Happy National Pollinator Week, UESiders!!

So how’s Manhattan celebrating?

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, June 25th, 26th & 27th:   The Madison Square Park BioBlitz
Meet at the Fountain, Madison Square Park, Fifth Avenue & Broadway at 23rd Street, 9am

And we quote:  “Join expert-led tours to search the park high and low for pollinators. Together, we will make observations of these species and their habitats using the free iNaturalist app.  Each finding will help protect the pollinators that keep Madison Square Park green.”  Free!!  To register… 

And because we want pollinators all over NYC to thrive:

Until Our Next Real, Soaking Rain:  All Over the UES
On Your Block, Across the Street, Out on the Aves, Any and Everywhere

Let’s be keeping our trees and plants – so essential to pollinator life – well watered and alive, people!!  And, yes, early mornings and evenings are the best times to be giving them a good drink!!

Meanwhile:

It’s also World Upcycling Day…  Increasingly relevant given the  U.N. climate report leaked a few days ago…

On the Shred-A-Thon front:

We should have the final stats by next week, but more than 200 of you great Shredees showed up and – judging by the paper level in the truck – at least 5,000 lbs got pulverized!! 

Oh, and let us not forget: 

Today’s also National Take Your Cat to Work Day!!  (Good thing we’re still mostly working from home, yes?) 

As for the week ahead:

Friday, June 25th: Family Movie Night
Asphalt Green’s Litwin Field, 90th between York & East End, 8pm

Family fave Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” on the big screen!!  Sponsored by CM Kallos!!  Free.  To sign up and learn the health-conscious preparations required to attend… 

Saturday, June 26th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

With us will be the great American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Nothing more sublime than the year’s first taste of a real tomato!!  (Been partaking of one, sliced and plain a day since Saturday!!)  Add a bottle of pickled eggs…  Croissants…  Duck sausage…

Market happiness!! 

Sunday, June 27th:  92nd Street Greenmarket
_{First Avenue at 92nd Street , 9am-3pm}

This Sunday’s line-up will be American Pride Seafood, Sikking Flowers, Ole Mother Hubbert, Kimchee Harvest, Grandpa’s Farm, Halal Pastures, Meredith’s Bakery,  Norwich Meadows and Phillips Farms!!  

No surprise…  It’s another year of gorgeous, local edibles at at 92nd Street!!

Great to have Manager Arlene back with us, too!!

Our personal last week 92nd Street faves:  Norwich Meadows tiny, crisp, pink-centered cukes…  Grandpa’s parsley and dill…  Ole Mother Hubbert’s (crazy) chocolate milk…  

Sunday, June 27th:  The Compost Carnival
Queensbridge Park – Vernon Avenue at 41st Avenue, Long Island City, 1-5pm

Join The Save Our Compost Coalition for a Compost Carnival celebration of community composting and recent Big Reuse and Lower East Side Ecology Center compost site victories (over NYParks) with live music, food, family fun and – you bet – a pop-up food scrap drop-off!!  Plus:  Early arrivals will be treated to a Big Reuse compost site tour!!   Totally free!!  Just sign up… 

As July quickly approaches:

Friday, July 2nd:  UES Historic Neighborhood Walking Tour
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, 421 East 62nd Street, 4pm

So, what was the UES and, more specifically, the low Sixties like once upon a time??   The folks of the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum know and want to share!!  Free to members.  Non-members $10.  For more and to register…

Saturday, July 10th:  High Bridge Walking Tour
Meet at the High Bridge, 2301 Amsterdam Ave, Manhattan, 11am

Yet another great walking tour from NYC H2O…  This time, a foray round, about and on the High Bridge, NYC’s oldest standing bridge, engineering treasure dating from 1848 and once the vital link between the Croton Aqueduct and Bronx/Manhattan faucets!!  $30.  For more and to register…

Saturday, July  24th:   Marble Hill Walking Tour
Meet at Marble Hill, Broadway at 225th Street, 11am

NYC H2O strikes again with a tour that’ll answer the question…  “How did part of Manhattan become joined to the Bronx by moving a river?”  $30.  For the complete lowdown and tickets…

Monday, July 26th:  No-Cost Screening Mammograms for Eligible Women 
Mobile Scan Van in front of AM Seawright’s office, 1485 York between 78th & 79th

Free and sponsored by Assembly Member Seawright!!  To determine your eligibility and make an appointment, just call 646-415-7932.. 

Then there’s this August save-the-date:

Friday, August 27th, 5-7pm:  First UESide Plant Swap
67th Street Library Branch Garden , 328 East 67th Street, 5-7pm

Plans are afoot for the 67th Street and 53rd Street Libraries to team up for a first ever neighborhood Plant Swap!!  Both indoor and outdoor plants will be welcome.  Stay tuned for further details…

Add some great virtual events:

At Your Convenience:  Make Music NY  

You missed last Monday’s great Esplanade Friends’ concert on our Esplanade??!!  Not to worry…  Here’s a sampling via Facebook!!

