4th Annual Potomac Watershed Trash Summit

On Wednesday, October 28th Ann-Marie and Emily will represent The Saw Mill River Coalition and Groundwork Hudson Valley at the 4th Annual Potomac Watershed Trash Summit. This event provides a venue for Congressional, state and local elected officials, citizens and youth leadership to collaborate on strategies to eliminate trash from our waterways, communities, streets and public lands - including regional public policy, model Best Management Practices, business actions, and public education.

Groundwork USA Youth Summit, New Orleans

On Friday, November 13th, Groundwork Hudson Valley will bring two youth from the Summer Green Team Program for a weekend long Groundwork USA Youth Summit in New Orleans. Students from Groundwork Green Teams all over the country will meet to share their experiences, ideas, and plans for the future. The guiding theme of the summit is the Resilience and Fragility of Habitats and Communities. This will bring the group on a canoe ride down the Cane Bayou, and a tour of historical New Orleans. There will be a discussion on the post-Katrina situation, the work that has been done so far, should have been done already, and still needs to be done, asking the question of how natural habitats and communities can be restored.

Five Students Hired as Science Barge Interns Under Honda Grant

We are very pleased to have been able to hire five new students from Gorton and Riverside High School as Science Barge interns. We were able to employee these interested students because of a wonderful grant awarded to us by the American Honda foundation. With their support we will be able to provide paid positions to additional students during each Science Barge season and cover the cost of field trips and buses for schools who are interested in visiting the Science Barge but cannot afford it. By facilitating these connections, Honda has greatly enriched the capacity of The Science Barge and we are so excited to be working with the new interns and scheduling so many (21!) free trips for underfunded schools in and around Yonkers.

Progress Being Made On Saw Mill River Ecological Plan

A team of experts and local officials are making progress on a design to make the daylighting of the Saw Mill River in Yonkers ecologically sensitive.

A major feature of the Yonkers Downtown Redevelopment plan is to reveal the river where it runs underground through the Larkin Plaza parking lot and turn the area into a public river park. We want to make sure that this project will benefit all Yonkers residents and visitors, from people using the library or train station, to tourists enjoying a meal overlooking the scene, to the migratory fish that use the river to spawn, to the endangered American eel that can still be found reaching adulthood in the river.

The Saw Mill River Coalition has enlisted the expertise of Sven Hoeger, an ecologist and the owner of Creative Habitat Corp., a consulting firm that provides cost effective and environmentally sound solutions for ecological restoration. Through a collaborative process, the Coalition is working with the City of Yonkers' consultant engineering firm to design a park that is not only peaceful and enjoyable for people, but that also fosters local biodiversity. This can be achieved by planting native grasses that provide homes to local wildlife, installing a fish ladder to help the migratory fish and American eel up the river, and installing lights in the tunnels where the river will still run underneath buildings (between Larkin Plaza and River Park Center). These lights will simulate "moonlight" and while the American eel will travel in darkness, migratory fish will not. The collaborative process also includes bringing fisheries and engineering experts from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and New York State's Department of Environmental  Conservation to the process.
 
Educational opportunities are also being incorporated. The Coalition's "The Saw Mill to Hudson River Interpretive Trail" project, funded by the Hudson River Foundation, brought together over 60 people from state and local parks, school groups, community groups, city planners, environmental groups, arts organizations, historical groups, development groups, and others for several planning sessions on what a river park might look like and how education can be served by the park.

BioBlitz Scientists Find Over 650 Different Species In Saw Mill River Watershed

From 4pm on September 25th until 4pm September, 26th over 50 scientists from a variety of institutions searched far and wide throughout the Saw Mill River watershed, identifying as many different species as they could find. There were several teams specializing in different disciplines from aquatic invertebrates, to fungi, to birds, to mammals. Many of the scientists brought students along to give them experience in the field. When they were done collecting, many of the teams reported back to Science Barge Headquarters at the Pace University Pleasantville Campus to examine hard-to-identify samples in the microscope room.

While the scientists were hard at work, the public was invited to participate in a number of free activities at Pace. All of the programs were based on the biodiversity in our own back yards and the importance of learning about urban rivers and streams. The event was a lot of fun and a great success! The information collected will be invaluable to preserving, nurturing, and protecting the biodiveristy that lives in and around the Saw Mill River.