dock on Pier 40 today.  Our traps yielded a small oyster toadfish (55 mm), a young-of-year butterfish (35 mm), and several blue crabs including one that was missing a claw.  Our crab pots also yielded a range of invertebrates, including amphipods, isopods, shore shrimp, and a juvenile spider crab. – Olivia Radick, Daisy Rivera

[Blue crab are decapods, Latin for ten feet, or ten legs: six walking legs, two swimming paddles, and two claws. When one of a crab’s appendages is lost, the crab will begin a process called regeneration. A lost leg is often the result of a “release” called autonomy.  Blue crabs frequently conduct territorial battles with other crabs or find themselves in the bill of a heron, at which point they can release a leg and escape. Eventually, through many moults, blue crabs have the ability to grow a new leg. – Tom Lake]

Together we’re keeping our city healthy and green,

UGS