Monday, June 28th to Friday, July 2nd:  Virtual History Week from the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum

Experience 19th-century life for one week…  With each day focusing on a different theme such art, music, science, cooking or theater!!  Add to that virtual tours of the Museum and 19th-century games!!  $100 for your entire family’s participation!!  For full details and to register…

Thursday, July 1st, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social on Zoom 

Meet a bunch of wonderful neighbors who share your community interest and – you bet – your knitting passion…  To RSVP… 

Friday, July 2nd, 12:30pm: Virtual Lunchtime Lecture – Summer Drinks in the 19th Century on Zoom

The Mount Vernon Museum’s consulted a ton of sources to learn how 1800’s folks kept their cool!!  Free.  To register…

Moving on to the realm of diverting diversions:

A NYS DEC-recommended guide to pollinator-friendly planting… How the UES voted (so far)…  A humble English gardener and media sensation…  Avoiding ticks in a ticky year…  Scholarships from the U.S. Composting Council (why not?!)…  Ten of NYC’s smallest parks…  Outdoor adventures for kids…  Development woes on at 86th and First…  Rescue training and actual rescues for our NYS Forest Rangers…  Balloon litter statewide…  “Finding the Mother Tree”…  The Subway tuna sandwich…  Women saving storks… Another Lady Liberty coming to our shores…  Possible climate change consensus…  As NYC approaches commercial waste zones…  The world sand shortage (sand gobbled up for making concrete) and Long Island water…  The NYC Strategic Nature Trails Plan…  $80M coming the our Esplanade…  What’s in bloom in Schurz Park…

Moving on to the Hudson River Almanac:

6/6 – Hudson River Estuary: Today was the last day of sampling at the last net still fishing from the 2021 Hudson River Eel Project. Students and volunteers sampled at 12 sites from Staten Island to Troy (160 river miles) to monitor the numbers of glass eels arriving from the ocean to better understand this important species in decline.

Still Net Fishing on the Hudson

A total of 77,350 eels were caught, counted, measured, documented, and released upstream this year. In the 14 years of this community science monitoring program, volunteers have counted 1,382,926 glass eels. These numbers have allowed fishery managers to establish significant baseline data for the American eel.

As for the Fish of the Week:

6/6 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 124 is the pollock (Pollachius virens), fish number 106 (of 234), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

A Pollock

Pollock is one of four cods (Gadidae) documented for our watershed; others include the Atlantic cod, Atlantic tomcod, and the ephemeral fourbeard rockling. All are strictly marine species except for the anadromous Atlantic tomcod. Making our Hudson River Watershed Fish List can be a serendipitous proposition. Pollock is on our list by virtue of a single occurrence, a 53 mm-long young-of-year from April 1980, at Indian Point (river mile 42).

Pollock, known colloquially as Boston blue, harbor pollock, and saithe (Norwegian spelling; favored in UK), are found in the western Atlantic primarily from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod. While immatures are common in the New York Bight (Waldman & Briggs 2002), adults are rare south of Cape Cod. Pollock feed on small fish and larger crustaceans along coastal slopes that favor a hard bottom. They spawn in late autumn early winter. Large pollock can reach 44-inches and weigh 70 pounds.

Bigelow & Schroder (1953) report that schools of young pollock run up New England estuaries in autumn in pursuit of rainbow smelt. There was a time when the Hudson River had a large population of anadromous rainbow smelt. Before serious fish lists were compiled, did pollock chase smelt up our estuary? Today, in a changing ocean environment, both smelt and pollock do not find the warm temperate waters of the New York Bight comfortable. The pollock may never have been here, and the smelt are all but gone. – Tom Lake

And This Week’s Bird:

                                                                            The Waved Albatross

Dreaming of endless, green and well-watered tree beds,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week:  The year 2020 was more than 1.2C hotter than the average year in the 20th Century!!  (Yes, we’ve noticed!!)

Eco Tip of the Week:  As of last week, Whole Foods at Union Square informs us they’ll  no longer be recycling corks!!  (Stay tuned…  We’ll find an alternative!!)

2021 Compost collected at 96th & Lex from 4/2/2021: 4/2 – 2 bins, 55 Drop-Offs, 615 lbs.; 4/9 – 2 bins, 93 Drop-Offs, 480 lbs.; 4/16 – 3 bins, 136 Drop-Offs, 621 lbs.; 4/23 – 3 bins, 100 Drop-Offs, 615 lbs.; 4/30 – 135 Drop-Offs, 908 lbs.; 5/7 – 5 bins, 160 Drop-Offs, 1031 lbs.; 5/14 – 5 bins, 140 Drop-Offs, 904 lbs.; 5/21 – 6 bins, 195 Drop-Offs, 1368 lbs.; 5/28 – 5 bins, 150 Drop-Offs, 1018 lbs.

