Neighborhoodcats.org photo of JFK cat protest.

by Erik Baard

Australia is learning that it’s traded one form of “cute overload” for another, and there might be lessons for New York City.

As reported in this article, Australia attacked its cat overpopulation problem in the interest of preserving its indigenous bird species. The trouble is, without the feline predators around, a rabbit population explosion ensued, stripping away ground foliage needed for safe bird nesting.

The conflict between cat lovers and conservationists, which is often an inner one, spans the globe. In NYC it’s found focus on Jamaica Bay and the JFK Airport. Emotional pleas and conservation science studies have crashed upon walls of bureaucracy in recent years as airport officials cleared out a stray cat population. One ironic twist is that some airport managers have claimed that the cats are attracting birds, with their food and feces, and posing a hazard to planes. While bird strikes are very real, environmental concerns on Jamaica Bay center on ground nesting birds.

Cats are the flashpoint where empathy and responsibility crash in on themselves.

We feel for the cats, cast off in a breach of our social contract with them as a companion species. Activists might have a point in calling the feral ones, though born outside of human housing, “homeless.” That’s certainly true for abandoned pets. But we also grasp the suffering that attends habitat loss and losing young, as birds and other small species struggle to hold on under assault from feline predators.

Our sense of responsibility is weighty because we’ve both marginalized local species to a fringe of habitat and introduced an effective predator.

The greatest point of consensus is that cats should be adopted only responsibly (for life, and neutered), and that they should be kept indoors. But in cases where colonies already exist, sterilization and reintroduction seems is the most humane and effective means of dealing with the cat population. Infertile cats will still hold territory, preventing a rapid repopulation of the area by breeding cats from adjacent neighborhoods. With rats, another species that’s forever the subject of population control schemes, denying food helps disperse a population and keep them busy seeking sustenance instead of breeding. When social animals have a central food source, they gather and find mates, and have the surplus energy to breed and bear young.

Just ask the rabbits down under!

Eastern White Pines. Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Far inland, a wind

lifts fine snow from ancient pines.

Shimmers like sea spray.

I wrote that haiku twenty years ago intending to show the sensual commonality of contrasting locales, pointing toward our shared experiences across superficial cultural divides. Only today, while poking around data piles about pines in this tanenbaum time of year, did I learn of the deep connection Eastern White Pines once had with the ocean.

Within twenty years of landing on the Eastern White Pine-spired shores of New England, the Pilgrims were exporting trunks for ship masts to ports as far away as Madagascar. The New World, from Nova Scotia to Georgia and out west to Minnesota, boasted Eastern White Pines standing over 80’ (24m), with reports of individual trees soaring up to 230’ (70m). Though this species is the tallest pine in North America, healthy ones are also pin straight.

As the colonies grew, so did competition for use of Eastern White Pines. In no mood to pay market rates for its materials, the British government carved the trunks of choice trees with the “broad arrow,” reserving them for Navy ships and exacted heavy penalties from violators. Colonists came to resent that heavy-handed claim on their assets and began falsely marking lesser stands while selling the navy’s best as more profitable lightweight, strong, knotless, and pale (hence the tree’s name) plank wood. Though it’s little remembered today, friction over the issue contributed to revolutionary sentiments among New Englanders. During the vicious “Pine Tree Riot” a sheriff was lashed with pine switches and his horses were maimed. One might say the Minute Men thumbed their noses at the crown by putting an Eastern White Pine in the white canton of their flag, where the cross of St. George used to be.

You can still see a broad arrow carved into white pine in New York City today, but not in a way one might expect. The pinewood door of an 18^th century mansion belonging to the wealthy, rebel Blackwell family of western Queens bears the mark from a British soldier’s saber as a sign of punitive confiscation. The house has long since been demolished, but the door (with melted bottle windows in a neat bit of early recycling) is on display at the Greater Astoria Historical Society.

The rapid growth of the new United States was fed by raging deforestation. Henry David Thoreau was troubled: “The pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure,” he wrote in Autumn. 

Of course, human appreciation the Eastern White Pine long precedes that European imperial tussling and Yankee commoditization. Native Americans depended on the trees for much more than their wood. Their Vitamin C-rich needles can be made into a tisane, or “herbal tea.” The inner bark, called the cambium, can be beaten into a flour extender in hard times. Cones can be stewed and the seeds are edible. The sap, resin, and tar have medicinal value. Resin can be used to waterproof materials, from baskets to boats.

Across a wide swath of North America, Eastern White Pines feed white-winged crossbills (whose bills are specialized for prying open cones), pileated woodpeckers, flying squirrels, red squirrels, beavers, snowshoe hares, porcupines, mice, rabbits, and voles. Bald eagles, moths, chickadees, morning doves, common grackles,and  nuthatches shelter in them when they stand, while in fallen trees you’ll find woodpeckers and hibernating black bears nesting. They become such a bedrock of the ecosystem because they efficiently spread seeds by wind and mature trees are somwhat fire resistant.

