Two Thirds for the Birds: A conversation with landscape architect Edwina von Gal

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with acclaimed landscape architect Edwina von Gal about her project Two Thirds for the Birds.

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The bird population is declining dramatically. The Audubon Society estimates that 3 billion birds have gone missing in North America in a generation. But there's something you can do about it. What you grow in your yard can make all the difference. 

 
Did you know that a chickadee needs 3000 to 6000 caterpillars to raise one nest of young to maturity? What happens if you've nuked your property with pesticides that kill all that vital bird food? What, for example, are tick sprays doing to that bird food?
Today we talk with celebrated landscape designer Edwina von Gal about her new project, Two Thirds For The Birds. It's all about gardening to meet the basic needs of the Earth and the creatures we share it with. How? By planting two thirds native species for every one third of exotic plants.

Francesca Rheannon visited Edwina at her magnificent gardens in East Hampton, New York were she puts this principle into action. 

Francesca talked with Edwina von Gal about her initiative Two Thirds For The Birds. 

 

More Information about it is available at www.234birds.org

 

Kelp farming for food, fertilizer, fuel and cleaning up pollution.

Francesca Rheannon talks with Dr. Chris Gobler of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Stony Brook University and fisherman Sean Barrett of Dock to Dish, a community-supported fishery. 

They talk about the promise of kelp farming in local bays for use as food, fertilizer, fuel and cleaning up pollution. Also we noted kelp's ability to reduce ocean acidification and provide habitat, thereby improving conditions for our region's shell fishing industry.

 Here is the conversation:

Here is some more information about kelp farming:

East End Beacon

https://www.eastendbeacon.com/kelp-farmers-get-a-big-surprise/         

https://www.eastendbeacon.com/drawdown-on-east-end-kelp-farming/

BBC

The miraculous power of seaweed on kelp in Australia -   kelp forests dissapering as temp. rises and growing seaweed alongside mussels 

https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/future-planet?vpid=p09bxb6f 

Sarah Schaefer of the Peconic Estuary Program & East Hampton Town Board's Sylvia Overby on Climate Emergency Declaration

 

Francesca Rheannon talks with Sarah Schaefer, Program Coordinator of the Peconic Estuary Program (PEP), about the PEP's work developing tools for local governments on adapting to climate change. Those include their Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Action Plan and Climate Adaptation Toolbox for Land Use and Municipal Planning .

Also Francesca talks with East Hampton Town Board member Sylvia Overby about the Climate Emergency Declaration the Town recently issued and what it will mean for East Hampton's climate action response.

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Steve Schott - Protecting shorelines on Long Island with living shorelines

We talked this week with Steve Schott, the Marine Botany and Habitat Restoration Specialist at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. 

Super-storm Sandy destroyed shorelines on Long Island and was the impetus for Steve’s work replacing bulkheads, boulders and other hardened structures with living shorelines and native vegetation. 

We talked about projects that reverse erosion and also create a habitat for wildlife, including one on the Shinnecock Bay coastline at the Shinnecock Reservation.

Here is our discussion:

More Information about Steve Schott’s work and the living shoreline project is available at

https://peconiclandtrust.org/blog/peconic-land-trust-presents-living-shoreline

 

 

East Hampton's Cate Rogers on South Fork Wind and Water Quality Issues

 

East Hampton's Cate Rogers on South Fork Wind and Water Quality Issues

October 20, 2020

Our region faces numerous environmental challenges, from climate disruption, sea level rise and ocean acidification to poor water quality. We also need good paying jobs and a green recovery to meet some of those challenges. All these issues are on the table in the 2020 election, from the local to the state and federal levels.

One example is the planned South Fork Wind project, first proposed in 2015, a wind farm off the coast of Long Island, 35 miles east of Montauk. 

It would help the state reach its goal of 70% renewable energy by 2030 and the goal of East Hampton Town to have 100% of its energy needs met by renewable sources.

The project reached a major milestone when state agencies signed a Joint Proposal to allow the project to move forward, despite opposition from some homeowners at the site in Wainscott where the power cable from the wind farm would come ashore. But the fate of the project could still be decided by the outcome of the election.

This month Francesca talked with climate advocate and East Hampton Town Democratic Committee Chair Cate Rogers about the project and about water quality issues, the climate crisis and job creation.

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Update on CCA: Community Choice Aggregation

Over the past year or so Sustainable East End has featured several episodes about the effort to bring something called community choice aggregation, or CCA, to the East End. It's a way for municipalities to choose their own energy suppliers with an eye to increasing the use of renewable energy. Now, several towns are well on their way to implementing CCA. Southampton has already contracted with a CCA administrator, Joule Assets. And East Hampton just passed legislation that will enable the town to establish a CCA program.

But hurdles remain, rooted in the position Long Island finds itself in as being under the jurisdiction of the Long Island Power Authority, or LIPA, for power supply and distribution. Those hurdles are the subject of two pieces of legislation brought by Assemblyman Fred Thiele. One piece is sitting on the governor's desk, awaiting his signature. The other will be introduced in the state legislature this coming year.

Today, we hear from Assemblyman Fred Thiele, as well as three other people who are playing key roles in bringing CCA to long island: Lynn Arthur, energy chair of Southampton’s Sustainability Committee; Gordian Raacke, director of Renewable Long Island; and Jessica Stromback, managing director of Joule Assets.

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Hampton Bays Ecological Culture Initiative

 

 Francesca and Tony talked this month with Scott Carlin of the Ecological Culture Initiative in Hampton Bays

That organization sponsors a wide variety of activities, including a Heritage vegetable garden, a seed Library and a weekly  Farmers Market. 

 We talked about these activities and the initiative’s  Zero Waste Economycampaign as it is affected by the ongoing pandemic.

 Listen here

The ECI’s Good Ground Farmers Marketis held at the  Hampton Bays Plaza, 190 West Montauk Highway (Macy’s parking lot) on Thursdays from 3 - 7 pm, through October 22^nd

More Information about the Ecological Culture Initiative is at http://eciny.org

Information about the New York State Childrens’ Environmental Health Center at the Madonna Heights School in Dix Hills

27east.com: Visiting the Good Ground Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sustainable East End

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Sustainable East End on WPKN Radio 89.5 FM is a monthly show about land use, energy and water resources, transportation, and the farming and food industries on the eastern end of Long Island.  It is hosted by producers Francesca Rheannon and Tony Ernst Scroll down for the latest episode.