2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20): 294 bins; 12,522 lbs.

2019 TOTALS: 43,417 lbs. (21.7 tons)

2018 TOTALS: 23,231,231 lbs. (11.65 tons)

Happy Father’s Day, All You NYC Dads!!

And we on the UESide will be celebrating this Dad’s Day as a 3-Day Weekend and in the greenest possible way with 4 fabulous, ultra-green events:

Event #1:  

Saturday, June 19th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

At their tables will be our friends American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Maestra Manager Margaret’s adds this lovely news:

“Dear Greenmarketeers:

As of this week and in accordance with CDC and NYS regulations, GrowNYC will be relaxing all our Greenmarket Covid restrictions!!

Which is to say, beginning this Saturday, we’ll no longer be enforcing social distancing and shoppers will once again be able to touch produce!!

Yes, masks are no longer required for fully vaccinated shoppers and staff… 

BUT… 

Of course, they’ll still be required for those who aren’t yet vaccinated.

We’re very much trusting that if you haven’t yet gotten your vax,  you’ll be both respectful of and patient with your neighbors and their health concerns and mask up!!  (And we’ll have masks available!!)

Oh, and likely you’ll be seeing some changes in market set-ups as we continue to adapt to post Covid life…

With this comes thanks to all who have patiently supported our farms and markets through out the last difficult year.
 
Looking forward to seeing you Saturday and Sunday this week,
 
Margaret“

Event #2:

Sunday, June 20th:  92nd Street Greenmarket Reopens!!
_{First Avenue at 92nd Street , 9am-3pm}

Returning for another great market season will be our friends at Sikking Flowers, Ole Mother Hubbert, Kimchee Harvest, Grandpa’s Farm, Halal Pastures, Meredith’s Bakery,  Norwich Meadows and Phillips Farms!!   WOW!!  Can’t wait to cruise all those tables heaped with primo edibles!!

Yup, you read that list right… No American Pride Seafood this Sunday… But they’ll be with us next week and every Sunday thereafter!!

Add to the joyful mix the Jazz Foundation and its great music!!

Bring those eyes, ears. large reusable shopping bags and be masked!!

Event #3:
 
Sunday, June 20th, 10am-2pm:  Shred-A-Thon – So Glad You’re Back Edition
_{^{Opposite the 92nd Street Greenmarket, West Side of First between 92nd & 93rd, 10am-2pm}}

Bring on that paper, UESiders!!  

And bring it on wearing your mask and socially distancing!!

AND, as always, keep in mind:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings.

NO hardcover books.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

As ever, we thank Shred-A-Thon sponsors AM Seawright and CMs Kallos and Powers for their generous support!!

Event #4:

Monday, June 21st:  Make Music New York at the Aycock Pavilion
_{^{The Alice Aycock Pavilion,  East River Esplanade at 60th Street, 3-7:30pm}}

Live music!!  Fun activities for all ages!!  Great refreshments!!  All free and with that wonderful river view!!  It’s Esplanade Friends opening summer season event and sponsored by the great Schulte Roth & Zabel and NYC Ferry!!

Then 4 days later:

Friday, June 25th: Family Movie Night

_{Asphalt Green’s Litwin Field, 90th between York & East End, 8pm}

Family fave Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” on the big screen!!  Sponsored by CM Kallos!!  Free.  To sign up and learn the health-conscious preparations required to attend… 

And then:

Sunday, June 27th:  A Community Walk at Ridgewood Reservoir

^{At the Ridgewood Reservoir, 58-2 Vermont Place, Queens, 1-3pm}

Organized by the great NYC H20 and led by Assistant Director Join David Chuchuca and local community garden organizers, it’s our chance to explore this incredible natural resource right in the heart of NYC!!  Sponsored by CMs Holden, Reynosa and Diaz.  Free.   For more, directions and to sign up… 

Just over the horizon:

Monday, July 26th: No-Cost Screening Mammograms for Eligible Women 

_{Mobile Scan Van in front of AM Seawright’s office, 1485 York between 78th & 79th}

Free and sponsored by Assembly Member Seawright!!  To determine your eligibility and make an appointment, just call 646-415-7932…  

Add some great virtual events:

Thursday, June 24th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social on Zoom 

Meet a bunch of wonderful neighbors who share your community interest and – you bet – your knitting passion…  Gentlemen welcome, too!! To RSVP… 

Monday, June 28th to Friday, July 2nd:  Virtual History Week from the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum

Experience 19th-century life for one week…  With each day focusing on a different theme such art, music, science, cooking or theater!!  Add to that virtual tours of the Museum and 19th-century games!!  $100 for your entire family’s participation!!  For full details and to register…

Add a dollop of activism:

You might want to encourage Congresswoman Maloney to support the  Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat (MONARCH) Act which would authorize funding for projects aiding recovery of. monarch populations in the western U.S…

And this great news re activism past: 

All those emails you sent to assure Lower East Side Ecology’s Compost Yard would be restored to the East River Park when construction is complete??  VICTORY!!