Sadly, it’s tough to find what naturalists reverently call the “virgin whites,” specimens aged over 350 years. After centuries of rampant exploitation (and vulnerability to blister rust that’s carried by cultivated ribes) we’re beginning to make restitution. A few mature stands can be found within the boroughs, notably along the Kazimiroff Nature Trail in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and at the Jackson Pond pine grove of Forest Park in Queens. In northern Manhattan, visit Inwood Hill Park near Payson Street. Look for tall, blue-green pines with finely serrated needles measuring between 2” and 5” (5-13cm), and bundled in groups of five. The cones are soft and slender and about 5” long. For me, the most beautiful part of this tree is its almost fractal expression: branches, needles, and cones all spiral in a Fibonacci sequence.

Here’s a great little video lecture snippet:

Conifers like the East White Pine are marvelously well adapted to snow and cold. The smaller and more numerous needles (compared with typically broad, deciduous leaves) remain evergreen and exceptionally dark to absorb maximum sunlight in the dim northern winter. Photosynthesis isn’t the aim in the dormant season, but rather simple heat, because like humans, trees survive best in a limited temperature range. With few pores and a waxy coat, they also retain water well. Unlike the skyward reaching branches of some species, their branches angle downwards before curling up at the end, to slough off snow before the weight can cause damage.

Future generations of New Yorkers will enjoy more Eastern White Pines than we do. It’s a core species of the Million Trees NYC drive. A crew of volunteers from the LIC Community Boathouse was happy to plant white pines in Floyd Bennett Field under the guidance of Friends of Gateway. Our little Charlie Brown Christmas Tree-like saplings surrounded dying Japanese black pines, which were planted under a “Beautify America” program spearheaded by Ladybird Johnson. Those exotic transplants are falling to the blue stain fungus, which doesn’t affect indigenous white pines, explained Dave Lutz, chair of Friends of Gateway. Earth Day NY rounded up people to plant some more for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation this autumn and I was glad to participate. Another recent “Million Trees” planter of a white pine was Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden. Volunteer tree planters are needed.

For an urbanite, the greatest value of a stand of Eastern White Pines might be spiritual, in a way that transcends any one religion or the Christmas holiday. As Thoreau wrote, “I saw the sun falling on a distant white-pine wood…It was like looking into dreamland.” When we look upon the tree for itself, and not for its uses, the effect is immediate and the cause is clear for why the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people called this the Great Tree of Peace.

If a seal falls ill in the Gowanus Canal, a turtle catches an autumnal chill in Montauk, and a dolphin gets marsh bound in the Great South Bay, there’s a good chance they’ll end up as roommates at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

As New York State’s only authorized marine mammal and sea turtle rescue group, the Riverhead Foundation is called upon to perform rescues and verify unusual sightings throughout the southern New York salty shorelines — the Long Island Sound, Atlantic Ocean, New York Bight and New York Harbor. The small, overstretched staff is like an aquatic A-Team housed within the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium, a well-run regional attraction where sting rays poke up to kiss you right upon entering the door. Really. Well, okay, and be fed.

(This photo and those following, unless otherwise specified, were taken by trip participant Sofia Theologitis.)

Our Nature Calendar group of five was ushered into the back rooms where the Riverhead Foundation does its work of assessing, monitoring, and healing animals held in cylindrical tanks for eventual release into the ocean or transfer to another aquarium. The most frequent guests are seals and turtles (we saw about ten of them, representing a mix of species that including harbor seals and a loggerhead turtle that had arrived an hour before us), though dolphins and porpoises are regulars too.

(I learned about the foundation eight years ago when I was with a pod of fellow winter kayakers who confirmed Harry Spitz’s sighting of the first community of seals in New York Harbor in 120 years, and wrote about it for the New York Times.) 

You’ll know that turtles are in residence if upon stepping off the decontamination shoe pad you’re hit with a wave of warm, moist air. Some “cold stunned” turtles appear dead because they’ve been immobilized by temperature drops, before they could migrate to warmer waters.

“They get washed ashore like any other debris,” said rescue program supervisor Julika Wocial, who trains the public in making proper sighting and stranding reports . “Don’t assume a turtle is dead unless it’s decomposed or missing a head.”

Other turtles can’t dive well because of trapped gas pockets in their shells. This makes it hard to feed, leaves them vulnerable to predators and boat injuries, and above-surface shells sections can degrade with prolonged air exposure (as with the patient below). A bubble can be drained, but evenly distributed gas is a challenge. Sometimes weights are added, or the turtle is found unfit for release.

Flipper injuries like the one photographed below were common (suspected shark bites) among turtles, as are propeller lacerations. Even double rear amputees can survive in the wild, explained Robert DiGiovanni Jr., director and senior biologist at the foundation.

Whirl pools at the center of seal tanks mimic ocean currents and combat muscle atrophy.

Seal pox further weakened a few already struggling pinipeds. The viral disease, which isn’t transmittable to humans, runs its course with the severity and duration of our experience of chicken pox. Instead of many small pustules dotting the skin, however, seals get several larger, hard knobs near their faces and flippers.

Seal pox lesion.

Perhaps more surprising was how common eye injuries are among seals. Of course, those at the foundation were being rehabilitated and weren’t representative of the general population. It makes sense, however, that seals would often get bitten or poked around the eyes as they rooted around the seabed.

