BON APPÉTIT! Jay Gao of Stony Brook took this photo of a robin feeding its babies in his backyard on May 10 using a Nikon D5500. After hatching, baby robins spend anywhere from nine to 15 days in the nest. The fledglings then leave the nest and move about on the ground and on low branches for a few days before they can fly.
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Thanks to the persistent support of state Sen. Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), Brookhaven National Laboratory secured $15 million from New York State to add a state-of-the-art microscope that could contribute to advances in basic science and medicine.
The national laboratory will purchase a new cryo-electron microscope and will use the funds to create a building attached to its National Synchrotron Light Source II.
“Cryo-electron microscopy is an advanced imaging technology that will significantly accelerate scientists’ understanding of molecular structures and processes generally, including many impacts in understanding disease and in aiding drug discovery,” Doon Gibbs, the laboratory director of BNL, said in an email.
BNL will use the funds to purchase the first of what they hope will be four such new microscopes. The lab is finalizing a bid, which is due by June 30 for funds from the National Institutes of Health for three additional microscopes.
“There is an exponentially increasing demand for the type of bio-structural information that such machines provide, and so we are competing to become an East Coast based national facility to serve this rapidly growing community,” James Misewich, the associate director for energy and photon sciences at BNL said in an email.
Having a suite of microscopes would enable BNL to have a spectrum of capabilities to serve the needs of its scientists and of researchers from around the world who flock to the Upton-based lab to conduct their research.
The new facility will create jobs associated with running the cryo-EM, Misewich said. If BNL wins the NIH proposal to become a national cryo-EM facility, it would also employ additional scientists, engineers, technicians and administrators to run the user program.
Misewich said he hopes scientists at nearby Stony Brook University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory will benefit from the opportunity to use a combination of its X-ray and electron microscope probes.
Senior members of the BNL team credit LaValle for helping to secure the funds.
“The $15 million in New York State funding is the culmination of a two-year effort led by the senator to bring a cryo-EM to Brookhaven and jump-start this important effort,” Gibbs said.
LaValle suggested that the funds were well worth the investment.
“It is critically important for government to embrace and support the work of the organizations that make life-altering discoveries and better our lives, health and environment,” LaValle said in an email. “This investment will further establish world-leading prominence in the field of medical research, and position the region for additional major investments by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Energy.”
Misewich envisions configuring one of the microscopes to allow for electron tomography, which will generate three-dimensional images of cells.
“The approach will be complementary to the X-ray imaging work we can undertake with the NSLS-II beamlines,” Misewich said.
Gibbs explained that the cryo-EM is complementary to X-ray crystallography, which is the traditional method for determining structures, which scientists already do at BNL.
“Few prescription drugs have been approved by the [Food and Drug Administration] for use in the U.S. in the last 20 years without a crystallographic study of their structure by X-rays,” Gibbs continued.
Misewich expects the new microscope could lead to new methods of detection, diagnosis and treatment for diseases like cancer or for medical challenges like antibiotic resistance.
Combining the technological tools of the new cryo-EM with the insights from the NSLS II and the nine-year-old Center for Functional Nanomaterials will enable researchers to “provide much more rapid bio-structure determination in response to needs like the ability to rapidly characterize a virus,” Misewich said.
LaValle sited this effort as a part of his ongoing commitment to build Long Island’s new high-tech economy.
The combination of BNL, SBU and CSHL “will provide a significant boost to the competitiveness of the biosciences and biotechnology communities across Long Island,” LaValle said.
A Port Jefferson-area hospital is setting trends in reducing its environmental impact. A number of new initiatives at John T. Mather Memorial Hospital have turned the facility into an energy efficiency machine, but the hospital’s director of engineering, design and construction said they’re not done trying to improve.
“I would say Mather is one of the most progressive hospitals on the Island in terms of green energy renewable technology and reducing carbon footprint,” Brian Hassan, PSEG Long Island lead account manager for health care, said in a phone interview. He added if other hospitals followed Mather’s lead it would be beneficial to reducing substantial carbon footprint that can be left by facilities that consume large amounts of energy. The glowing assessment can be attributed in large part to the efforts of Kevin Koubek, the engineering director at Mather who is constantly working to improve the hospital’s efficiency.