Moving on to the realm of diverting diversions: 

Bezos’s British fusion plant (holy crow!!)… The lowdown on (yummy) radicchio…  Oak trees and extinction…  Furry acts of kindness…  Contrary to last Sunday’s Times anti zoo screed (and/or watch any NatGeo zoo doc)…  West Virginia’s water…  “Elle Decor” in our hood…  Wind power, the world and the U.S…    Wind power and NYS…   The National Zoo’s baby panda cam…

                                                                              That Baby Panda

Continuing on down the diversion trail:

Summer cooling recommended by the NYTimes…  The many, simple ways we can be outdoors city scientists…  Native NYC plants best for our birds and insects (scroll to page 10)…   A great Brooklyn campsite...  Birdy books for kids (scoll to page 17)…   Adventures of a duck and her ducklings in Brooklyn…  Big bucks at play in our District 5 Council race…    Crayfish plus anti-depressants…  Plenty happening on Randall’s Island (like Pollinator Day!)…

Moving on to the Hudson River Almanac:

6/1 – Brooklyn: I pulled up one of our East River Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy oyster research cages hanging off our Pier 5 Marina this morning and found several amazing creatures residing with the oysters. They blended in very well at first, but we eventually caught site of a small, lined seahorse (50 millimeters (mm)) as well as a slightly larger northern pipefish. Those, however, were not the most exciting find; attached to a shell was a rather plump-looking sea anemone. It did not look much like other anemone species we have seen in this area. With some help from the science community, it was finally identified as Paranthus rapiformis, the onion anemone! – Christina Tobitsch

That Onion Anemone

(The onion anemone, also known as the sea onion (Paranthus rapiformis) is from Actinostolidae, a family of sea anemones. They are a burrowing anemone inhabiting the lower reaches of rivers and bays, such as the East River. They can attach to the bottom muds in tidal flats by an expanded basal disk, often over pebbles and shells. Gosner (1978) describes their movements as “gliding about freely on their pedal disks.” Lippson and Lippson (1984) adds “When their tentacles are withdrawn, they look more like a garlic clove, than an onion.” – Tom Lake]

With the Fish of the Week being:

5/30 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 123 is the conger eel (Conger oceanicus), fish number 22 (of 234), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

A Conger Eel

Because eels can trace their ancestry back hundreds of millennia, the resulting myriad of specialized adaptations makes their relationships not well understood. C. Lavett Smith suggests that “… the present arrangement of 600 species must be considered tentative.” The conger eel (Congridae) is one of the largest families with 38 genera and 100 strictly marine species, and the only member of the family in our watershed. They are considered a temperature marine stray; when it is found in the lower estuary or New York Harbor, it can easily be mistaken for an American eel. In the field, we have to note the origin of their dorsal fin relative to the placement of other fins to tell them apart.

Conger eels can reach more than seven feet in length and weigh up to 88 pounds. They feed on fish, shrimp, and small mollusks. Conger eels range from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico. Locally, they spawn offshore of New England in deep water. Like American and European eels (Anguillidae), conger eels spawn once and then die. – Tom Lake

And This Week’s Wonderful Bird:

A Bendire’s Thrasher

Do check out the surging compost numbers below!!

Yours in paper shredding greenness,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week:  There are some 250 species of bumble bees worldwide!!

Eco Tip of the Week:  Recycle unwanted thermometers – carefully packed in bubble wrap  – by mailing them to  to Coastal Plumbing Supply, 38-16 Stillman Avenue, Long Island City, New York 11101.

2021 Compost collected at 96th & Lex from 4/2/2021): 4/2 – 2 bins, 55 Drop-Offs, 615 lbs.; 4/9- 2 bins; 93 Drop-Offs, 480 lbs.; 4/16 – 3 bins, 136 Drop-Offs, 621 lbs.; 4/23 – 3 bins, 100 Drop-Offs; 615 lbs.; 4/30 – 135 Drop-Offs, 908 lbs.; 5/7 – 5 bins, 160 Drop-Offs, 1,031 lbs.; 5/14 – 5 bins, 140 Drop-Offs, 904 lbs.; 5/21 – 6 bins, 195 Drop-Offs, 1368 lbs.; 5/28 – 5 bins, 150 Drop-Offs, 1018 lbs.

2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20): 294 bins; 12,522 lbs.