The staff takes special care to not bond with the animals, so that they retain natural behaviors and a healthy aversion to humans upon release. As social mammals with expressive faces, seals make this particularly difficult. Well, at least for me. The female seal I photographed below and I had some immediate chemistry. Ms. Wocial mildly reprimanded me for lingering and chatting with this pirate-eyed beauty.

Staff and highly-trained volunteers work together in both rescues and releases, with the latter being sometimes nearly ceremonial. Sponsors who “adopt” seals and turtles come out, as do reporters and other friends of the foundation. Sometimes a dolphin must be gently ushered out of its tank by a wall of staff and volunteers wearing dry suits, with arms interlocked. Slight injuries, sometimes quite painful, are common among the humans.

Costs for rescue, rehabilitation, and release range from $6500 for a seal to $120,000 for a dolphin. Medical machines are always needed, Mr. DiGiovanni said, and often come through hospital donations. One recent acquisition greatly improving the Riverhead Foundation’s field work is a portable unit to test for blood gases, electrolytes, and glucose levels.

Released patients of the rescue hospital have paid back their human tenders with unprecendented revelations. Tracking devices on their backs have mapped migration patterns, not only north-to-south, but inshore and offshore, where deeper waters have steadier temperatures, according to Mr. DiGiovanni. The foundation doesn’t necessarily deliver animals to places near their rescue locations because they usually swim hundreds or thousands of miles within weeks or months of returning to the wild.

Our own path was more predictable. As people now contaminated by seal pox, we were slipped out the back door. Our hosts apologized for the necessity, and stopped short of making us wear leper bells.

GET INVOLVED

“ADOPT” a rescued animal, make a cash or in-kind DONATION or become a MEMBER.

(One trip participant, Neena Dhamoon, is already raising funds from officemates, friends, and family!)

To volunteer, please email: volunteers@riverheadfoundation.org

(Different skill levels are needed, ranging from basic office help to *gentle* dolphin wrestling, after much training.)

Our trip will now include a behind-the-scenes tour of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation. You’ll learn about their work to protect and rescue the sea mammals (otters are coming back now!) and turtles of our local waters.  Oh, and by the way, the photo is clearly Photoshopped. No one put a Santa hat on the seal, so spare the marine biologists’ any angry letters! 

I first got to know the Riverhead Foundation when I broke the story of a seal community establishing itself in New York Harbor. The staff biologists have been a generous source of good information even since.

Only one request: No attempts to balance fruits on the seals’ noses, okay?

If you’re interested in coming on this road or rail outing, please email naturecalendar@gmail.com ASAP. We don’t seem to be limited for space, but we need to coordinate travel logistics and such.

There is no fee for this outing. You need cover only your own travel and shopping.

NYC’s greenest restaurant, Habana Outpost, is hosting a “Winter Warm Up” talk and happy hour. Learn about Prospect Park and the Audubon Center while mixing with fun and friendly teachers. Oh yeah, and enjoy Habana Outpost’s delicious food, party atmosphere, and ecological model before it shuts on Oct 31!

More info through this link:

http://habanaworks.org/

And read the details below!

I hope to see you there!

Erik

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Event Info

Host:	www.habanaworks.org
Type:	Party – Bar Night
Network:	Global

Time and Place

Date:	Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Time:	5:00pm – 7:00pm
Location:	Habana Outpost
Street:	757 Fulton Street
City/Town:	Brooklyn, NY
	View Map Google MapQuest Microsoft Yahoo

Contact Info

Phone:	7189095580
Email:	kate@habanaworks.org

Happy Solstice! Summer is here, and life is booming. Make sure you head down to Jamaica Bay to see cacti, horseshoe crabs, and diamondback terrapin turtles! Or get lost in a world of wildflowers and butterflies in Pelham Bay Park. As for the loveliness above…never again will you speak ill of Staten Island without feeling a bit foolish.

A few special events on Saturday are worthy of your attention and support. Sustainable South Bronx and the Bronx River Alliance are having outdoor benefits to support their revitalization of their shared community. The Gowanus Dredgers invite you to celebrate, care for, and canoe the canal. Staten Islanders are reasserting the second half of their borough’s name with a booming paddle culture. Kayak Staten Island opens its season of free paddling Saturday at noon (continuing until 5PM) as part of “Back to the Beach” day.

Just head to Midland Beach (Zone 5), all the way at the end (south-west terminus) of Father Capodanno Boulevard.

And of course, there’s the Clearwater Festival! To maximize your Clearwater fun, join with Time’s Up! for a rail and ride combo trip to the festival.

And below, as always, a listing of FREE events to get families, couples, singles, and bands of buddies outdoors in the big city!

SATURDAY, JUNE 21

BIRDING, BROOKLYN, 8AM-10AM

Learn the basics of birding (Lesson One: Get up early) with the Urban Park Rangers in one of our lesser-known jewels, the Salt Marsh Nature Center in Marine Park (East 33^rd Street and Ave. U). Call 718-421-2021 for more information.

FORAGING, QUEENS, 915AM-11AM

Join Naturalist “Wildman” Steve Brill in an exploration of the wild food and ecology of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The Ecology Program lasts approximately 90 minutes, to be followed by Brunch at the Museum and a Queens Museum of Art Highlights tour.