“I think we’ve shown we’re trying to do everything physically and humanly possible to reduce our demand on the grid,” Koubek said in an interview. Between air conditioning and heating, heavy-duty medical equipment, elevators, kitchen equipment, lighting, gift shops, coffee shops and various waiting rooms, the amount of power required to run a hospital is obviously substantial. Koubek said the hospital is always looking for ways to reduce energy requirements.
“Trying to offset some of this electrical demand is huge, and that’s one of the reasons we have tried to identify where we can minimize our loads,” he said.
Mather is the first Long Island hospital to install a thermal ice storage system to help with cooling the hospital during warmer months. It was installed and became operational earlier in 2017. The system serves to shift a portion of the hospital’s peak electrical load from daytime to nighttime, when electricity is more plentiful, less expensive and generated more efficiently by creating ice using larger air conditioning equipment during off-peak hours, then storing ice in 24 tanks that are used with pumps to generate cool air during the day.
“The day-to-day benefits would be that we’re not turning on this large machine, we’re pulling off the electric grid,” Koubek said.
In the past, before the hospital focused on energy efficiency initiatives, Koubek said much like homes in the summertime, the hospital’s cooling systems had a hard time meeting demand.
“We have to recognize [we] do have patients that for whatever reason, they’re here,” he said. “Their comfort is paramount.”
The chiller was approximately $2 million, though the hospital is expecting a rebate check from PSEG Long Island to cover half the cost.
Mather was also the first Long Island hospital to install solar panels. A 50-kilowatt photovoltaic ground-mounted solar panel was installed in the rear of the parking lot in 2011, and Koubek said the hospital has considered adding more.
“[Hospital administration] would love to do that, it’s just very expensive,” he said.
Koubek added the hospital is also in the process of replacing about 300 standard lighting fixtures of the roughly 3,000 at Mather with LED ones. Standard fixtures require about 180 watts of power while LEDs require about 30 watts.
“That’s the one thing that is sort of flying under the radar, but is making a huge impact on us is the fact that we’re on a track to replace every lighting fixture in the hospital and go to 100 percent LED,” Koubek said.
The hospital is also using lower cost hydropower, or electricity created by utilizing moving water, to reduce its energy costs by $2.5 million through the ReCharge NY award from the New York Power Authority. ReCharge NY is a program designed to retain and create jobs through allocations of low-cost power, half of which is made up of hydropower.
Koubek seemed to embrace the idea that Mather is setting trends for other hospitals in increased efficiency.
“I’d have to say we’re probably one of the leading hospitals on the Island, if not in the state,” he said.
By Daniel Dunaief
Christopher Gobler searches the waters around Long Island for signs of trouble, which can appear starting in April. This year, he found it, in Shinnecock Bay. Monitoring for a toxin carried by algae called Alexandrium, Gobler recently discovered levels that were three times the allowable limit from the Food and Drug Administration. His finding, along with measurements from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation of toxins in shellfish in the bay, have caused the recent closure of shellfishing in the bay for the fourth time in seven years.
While Gobler, a marine science professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, watches carefully for the appearance of red tides from these algae locally, he recently completed a much broader study on the spread of these toxins.
Gobler led a team that explored the effect of ocean warming on two types of algae, Alexandrium and Dinophysis. Since 1982, as the oceans have heated up, these algae have become increasingly common, particularly in the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, according to a study Gobler and his colleagues recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. When they become concentrated in shellfish, these algae can lead to diarrhea, paralysis and even death if people consume enough of them.
Over the course of the study, algae have begun to form “denser populations that are making shellfish toxic,” Gobler said. Temperature is one of many factors that can affect the survival, growth and range of organisms like the algae that can accumulate toxins and create human illness. “As temperatures get higher, they are becoming closer to the ideal for some species and out of the ideal for other species,” Gobler said.
The strongest effect of changing temperatures are at higher latitudes, which were, up until recently, prohibitively cold for these types of algae. The biggest changes over the course of the study came in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, in Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and Alaska. The toxic algal blooms increased in frequency between 40 and 60 degrees north latitude, according to the study. These are places where toxic algae lived but weren’t as prevalent, but the warming trend has created a more hospitable environment, Gobler said.
Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz who wasn’t involved in this research, explained that other papers have suggested a similar link between temperature and the movement of these algae. “We’ve seen the expansion of ciguatera fish poisoning, as the temperature range has moved poleward for those algae,” Kudela wrote in an email. NOAA biological oceanographer Stephanie Moore has documented an expanded window of opportunity for paralytic shellfish poisoning linked to changes in temperature, Kudela said. “While we can point to specific events, and it makes intuitive sense, the Gobler paper actually documented these trends using a long time series, which hasn’t been done before,” Kudela continued.
R. Wayne Litaker, a supervisory ecologist at NOAA’s National Ocean Service, collaborated with Gobler on the project. He said small differences in temperature are significant for the growth rate of these toxic algae. Extending this to other organisms, Litaker explained that fish are also extending their ranges amid a rise in global temperatures. “There’s been a general movement of temperate species toward the poles,” Litaker said. He’s seen tropical fish, such as butterfly fish, off the docks of North Carolina that he hadn’t seen that far north before.
Gobler and his colleagues estimate that the need to close shellfish beds, the increase in fish kills, and the health care damage to people has exceeded a billion dollars since 1982. The largest problem for people in areas like Alaska is their lack of experience with red tides.
“Communities are being exposed to these blooms where they had not been in the past,” Gobler said. “[The blooms] can be most dangerous when they take a community by surprise.” Gobler said this happened in Alaska during the study. In the last decade, shellfish toxins that are 1,000 times more potent than cyanide caused illnesses and were suspected in two deaths in Haines, Alaska.
Litaker said he gave a talk several years ago at a conference. Gobler approached him and asked if they could work together. “One of the wonderful things about these meetings is that you see things that trigger possibilities and whole new projects are born,” Litaker said.
Litaker described Gobler as a “major player in the field” who has done “fantastic work over the years.” Litaker said he was “quite impressed with what he’s done.” Litaker explained that the climate is changing and urged fisheries and shellfish experts to prepare to respond throughout the country. “As we get warmer and more run off of nutrients, toxic cyanobacteria [algal blooms] are causing problems in all 50 states,” Litaker said.
Kudela suggested that the “new records every year for the last several years … will undoubtedly continue to impact the range, duration and toxicity of blooms.”
Locally, Gobler continues to monitor dozens of sites on Long Island, where he suggested that Alexandrium could become less prevalent with warming, while Dinophysis could become more common. Temperature and other factors favorable for algae growth have led to red tides in the past.
In oceans across the world, Kudela said the next logical step would be to explore the interaction of temperature and nutrients. “We know both are changing, and they are likely to have additive or synergistic effects, but we haven’t done the same careful study as the Gobler paper looking at how the trends are interacting,” he explained.
By Ellen Barcel
Before the invention of the bug zapper and the mosquito lures, people relied on plants, such as citronella, to keep mosquitoes away. Personally, I hate bug zappers and mosquito lures not only use electricity but have to be emptied of dead bugs.
So, why not return to more natural ways of keeping mosquitoes away? Why not surround your porch, patio or deck with pots of beautiful plants that are known to repel the little buggers? Why not spread them around to keep the yard mosquito free? Many are actually plants you are growing already but need strategic placement to be the most effective. One of the interesting aspects of mosquito control is that many of the plants mosquitoes hate due to their scent are ones people just love. As a bonus, many are hardy in our area; so plant once and they return year after year.
Citronella grass
Let’s start with citronella. Citronella grass (Cymbopogon nardus and C. winteriannus) is used as an herb in Asian cooking but is best known in our area as a mosquito repellent. Citronella grass forms clumps and can get quite tall, up to 6 feet tall. The plant is a perennial in U.S.D.A. zones 10 to 12 (Long Island is zone 7). So, yes, you would need to replant it each year. Make sure you give this plant sufficient water, possibly daily depending on how much rain we get. Do not confuse this with citronella-scented geraniums or other plants with a citronella scent as they have not been proven to repel mosquitoes. To be effective break off a blade of grass and rub it on your clothing.
Monarda
Monarda (bee balm) is in the mint family and native to North America. It is sometimes grown for its flowers, which come in shades of pink, red and purple, but is also an insect repellent. The plant was used medicinally by Native Americans for a number of problems including as an antiseptic and as a seasoning for wild game. But, its scent is what repels mosquitoes. Crush the leaves to release the oil. Like so many flowering plants, it prefers a sunny location and well-drained soil. It does well in acidic soil, generally in the range of 6.0 to 7. If yours is substantially below that, you may need to add lime. It’s hardy in our area and reaches a height of 2 to 3 feet tall.