2019 TOTALS: 43,417 lbs. (21.7 Tons)

2018 TOTALS: 23,231 lbs. (11.65 Tons)

Happy Non-90 Degree/Non Massively Humid Weather, UESiders!! We so deserve a run of pleasant market shopping/gardening/out-in- our-Parks and on-our-Esplanade/just-lazing-around days!! AND there’s still more joy: *Happy Reopening of the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Senior Center on Monday, June 14th!!  (For complete details and how to order meals...) *And how ’bout the happy new $80M coming to renovate our Esplanade 80th to 90th Streets??!!  (Let’s hope NYC/Parks gets to work on it in our lifetimes and with  world-class engineering/design!!) Returning to the subject of our market (soon to be markets): Saturday, June 12th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket 82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!! Ever more late spring/early summer produce!!  Fantastic flowers!!  Wonderful chicken, duck, beef and pork!!  Best milk, yoghurt, butter, eggs and cheese!!  Delicious breads and pastries!!  Carefully masked and socially distanced shoppers!! Even when folks could/should avoid parking along the Market’s western boundary…  The 82nd Street  Greenmarket rules!! Also on this weekend’s/coming week’s actual event agenda: Saturday, June 12th:  No-Cost Paper Shred-a-Thon on Roosevelt Island Day!! Motorgate Turnaround, 688 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, 10am-3pm So great RIslanders no longer have to lug giant bags of paper in need of shredding over to UESide events (although they’ll always be welcome)!!  And no better way to celebrate the ever more green Roosevelt Island Day!!  Sponsored by AM Seawright and NY Sanitation.  Meanwhile, there’re plenty more great RI Day festivities: And there’s even more UES enjoyment: Saturday & Sunday, June 12th & 13th:  Art & Music on the Upper East Side   James Cagney Place, 91st Street between Second & Third, 12-6pm Art that ranges from photographs of city buildings and parks to abstract and realist paintings…  Ceramics…  Textiles…  Delightful kid art…   Music, too, including a performance by students from Talent Unlimited High School!!  Organized by City Canvas, a new initiative by Community Board 8’s Arts Committee that aims to support local artists, actors and musicians!!  For more…. And we’re now in the countdown phase for a big upcoming Sunday: Sunday, June 20th:  92nd Street Greenmarket Reopens!! First Avenue at 92nd Street , 9am-3pm Returning for another great market season will be our friends at American Pride Seafood, Ole Mother Hubbert, Kimchee Harvest, Grandpa’s Farm, Halal Pastures, Meredith’s Bakery,  Norwich Meadows and Phillips Farms and Sikking Flowers!!   (WOW!!  And maybe more!!) Plus… The Jazz Foundation will be with us making Opening Day 2021 a musical event, too!! Needless to say, do mask up!!   Sunday, June 20th, 10am-2pm:  Shred-A-Thon – So Glad You’re Back Edition Opposite the 92nd Street Greenmarket, West Side of First between 92nd & 93rd, 10am-2pm Bring on that paper, UESiders!!   And bring it on wearing  your mask and socially distancing!! AND, as always, keep in mind: NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags. REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings. NO hardcover books.   (But paperbacks are fine.) Monday, June 21st:  Make Music New York at the Aycock Pavilion The Alice Aycock Pavilion,  East River Esplanade at 60th Street, 3-7:30pm Live music!!  Fun activities for all ages!!  Great refreshments!!  All free and with a wonderful river view!!  It’s Esplanade Friends opening summer event and sponsored by the great Schulte Roth & Zabel and NYC Ferry!!                           Thursday, June 24th:  UES Blood Donation Event The Church of Heavenly Rest, 1085 Fifth Avenue at 90th Street, 10am-4pm No mystery NYC continues to suffer from a concerning blood shortage so, a la Covid vaccination, great for northern UESiders to be able to donate close to home!!  Sponsored by CM Powers.  To make your appointment… Friday, June 25th: Family Movie Night Asphalt Green’s Litwin Field, 90th between York & East End, 8pm Family fave Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” on the big screen!!  Sponsored by CM Kallos!!  Free.  To sign up and learn the health-conscious preparations required to attend…  Sunday, June 27th:  A Community Walk at Ridgewood Reservoir At the Ridgewood Reservoir, 58-2 Vermont Place, Queens, 1-3pm Organized by the great NYC H20 and led by Assistant Director Join David Chuchuca and local community garden organizers, it’s our chance to explore this incredible natural resource right in the heart of NYC!!  Sponsored by CMs Holden, Reynosa and Diaz.  Free.   For more, directions and to sign up… Then there’re events virtual: Tuesday, June 15th:  The Potential of the Public Realm.   Join Council Member Keith Powers and the Municipal Art Society’s Livable Neighborhoods Program for a presentation and discussion re two community proposals to expand and better manage open space for a more livable, equitable city.  Free.  For more and to register… Thursday, June 17th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social on Zoom.  Meet a bunch of wonderful neighbors who share your community interest and – you bet – your knitting passion…  To join zoom …  (Meeting ID: 822 8581 8280, passcode “knit”)  Monday, June 28th to Friday, July 2nd:   Virtual History Week from the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum Experience 19th-century life for one week…  With each day focusing on a different theme such art, music, science, cooking or theater!!  Add to that virtual tours of the Museum and 19th-century games!!  $100 for your entire family’s participation!!  