Hundreds of herbs, greens and berries grace our parks in early summer, and the sunny meadows and byways of Flushing Meadows Corona Park overflow with wild plants in season. This free event, which includes a “Wildman” indoor presentation and tour, is part of a Queens Museum of Arts’ senior citizen event.

Some of the late spring herbs and greens we’ll be looking for include tasty violets, corn-flavored chickweed, mild, chewy common mallow; sow thistle, which tastes like lettuce; Asiatic dayflower, which tastes like string beans; and burdock, with a potato-artichoke flavored taproot, and artichoke-flavored flower stalk.

Early summer berries, such as mulberries and juneberries, may also be dropping fruit, ripe for the picking!

Register yourself or your loved one at the Benjamin Rosenthal Senior Center (45-25 Kissena Boulevard in Flushing, NY) by calling 718-886-5777. Meet at the center.

PADDLING, BROOKLYN, 930AM-1130AM

Sebago Canoe Club offers public paddling on Saturday morning and Wednesday evening. The program is free, but you’ll need to pay a $10 insurance fee that is not kept by the club. While you’re there, be sure to check out there great new garden and native plantings! For more information about the Open Paddle program, which has limited seating, please visit their webpage.

BIRDING, STATEN ISLAND, 9AM-11AM

The Urban Park Rangers are merciful: this Staten Island birding venture at Blue Heron Park Preserve starts an hour later. They will teach the basics of birding and take you on the trail to test your new skills. Hikes focus on different species of birds, so repeat trips are rewarded. If you’re not sufficiently motivated to haul out of bed in the morning, bear in mind that the gorgeous photo at top is of Blue Heron Park Preserve. You might consider volunteering to keep it thriving.

GARDENING, BROOKLYN, 10AM

Learn how to build raised planting beds (siting, construction, and filling) so that you can have a more bountiful garden. At the same time, you’ll get to know the dynamic staff of the sponsors, New York Restoration Project and Just Foods, and the volunteers of your host, Madison Street Association Community Garden. Go to 974 Madison Street (J or Z to Broad Street station).

FOREST CARE, BROOKLYN, 10AM-2PM

Volunteer to care for Brooklyn’s last forest. Yeah, stunning and sad to think it’s come to that, but the borough’s last forest is in Prospect Park. But you can help it thrive, make friends, and have fun along the way! The Weekend Woodlanders are quiet heroes and you can be one too. Meet at the Picnic House. Call 718-965-8960 for more information.

KAYAKING, QUEENS-BRONX-QUEENS, 10AM-430PM

The Long Island City Community Boathouse is paddling from Anable Cove up to the South Bronx and down again to Hallets Cove in Astoria. See the group’s website (www.licboathouse.org) for more information.

NATURE WALKING, STATEN ISLAND, 10AM-NOON and 3PM-5PM

Stroll into the Summer Solstice on Staten Island. Learn about plants, animals, and natural history at beautiful and historic Conference House Park. We will hold two nature walks: one from 10 a.m. through 12 p.m., and the second from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

KAYAKING, MANHATTAN, 10AM-5PM

Try out kayaking with 20-minute introductory paddles (running between 10AM and 5PM) on the Hudson River south of 72^nd Street or at Pier 40, where West Houston Street hits the water, both Saturday and Sunday. Please dress for getting wet and know how to swim. Call the Downtown Boathouse for weather updates at 646-613-0740 and further information at 212-408-0219.

CANOEING, BROOKLYN, 11AM, 1230PM and 2PM

Canoe the Lullwater (How peaceful can a water body sound? Oh right, there’s the “Pacific Ocean.” Never mind) in Prospect Park. Sign-up at the Audubon Center begins at 1030AM to hit the water at 11AM, 1230PM, or 2PM. First-come, first-served.

GARDENING, QUEENS, 11AM-1PM

Celebrate the sun, enrich the Earth. That’s the Queens Botanical Garden way! Learn about decomposers, recycling, and the composting process. Kids are welcome, and can even make a compostable and recyclable summer craft! The garden is an easy ride on the 7 train to Main Street, Flushing. Stroll down to 43-50 Main Street. Registration is encouraged. To register, call 718-539-5296 or email compost@queensbotanical.org.

BIOLOGY FOR KIDS, BRONX, 11AM

Don’t you love it when the government asks that you bring your kids to the woods with the instruction “Please bring two clear 2-liter bottles,” with no explanation? Well, in this case the woods are lovely Van Cortlandt Park, and this website provides a rather innocent and fun explanation for the whole venture.

Enter the park at West 246th Street and Broadway. For more information about this educational event, call 718-548-0912. No reservations required.

And if you fall in love with this green space with quiet fresh water fishing, nature walks, and active recreation, consider volunteering to better it for the next generation, and even next summer! 

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 11AM-1230PM

The Central Park Conservancy Garden is a 70-year old treasure. Each Saturday from April 5 through October 25, a garden staff person will stroll with you as he or she explains its history, plantings, and design. Meet at the Vanderbilt Gate, where Fifth Avenue meets 105th Street.

ROWING, BRONX, NOON-5PM

Come join Rocking the Boat for public rowing of its gorgeous, hand-crafted Whitehall boats on the thriving Bronx River! Meet at the Congressman Jose E. Serrano Riverside Campus for Arts and the Environment in Hunts Point. For directions, click here.