Marigolds
Marigold is another beautiful plant that repels mosquitoes. Marigolds traditionally come in shades of yellow and orange. When I was a kid, I remember the Burpee seed company having a contest for the first grower who could produce a true white marigold. And yes, the prize was awarded in 1975. ‘Snowdrift,’ ‘Snowman’ and ‘Snowball’ are three of the white cultivars. ‘French Vanilla Hybrid’ has flowers up to 3 inches across.
Marigolds (Tagetes) are in the sunflower family. While native to the Americas, they have become naturalized in many other areas of the world. African and French marigolds are cultivars of the American ones. They don’t have the best scent to humans, but, since mosquitoes hate them and they bloom late spring, summer and into fall, they are well worth planting. They come in a variety of blossom shapes and sizes. Since they bloom about six weeks after germinating, it’s best to start them indoors or buy plants from the nursery. Some gardeners who use companion planting will put marigolds among their veggies to keep insects away.
Lavender
Another beautiful mosquito repellent is lavender. There are approximately four dozen species of flowering plants known as lavender, which are in the mint family — check out the square stems. While used extensively as an ornamental for its beautiful purple flowers, it is also grown for its oils, which are used in a wide variety of scented products, such as soaps, hand creams, perfumes and other cosmetics. One of the nice things about lavender is that it prefers dry, sandy soil. So, for many Long Island gardeners that’s a big plus. Like most herbs, it prefers a sunny location. Besides being a natural mosquito repellent, it can also be used in salad dressings and even baked goods. This one is a definite plus in the garden for many reasons.
Lemon-scented plants
Lemon-scented plants such as lemon geraniums (Pelargonium crispum), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), lemon thyme (Thymus vulgaris × citriodus) and lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) are very effective as mosquito repellents as well. Other plants that seem to repel mosquitoes include artemesia, ageratum, cedars, rosemary, catnip (but it does attract cats), garlic, most mints in general, woodruff and basil.
Ellen Barcel is a freelance writer and master gardener. To reach Cornell Cooperative Extension and its Master Gardener program, call 631-727-7850.
By Elof Axel Carlson
There are projects underway to test the feasibility of sequencing every species on Earth (including extinct species where their DNA is still available). The largest of these programs is in China, which is hoping to sequence the 1.5 million known named species of animals, plants and microbes.
Phase one will sequence one species from each of 9,000 families (the taxonomic unit above the genus level). The second phase will sample one each of the 200,000 forms of life described as belonging to a genus. Phase three will look at all the species remaining.
It is a daunting amount of work. Think of it this way. There are 6.8 billion telephones on Earth. If you entered every telephone book into one computer site, you would have access to more than 90 percent of all living people.
Looking up a phone number would also give you information on the person’s name, country that person lives in and the home or business address. For perhaps one billion of them who are listed in Yellow Books, it would tell you what they do for a living.
But DNA sequences will do more than identify a species. The sequence of genes and their functions will classify the organism and tell us if it is a plant, animal or microbe, and what it does as a particular species. We would know its anatomy, physiology, metabolism, life cycle, mean life expectancy, where to find it on Earth, what it eats and how it lives.
For humans it would show how we are related to the 7 billion other humans on Earth. It would provide abundant information on how all of us are related in an evolutionary pathway of immense size. The Chinese company, BGI, located in Shenzhen, estimates it will take 10 years and cost about $5 billion to complete the project.
There are six other projects underway around the world. One is seeking to sequence all vertebrates, a second wants to do that for arthropods (mostly insects, spiders and crustaceans), a third is looking at marine invertebrates, a fourth is interested in the world’s ants, a fifth prefers to sequence the world’s birds, and the sixth is seeking to identify all African food crops.
As far as I know, no one is trying to do a genome sequencing of all human beings. The closest to doing that is the country of Iceland, which has asked its citizens to volunteer and give a sample of saliva for DNA sequencing. Half of Iceland’s people have done so. They are mostly descendants of Viking settlers and their DNA studies are immensely helpful for looking at genes involved in human disease risks (such as birth defects, Alzheimer syndrome, cancer, hypertension, risk of late-onset diabetes, heart disease and strokes).