For full details and to register…  Then in the activist mode:  Deepest respect for Warriors in the Park’s defense of the threatened East River Park…  For details…  And should you wish to sign on to the Warriors’ petition…    Ever more diverting diversions: The regenerative agriculture movement expands…  Product labels  that enhance recyclability…  Lithium ion battery production and recycling advances…  Low carbon aluminum production…  Environmental tragedy in the Sea of Marmara…  Great tiny homes circa 1947…  Then there’s the 1947 Canadian Small House Competition…  What our NYS Forest Rangers have been up to of late…  Carl Schurz Park in bloom…   More UES demolition…  Underwater with the Billion Oyster Program…  Colorado’s great and stern new plastic bag law…  A Venezuelan bird rediscovered…  Roosevelt Island’s first hotel…  The Natural History Museum’s new Hall of Gems…  Vehicle charging in the U.K…  A centuries old candle…  Reusable Starbuck’s cups in Europe and around the world…  A guinea pig doc…  Dove Soap (!) doing good…   NYC’s custard history…  Once and present Madison Square Gardens… Police departments going EV… Moving on to Hudson River Almanac: 5/15 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked the sampling and collection gear toady that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. We found that we had caught a crafty lined seahorse that had its prehensile tail wrapped around the mesh of our crab pot. However, the seahorse disengaged as the pot cleared the water and it fell back before we could measure it. Other featured animals included a feisty blue crab (115 mm), a white perch (185 mm), and a stunning tautog (270 mm). – Siddhartha Hayes, Olivia Radick 5/21 – Manhattan: Our Environmental Programs umbrella of RIPA (Natural Areas, Urban Farm, and Public Programming departments) finally got the opportunity to go seining today. Our Randall’s Island Park Alliance Staff began at the Water’s Edge Garden along the Harlem River where the water was 72 degrees F, and the salinity was 21.0 ppt. We made three hauls of our net going against the current and caught eleven Atlantic tomcod (46-60 mm), seven winter flounder (30-45 mm), six bay anchovies (75 mm), a spotted hake (102 mm), and three northern pipefish (170-185 mm). The male pipefish all had prominent brood pouches although the eggs had not yet matured and developed their orange color.                                                                                                           A Pregnant Male Pipefish The incredible abundance of river life also included comb jellies, two lion’s mane jellyfish, 131 mud dog whelk snails (their eggs were present on algae), twelve blue crabs (15-60 mm), 26 grass shrimp, and 189 sand shrimp (many with eggs). Sand shrimp (Crangon septemspinosa) consistently outnumbered grass shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.) throughout the day. Later in the day at the Little Hell Gate Salt Marsh on the East River, the water was also 72 degrees F, and the salinity was 23.0 ppt. From several seine hauls there, our catch included 433 mummichogs (45-100 mm), a gorgeous little white mullet (45 mm), and two Atlantic silverside. Many of the male mummichogs were in their breeding colors while some of the females were very rotund with eggs. – Jackie Wu, Jhanelle Mullings Love this Fish of the Week: 5/17 –  Fish-of-the-Week for Week 121 is the slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus), fish number 136 (of 234), on our Hudson River  Watershed List of Fishes.                                                                                                                           A Slimy Sculpin The slimy sculpin is one of four members of the sculpin family (Cottidae) documented for our watershed. Of the four, however, the slimy sculpin is the only freshwater species; the other three are found in marine waters. The slimy sculpin ranges from northeastern Siberia, across Canada, and then south along the Atlantic coast to Virginia. Adults can grow to 120 mm. The slimy sculpin is considered a periglacial species, one that was among the first of the fishes to arrive in our watershed following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet about 15,000 years ago. Other periglacial fishes include lake trout, northern pike, and our New York State fish, the brook trout. In September 1994, C. Lavett Smith, Curator of Fishes at the American Museum, and I conducted a Town of Olive Fish Survey (Ulster County) for the Town of Olive Natural Heritage Society. As part of the survey, we sampled lower Bushkill Creek at its confluence with South Hollow Brook, both Esopus Creek tributaries. Much like the margined madtom (last week’s Fish-of-the-Week) slimy sculpins prefer clear, cold water streams, living among rocky riffles. They are primarily insectivores with mayflies contributing 35% of their diet. Therefore, it is not surprising to find them sharing habitats with trout. Using a small seine (10×5-feet), we collected four slimy sculpins (74-78-mm) along with three brown trout (Salmo trutta). – Tom Lake And the wonderful Bird of the Week:                                                                  The Black Skimmer Scissor-Bill June 16th is World Refillable Day…  As in green people such as ourselves using refillable water bottles!!   Next up…  Plastics-Free July,  UGS Eco Fact of the Week:  The average American throws away 81 pounds of clothing per year. 95% or worn or torn textiles can be recycled.  However, only 15% gets donated or recycled. Eco Tip of the Week:  Ladies, you can recycle your gently worn bras either by mailing yourself to The Bra Recycler, 4904 South Power Road, Suite 103-441, Mesa, AZ 85212 or go to https://www.brarecycling.com for a free mailing label.