BIKING, BROOKLYN, 1PM-4PM

Come down to the DUMBO Summer Celebration for Kids and teach your youngster to ride, thanks to Bike New York and Recycle-a-Bicycle. The class is free, but you must register. For details, please visit the Bike New York website.

PADDLING, BROOKLYN, 1PM-5PM

Paddle and care for one of New York City’s future Bruges, but greener. Hey, ambition never hurt! The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club welcomes you to their 2^nd Street launch for a day of estuary discovery and stewardship. Visit the group’s website for more details.

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 1PM

Discover some of the city’s most beautiful wildflowers, some of them rare. Go to the Inwood Hill Park Nature Center. Enter park at West 218th Street and Indian Road. Call 212-304-2365 for more information.

FORAGING, BROOKLYN, 1PM-4PM

Forage with Wildman Steve Brill in the richness of the start of summer in Prospect Park! Here’s his enticing invitation:

“Because Prospect Park includes so many varied habitats, it’s loaded with shoots and greens in early summer, and many of these are edible and medicinal. And the berries, wild and cultivated, are spectacular.

We’ll begin a lush juneberry bush, growing near the park’s Grand Army Plaza entrance. One the the tastiest fruits in the world, it’s astounding that these berries, which taste like a combination of blueberries, apples, and almonds, have never been cultivated.

Nearby, we’ll find corn-flavored chickweed, in season all year. Then we’ll proceed southeast to a vast stand of celery-flavored goutweed, stopping for lamb’s-quarters leaves at the edge of the path.

Further on we’ll find vast stands of burdock, a despised “weed” with a delicious edible and medicinal root.

Near the picnic house, we’ll harvest sweet, flavorful mulberries in quantity by shaking the branches over a dropcloth. Related to figs, you can use these berries in any fruit recipe.

Afterward we’ll look at the nearby domestic plum tree to see if it’s bearing it’s luscious fruit this year. Then we’ll check out the top of a ridge to hunt for spicy poor man’s pepper, hedge mustard and field pennycress, all members of the mustard family.

If we’re lucky and it’s rained beforehand, we find a gigantic gourmet chicken mushroom and there could be savory wine-cap stropharia mushrooms sprouting from wood chips anywhere.”

Steve asks for a donation of $15, but no one is turned away by this generous and wild soul. Call 914-835-2153 right away to reserve a spot.

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 1PM-3PM

“Amble through the Ramble” of Central Park and trade in glare and grit for 38-acres of streams and woods, the street grid for a maze of pathways. Meet at Belvedere Castle (enter at 79^th Street on either side and walk to the park’s longitudinal center) and wear comfortable shoes.

WALKING, BROOKLYN, 3PM-4PM

Nature is a few steps and eye openers away with Prospect Park’s Discover Tours (seen at the top of the page) on Saturdays and Sundays. In June the focus is on the plants and animals that thrive in the parks’ waterways – streams, waterfalls, and Brooklyn’s only lake. Meet at the Audubon Center.

KAYAKING, QUEENS, 5PM-9PM

Yin and Yang, fire and water. Balance yourself (well, uh, literally, since you’ll be in a kayak) by participating in the LIC Community Boathouse’s paddling portion of the Socrates Sculpture Park Summer Solstice Celebration! (Now say that five times fast…) See the group’s website (www.licboathouse.org) for more information.

ASTRONOMY, MANHATTAN, 9PM…maybe

Join Peter Tagatac, an Amateur Astronomers Association member, as he explores the heavens. Visit neighbors like Saturn and its moons, or our own moon – look for the mountainous fringe to stand in stark relief to the blackness of space. You can usually find him at the northern end of the Great Lawn, hence his blog, Top of the Lawn. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 22

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 8AM-10AM

Walk beautiful Inwood Hill Park with Mike Feller, Chief Naturalist for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Learn about your local flora and fauna, and how you can help restore and protect their habitats. Dress for a hike from hats to shoes, and feel free to bring a field guide and notepad if you like. Enter the park at 218 Street and Indian Road. Meet on the little bridge on the eastern end of the salt marsh.

WALKING (With yer pooch!), QUEENS, 9AM

You, your dog, Urban Park Rangers, and the woods of Forest Park. What could be better? Even if you don’t have a dog, come along and play. Come to the K-9 Korral Dog Run (Park Lane South & 85 Street) and join the pack!

HIKING, BROOKLYN, 10AM 

March to the marsh! Get to know the plants and wildlife of a fragile-yet-vital ecosystem, right near home! You’ll learn about how the Marine Park refuge can be protected, and why that’s important to our species as well as the diversity of life on site. Meet at the Salt Marsh Nature Center in Maine Park (East 33^rd Street and Avenue U). For directions and more information, call 718-421-2021.

HORSESHOE CRAB VIEWING, BRONX, 10AM

They’re stunningly ancient (the dinosaurs came and went in a wink for this species), they have coppery blue blood, they save human lives, and they’re gentle. Go love the horseshoe crabs at Orchard Beach! Meet at the Orchard Beach Nature Center. Call 718-885-3466 for information.