Happy World Environment Day, World Ocean Day, Invasive Species Awareness Week and Official National Hug Your Cat Day, UESiders!!

And welcome to another wild and wooly weather weekend!! 

Underscoring that description, as we write, hail-mixed rain’s pelting  UES  windows while thunder rolls!!

Yikes…

(Although does make one feel a tiny bit better about upcoming 90 degree days!!)But there’s plenty useful, fun and uplifting  to do while we huddle near air conditioners:

View at your convenience: The Manhattan Borough President (Democrat) Candidate Debate on NY1.  Just click here…

Read any old time: “The Disease Detective” from the NYTimes.   News of some of the many fabulous folks working for global good!!  Yours at…  (Thanks for the tip, reader Susan Blackwell!)

From the Knowledge is Power File and any time you want: Internal Docs Reval 60% of Nestle (World’s #1 food company) products are unhealthy!!. Got to read it…  

So what if it’s “warm” outside when our market’s happening: 

Saturday, May 22nd:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

Everybody’ll be at those tables…  American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski  Farms!!

Magna Suprema Plus Market Manager Margaret shares what’s up this week:

“Dear Greenmarketeers, 

Each and every June weekbrings more new and exciting produce to  82nd Street tables!!

Strawberries…  Asparagus…  Rhubarb…  Spinach…  Heads of many  kinds of lettuce…  Sugar snap peas, too!!

While you’re loading up with all that fabulousness, just keep in mind:

Until we hear otherwise from NYS Department of Ag & Markets, GrowNYC recommends Greenmarket mask wearing and enforcement of social distancing at all markets.   In other words and as applies to you wonderful 82nd Street shoppers,  keep up your great work keeping things safe for others and yourselves!!
   
Then and as ever, there’s this request/plea regarding parking on the western half of East 82nd…  Please-please-please…  Help us keep it clear for farmers’ trucks and tables and your social distancing!!

Enjoy your shopping and great eating,

Margaret“

There’s even more coming up that’s live and in person:

Monday, June 7th, 10-11:30am: Earth Day Esplanade Clean-Up
Hosted by Esplanade Friends and Green Park Gardeners.  Gloves, grabbers and trash bags supplied.  Meet at 12:30 at Esplanade’s 71st Street ramp.  Dress for cleaning!!  Be thoroughly sunscreened!! To join in ExecutiveDirector@esplanadefriends.org. 

Tuesday, June 8th, 10:30am-12:30pm: Tree Pruning on Randall’s Island.  Learn tree care from the master, TreesNY’s Sam Bishop (AKA “Mr. Trees”!).  You’ll thank yourself!!  Free, of course.  For more, where to meet and sign up… 

Thursday, June 10th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social.  One sure path to neighborly acquaintances…   Knit…  Chat…  Share UES pluses/issues..  And knitting wisdom, of course..  To RSVP and join in…

Saturday, June 12th:  No-Cost Paper Shred-a-thon at Roosevelt Island Day.  Sponsored by AM Seawright and NY Sanitation.  Details to coming soon…

Sunday, June 20th:  92nd Street Greenmarket Reopens!!
_{First Avenue at 92nd Street , 9am-3pm}

Returning for another great market season will be our friends at American Pride Seafood, Ole Mother Hubbert, Kimchee Harvest, Grandpa’s Farm, Halal Pastures, Meredith’s Bakery,  Norwich Meadows and Phillips Farms and Sikking Flowers!!   (WOW!!  And maybe more!!)

Plus… The Jazz Foundation will be with us making Opening Day 2021 a musical event, too!!

Needless to say, let’s all remember to mask up!!
 
Sunday, June 20th, 10am-2pm:  Shred-A-Thon – So Glad You’re Back Edition
^{_{Opposite the 92nd Street Greenmarket, West Side of First between 92nd & 93rd, 10am-2pm}}

Bring on that paper, UESiders!!  

And bring it on wearing  your mask and socially distancing!!

AND, as always, keep in mind:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings.

NO hardcover books.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

Friday, June 25th, 8pm: Family Movie Night on the Asphalt Green’s Litwin Field, 90th between York & East End.  This time it’s Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon: on the big screen!!  Sponsored by CM Kallos!!  Free.  To sign up and learn the health-conscious preparations to attend…

Opening June 28th at the American Folk Museum:  American Weathervanes Exhibition.  Gonna be amazing!! Free.  For brief look, more info and timed tickets…

Some great virtual events, too:

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2-4pm: EPA Coastal Climate Change Webinar.   And we quote, “The challenges of climate change adaptation planning, including the methodologies and tools currently available and how they are being used to develop adaptation strategies… ”  Could it be more pertinent to NYC?  Free.  For more and to register…

Muncipal Art Society’s June Tours:  Couldn’t Be More Diverse. Members $15.  Non-members $25. For more and to register… 

Add these diverting diversions:

Origins of the watermelon (revised)…  Puppies and their human connection…  New restaurants coming to the UES…  Another facet of India’s coal problem…  Actual, tangible, existing corporate removal CO2 policies…  Results from Cornell’s latest (bird) FeederWatch…  Consumer Reports’ deep discounted products for June…  A Pompidou Center in Jersey(!)…  Progress at the UES Trader Joe’s…  A shark activity pack for 4-8 year olds…   How to share summer beaches with birds…   A NYS 4-H summer camp…  Houseplants for fun and obsession…

Latest from the Hudson River Almanac:

5/22– Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy welcomed visitors onto the Pier 4 beach to watch as we seined in the East River. After last summer’s COVID hiatus from public programs, children and adults alike were curious and excited to get a glimpse of the life lurking below the surface of the river. With the help of many young novice scientists, with dichotomous keys in hand, we identified and counted Atlantic tomcod, skilletfish (five), seaboard goby (2), northern pipefish (2), Atlantic silverside (2), and a beautiful winter flounder (160 millimeters (mm)). We also found plenty of our local intertidal zone favorites such as shore shrimp, sand shrimp, young-of-year blue crabs, and mud snails. – Christina Tobitsch

A Mud Snail

[This season seems to be favoring lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus). We have been reading of the Hudson River Park’s River Project staff finding sea horses off Manhattan’s Pier 40. At the same time, we have captured three in our oyster research cages so far this spring. Christina Tobitsch]

A Lined Sea Horse

5/23 – Manhattan:  We had been fishing with cut bunker (Atlantic menhaden) for striped bass off Inwood Park’s Dykeman Pier, without any joy (catch), since 8:00 AM. This afternoon we moved up the pier on our way home to give the fish one more chance. Our persistence paid off when we hooked and landed a handsome fish that we had never seen before. Following a bit of research, we discovered that we had caught our first ever spotted hake (Urophycis regia). After taking a photo, the spotted hake was released safely back into the Harlem River. In the past, we’ve caught American eels, oyster toadfish, and striped bass from this pier. – Nicola Logonigro, Anthony Logonigro

That Spotted Hake

[Two days previous to the Logonigro’s catch, a spotted hake was captured in a seine in the Harlem River at Randall’s Island, downstream of Inwood Park. – Tom Lake]

5/28 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked the sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. Today our traps contained just one fish, but a good one: an oyster toadfish (210 mm). – Anna Koskol, Toland Kister

An Oyster Toadfish

Then there’s the Fish of the Week: 

5/27 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 122 is the spotted hake (Urophycis regia), fish number 109 (of 234), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

Another Spotted Hake

Spotted hake (Urophycis regia) is one of eight cods (Gadidae) documented for our watershed; they include Atlantic cod, Atlantic tomcod, and pollock. All are marine species except for the anadromous Atlantic tomcod.

They are a colorful fish, brownish tinged with yellow, with dark spots and black-and-white “streaks” running from their head to their pectoral fins. A linear series of white spots also runs laterally along their side. They are found from Nova Scotia to Texas, can grow to 16-inches, spawn offshore and move inshore in winter for much of that range. They feed on fishes such as menhaden and other herring, as well as squid and various crustaceans. Spotted hake are a sometimes-catch by anglers in late winter in the lower estuary and around Manhattan. – Tom Lake

(Our great market fisherman, Warren, usually has hake!!)

And this week’s bird: 

 Black-Throated Green Warbler

World Sustainable Gastronomy Day (June 18th) will be so green,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week:  Digging in the dirt really does lift your spirits.  Digging stirs up microbes in the soil.  Inhaling these microbes can stimulate serotonin production, which can make you feel relaxed and happier!! 

Eco Tip of the Week:  Recycle those dead batteries (in already used ziplock bag) to Best Buy, Lex & 86th!!