Also, it’s worth the effort to learn how you can protect this species. Yahoos are devastating local populations by using them for bait, which threatens not only this important neighbor, but also the migrating birds who feed on their eggs.

KAYAKING, MANHATTAN, 10AM-5PM

Try out kayaking with 20-minute introductory paddles (running between 10AM and 5PM) on the Hudson River south of 72^nd Street and on Pier 40 (west end of Houston Street). Please dress for getting wet and know how to swim. Call the Downtown Boathouse for weather updates at 646-613-0740 and further information at 212-408-0219.

CANOEING, STATEN ISLAND, 11AM-3PM

Learn the basics of canoeing with the Urban Park Rangers in Willowbrook Park. Meet at the comfort station off of Elton Place, where Victory Boulevard meets Forest Road, east of Rockland Avenue.

WALKING, BROOKLYN, NOON

“Come, let’s explore the ravine…” It sounds like scene-setting dialogue from a cheesy horror tale, but in this case you’ll be rewarded with “a guided tour of old-growth woodlands, streams, rustic shelters, and local wildlife” in Prospect Park. Meet at the Audubon Center.

WALK, MANHATTAN, NOON-115PM

Stroll with the Central Park Conservancy for a cross-park promenade and rediscover a place both familiar and novel. Do you know where to find a hidden bench that tells time? Or a sculpture that celebrates fresh water? Well, neither do I, and I’m a native. Get in the know by meeting inside the park at Fifth Ave. and East 72^nd Street, in front of the Samuel Morse statue.

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 1PM-230PM

Have the famed heather gardens, and more, of Fort Tryon revealed to you by expert horticulturalists. The panoramic views of the Hudson River and Palisades are marvelous. There’s a nifty preview video here. Go to the Heather Garden entrance at Margaret Corbin Circle in Fort Tryon Park, where Cabrini Boulevard and Fort Washington Avenue meet.

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 1PM-230PM

Take a little time to “discover the secret places where art and nature meet in Central Park.” You’ll scale to commanding heights of Belvedere Castle (your meeting point, accessible by both west and east 79^th Streets), tranquil Shakespeare Garden, and life-filled Turtle Pond. For more information about this “Heart of the Park” walk, call 718-628-2345

KAYAKING, QUEENS, 1PM-5PM

Try out kayaking with 20-minute introductory paddles (running between 1PM and 5PM) arranged by the LIC Community Boathouse on the East River where Vernon Boulevard meets 31^st Avenue in Astoria. You’ll see Socrates Sculpture Park’s beach at Hallets Cove and a wooden staircase on a wall. Please dress for getting wet and know how to swim.

WALKING, QUEENS/BROOKLYN, 1PM

Explore the resurgent natural areas of Highland Park and the Ridgewood Reservoir through this walking tour. Voice your concern about plans to raze forested areas for artificial turf ball fields. Once you learn of the beauty of this place, turn that passion into action by linking with local preservationists and naturalists.

Meet at the Lower Highland Playground (Jamaica Avenue and Elton Street) and wear comfortable shoes. Bring water, sunblock, and snacks too. For directions and advocacy information, please visit this website.

WALKING, BROOKLYN, 3PM-4PM

Nature is a few steps and eye openers away with Prospect Park’s Discover Tours (seen at the top of the page) on Saturdays and Sundays. In June the focus is on the plants and animals that thrive in the parks’ waterways – streams, waterfalls, and Brooklyn’s only lake. Meet at the Audubon Center.

ASTRONOMY, QUEENS, 730PM

For some novice/parochial New Yorkers, eastern Queens is one of the final frontiers. Little do they realize that lovely, green Fort Totten Ranger Park is a launch pad for much more intrepid exploration! Hop aboard with the monthly Astronomy Club and start the adventure! All ages are welcome. Enter the park at the main fort entrance, north of the intersection of 212^th Street and Cross Island Parkway. For more information, call 718-352-1769

TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 2008

GARDENING AND COOKING, BRONX, 1PM

Learn how to infuse your sweets with garden-grown herbs. Grow them yourself (gear up at the on-site garden store), and bonus points for indigenous species! The good folks at Wave Hill have linked with a talented chef from Great Performances to blend green with sweet. Head up to 675 West 252nd Street, and call 718-549-3200 for more information.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25

WALKING, MANHATTAN, 1PM

Stroll with the Central Park Conservancy for a cross-park promenade and rediscover a place both familiar and novel. Do you know where to find a hidden bench that tells time? Or a sculpture that celebrates fresh water? Well, neither do I, and I’m a native. Get in the know by meeting inside the park at Fifth Ave. and East 72^nd Street, in front of the Samuel Morse statue.

PADDLING, BROOKLYN, 930AM-1130AM

Sebago Canoe Club offers public paddling on Saturday morning and Wednesday evening. The program is free, but you’ll need to pay a $10 insurance fee that is not kept by the club. While you’re there, be sure to check out there great new garden and native plantings! For more information about the Open Paddle program, which has limited seating, please visit their webpage.

When Transportation Alternative’s absolutely wonderful Tour de Queens (enjoy the Street Films video above) rolled into Maspeth on Sunday under the blaze of a record-setting June heat wave, we were subjected to a brutal lesson in urban planning and natural history.

The Newtown Creek is infamous for being home to the largest oil spill in U.S. history, and to heavy metals and other industrial pollutants. Increasingly, lay greens are becoming aware of the combined sewer overflows that plague the waterway with pathogens after rainstorms. What’s less known is that, apart from airport landing strips, you won’t find hotter a hotter place in New York City than the banks of the Newtown Creek. The area’s sewage and swelter share the same origin: a concrete and asphalt “hardscape” instead of a landscape. In the absence of trees, grass, and other plants, water rolls off the impermeable surfaces and floods the sewage system while sunlight beats down on unshaded streets that reradiate heat.

NASA used Landsat to map our “urban heat island,” where temperatures are over seven degrees Fahrenheit hotter than surrounding region. Maspeth was of particular interest to the NASA researchers because it was both particularly afflicted and a prime candidate for mitigation, with low, flat-topped, strong buildings that could bear the weight of green roofs.

The natural history element I alluded to above is of greater concern to bikers than NASA: Oh, the hills! Maspeth sits on the western end of the Harbor Hill Moraine (as you can see in the U.S. Geological Survey map below) that was plowed up by glaciers over 10,000 years ago.

The image below is Helen Ho’s photograph of the Queens Museum’s celebrated New York City panaroma model, with pink tape showing our route over the hills and through the mini-torrid zone. 

I wrote for the Village Voice about the Urban Heat Island phenomenon (including diet, lifestyle, and city planning tips to survive it) and various animal heat adaptations last year. One part that didn’t get published is the fascinating possibility that migrating birds are leaving New York City plumper than they arrived because they needn’t burn as many calories to stay warm at night. I spent a morning in the woods of Bronx Park observing Chad Seewagen, a Wildlife Conservation Society ornithologist, investigating this hunch. My friends Robin Lloyd and David Berreby later wrote up items about Chad and his work for Live Science and the New Yorker, respectively.

These days, however, most species are working hard to shed heat. Humans are particularly lucky in that we sweat copiously, a gift from our tropical heritage that remains with people of all ancestries. Bear in mind, however, that parents can undo in their own kids’ resilience by raising them with air conditioning; sweat glands that aren’t activated in infancy remain dormant for life. Dogs are among the species that have wet noses, long tongues, and very wrinkled nasal passages to allow for heat exchanges with the air.

My favorite evolutionary solution is the carotid rete, a fine web where arteries dump heat into veins and the upper respiratory system so that blood rising to the brain is significantly cooler than the rest of the body. Gazelles have an extraordinarily well-developed carotid rete, but humans are much less impressive in that regard. It’s usually brain temperature that dictates when an animal must stop or pass out, so you can imagine how useful such a tool is for hunters and especially fleeing prey.

And so I might have been the only volunteer marshal ready to scream, “A carotid rete! My kingdom for a carotid rete!”

Now that we’ve stirred mild worries in you with entries about a Bald Eagle attack hoax and the surprising (and real) presence of wild sharks of New York City (May 23), let’s go for broke and combine the two themes: shark attacks!

To be honest, this is more of a personal concern. From August 13 through August 27, I will kayak a 300-mile “Memory Paddle” circumnavigation of Long Island to raise funds for the Long Island Alzheimer’s Foundation. I’m budgeting a little time to loop wide at Montauk, in hopes of seeing some “charismatic megafauna” in our local waters. Marine biologist Arthur Kopelman, president of the Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island, provided the tip that in August there’s a chance of a paddling encounter with sea turtles, pilot whales, dolphins, and…Great White sharks. While I’m a little astonished and disoriented by the idea that I’ll be 40 on August 20, I would still like to live to mark the day. Not that I can complain too much about my upcoming challenge – CRESLI offers viewing tours from the safety of a chartered motor vessel.

Lucky for me, National Geographic Adventure has kindly produced a series of Survival Guide videos, including one for shark attacks. In short, “go for the eyes.” I suppose it will be playing in an endless loop in my mind from, say, August 18 through August 21.

WikiHow goes a little further, offering the paradoxical advice that one should clutching onto his or her shark attacker to avoid chunks of flesh being thrashed off. The user-generated service also advises against screaming, unless you’re sure that it’s about to make you its next meal. Scream, check. Hug shark, check. 

Actually, I will also rig my break-apart paddle to have a sizable blade in the middle or paddle throat base, for easy and quick conversion into a spear. A POD (Protective Oceanic Device) to magnetically irritate the prey-sensing ampullae of Lorenzini of a Great White seems like a bit of overkill (or overpleasedon’tkillme).

It seems most Great White attacks are really the predator’s investigations and errors. When we’re swimming we are a novelty, and so the bites are often the shark’s means of testing our taste, or perhaps any unexpected defense response. The human body lacks the nutrient and fat content of a seal, which is typical prey, so there’s a good chance that a Great White will leave after a nibble. Losing a limb, or part of one, could end in death from blood loss, regardless of the shark’s disappointment.

That optimistic assessment is disputed by some researchers. Marine biologist John McCosker has long noted that the relatively low human fatality rate could be due to our frequent escapes after the first bite. Solo divers fair less well than those who use the “buddy system” of mutual aid.

When in a kayak or on a surf board, we humans exhibit a silhouette that’s very similar to a seal’s. One typical method of attack is to lunge from below, darting inward from a seal’s ventral blind spot. In moments, as recounted in Susan Casey’s book The Devil’s Teeth, the seal is decapitated. In a not-quite-worst-case scenario, a surfer or kayaker can send a Great White home with a mouth full of plastic or fiberglass but be left bobbing in the big blue.

A Great White that senses there’s something odd about the kayak or surfboard form has another means of assessing his potential meal. The species has an usual ability to “spy hop,” that is to look around above the water’s surface. In the photo above, taken in South Africa by Thomas Peschak of Trey Snow (both marine biologists), a Great White is peacefully tailing a marine biologist for a little while out of simple curiosity. One factor in the biologist’s favor might be that Great Whites are notably less aggressive during mating season, and feed much less. Yes, it’s “make love, not Jaws” though Nurse Sharks seem to go in for a bit of rough love.

Now if only I could persuade them to get amorous in August…Would Ravel’s Bolero carry well underwater?

by Erik Baard

Last night I saw my first mosquito of the season, flying into my bedroom, hot on my carbon dioxide trail. I lost track of it, but minutes later I heard the soft buzz of menace in my ear. One must never underestimate the dangers of mosquitoes. Emperor Titus was driven made by one that flew up his nose and picked at his brain, buzzing ceaselessly until he was driven into madness and death. Well, at least according to the Babylonian Talmud, written by Jews hopeful that God at least took some vengeance on the sacker of the Great Temple of Jerusalem.

Actually, those ancient Jewish exiles aren’t unique in offering a slanted view of history centered on this insect. Consider yourself, a person who’s probably an environmentally aware reader. If I mention DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), the first person to spring to mind (okay, bad pun) is probably Rachel Carson. Her book, “Silent Spring,” and crusade against the chemical for its role in collapsing bird populations helped unleash one of the strongest currents in modern environmentalism, and led to the formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Few remember Paul Hermann Müller, who won the Nobel Prize in 1948 for synthesizing DDT, which contemporaries saw as an incalculably humane achievement. Some credit the invention of DDT with saving upwards of 500 million lives. Even today, the mosquito threat is real. The species transmits diseases to 700 million people in tropical, often poor, regions each year. Over five million people, usually children, die from malaria annually. Mosquitoes also playing a central role in transmitting yellow fever, elephantiasis, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, several encephalitis type diseases, and Ross River fever.

The fight over DDT usage, as policy leaders balance its risk to human health (in 1987 the EPA classified it as a “probable human carcinogen”) and the environment against its benefits. Of course, strains of mosquitoes in some regions developed a resistance to DDT in the intervening decades. Succeeding pesticides are also controversial. Locally, where 57 of the world’s 3,500 species of mosquitoes live, concerns over pesticides grew with aggressive spraying programs to eradicate insects potentially carrying the West Nile virus.

A few years back I wrote for the Village Voice about how New York City-bound containers of the insecticide malathion, made by Cheminova, was being stored at temperatures known to cause carcinogenic impurities. Spraying has continued in recent summers, affecting neighborhoods in areas as widespread as the South Bronx, western Staten Island, and northern Queens. A recent article in the Antigua Sun continues to raise the red flag.

One troubling passage on the malathion directions label reads:

“Malathion is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the USA.

The EPA doesn’t actually test malathion.  It approves the product based on information supplied by the manufacturer.”

In other words, our safety is in the hands of the industry, from the manufacturer down to the evidently often-negligent distributors.

Another aspect of the argument against malathion spraying is that our reaction to the West Nile threat could be overblown, perhaps even hysterical, given how infrequently the disease is fatal.

Some argue that given our relatively less-dense mosquito populations we might take less radical measures like wearing light-colored clothing (the species is drawn to dark colors), eating more repellent vitamin B1 (found in brown rice, blackstrap molasses, sunflower seeds, brazil nuts, wheat germ, and soybeans, among other foods), applying cinnamon oil, deploying nets and screens, and introducing more animals that prey upon mosquitoes. One odd note: mosquitoes are highly sensitive to women’s menstrual cycles. I’m not sure what that says about interspecies sisterhood…

The environmental damage done by spraying is of increasing concern. Parallel to the bee decimation, lobster stocks are historically low. Both marine biologists and the industry suspect malathion spraying, as I reported in the New York Times. Of course there are worrisome inherent contradictions with an insecticide to be used against a wetlands species like mosquitoes when the directions read, as they do on malathion, “Avoid contaminating any body of water.”

Joel Kupferman of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project pointed out to me recently that sprayers near Soundview Park were unaware that just over a ridge they were covering was the Bronx River.

What is not heard often, however, is cost of losing mosquitoes themselves. Their importance as pollinators has been greatly underestimated. After all, sugar from nectar is the species’ primary diet, not blood. Males drink no blood at all, and females imbibe blood from a variety of species only as their prenatal nutrient “superfood.” In the Centers for Disease Control photo above, you see the mother-to-be salivating her anticoagulants into capillary and sucking up a meal). Without mosquitoes, our wildflower and community gardens would be impoverished. Mosquitoes and their larvae are a vital food source for shorebirds, amphibians, reptiles, dragonflies, and small fish.