The implications of this effort to gain knowledge of the world’s genomes are numerous. For evolutionary studies they are a remarkable resource. For medical diagnosis they are equally valuable. They will be a gold mine of rich ores for the pharmaceutical industry. Think of all the antibiotics that will be mined from the microbial genome data. Just as there are tens of thousands of projects engineers do for buildings, electronics, infrastructure and transportation so, in the coming decades, will thousands of projects emerge and new fields of science from applications of this immense resource of the all Earth genome project.
Will this also involve bad outcomes of new knowledge? Certainly. We did not abolish engineering because engineers have designed most of the weapons used in war. We did not abolish chemical industries because some of them gave us environmentally toxic or harmful agents like DDT, Agent Orange, gas in World War I or thalidomide. We do not condemn X-ray diagnosis because radiation can induce gene mutations. What we do is regulate our technological innovations.
Think of regulation in industry as something like criminal law in society. We punish those who break laws (embezzlement, theft, assault, rape, slander, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, bribery). Regulation addresses many issues only one of which is misconduct. Similarly, law addresses wrongs, not all of which are criminal (we call that noncriminal law civil law). Some politicians want to do away with regulation of industries.
Is not dumping wastes into rivers a criminal act? Is not choking a city with industrial gases a criminal act? Laws can be changed or even abolished, but loss of human life, damaged health, destruction of ecosystems and putting the brunt of waste disposal on those most vulnerable (the poor) should be regulated.
I am an optimist, not a Pollyanna, about the future of the all Earth genome projects. We need both new knowledge and new regulation.
Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.
By Victoria Espinoza
After months of requests from residents that Huntington go greener, the town board took steps at the its last meeting to make Hecksher Park and Town Hall “green zones.”
At the May 9 meeting the board voted unanimously to approve a resolution establishing a research program to look into replacing gas fueled landscaping equipment with battery operated units at Heckscher Park and Town Hall to reduce emissions and noise.
A green zone is an area maintained with zero-emission lawn care equipment.
The resolution was co-sponsored by Supervisor Frank Petrone (D) and Councilwoman Susan Berland (D). The plan includes retaining the American Green Zone Alliance to conduct a study that will analyze the town’s existing landscaping practices, recommend the appropriate cost-effective, battery powered equipment and instruct town personnel on the use, care and maintenance of the devices.
Berland has been working for months to pass a resolution to limit gas powered leaf blowers due to the health and environmental concerns associated with them.
“This resolution is a great first step to protecting our environment and reducing air and noise pollution in our Town,” Berland said in a statement. “Many constituents have contacted me to restrict the use of gas powered leaf blowers to address their quality-of-life concerns.”
“It is in perfect alignment with our town’s clean energy community policy. Huntington is showing once again its commitment to sustainable initiatives.”
— Bonnie Sager
She encouraged residents to visit the town’s website to watch a public service video she created last year meant to inform community members about the drawbacks of leaf blowers and presents possible alternatives. The website also features a survey to gauge the public’s reliance or disapproval of using leaf blowers.
“I look forward to working together with Huntington CALM and the American Green Zone Alliance to create a ‘green zone’ at Heckscher Park and Town Hall,” she said. “Huntington has always been a beautiful place to live, work and raise a family. Let’s keep it that way.”
Groups like Huntington Citizens Appeal for Leafblower Moderation, and the American Green Zone Alliance have been vocal about the health issues, like asthma and hearing damage, that have been tied to use of gas powered blowers, according to the World Health Organization.
At the meeting, several residents applauded the efforts of the board to improve the situation.
Bonnie Sager, cofounder of Huntington CALM spoke at the meeting.
“The 2,000 plus Huntington CALM supporters and I would like to thank you for bringing forth this resolution,” she said at the meeting. “It is in perfect alignment with our town’s clean energy community policy. Huntington is showing once again its commitment to sustainable initiatives.”
Sager listed the many ways switching to electric equipment would save taxpayers money, as well as eliminate airborne pollutants.
“Hecksher Park is a crown jewel of Huntington serving our residents and guests with the museum, the duck pond, the concert venue and more,” she said. “By becoming a green zone our jewel will shine even brighter.”
The American Green Zone Alliance is based in California and is a leader in a nationwide effort to help communities address noise and air pollution issues. It provides certification and accreditation in zero-emission landscape maintenance strategies; educates individuals, property owners, and landscape maintenance professionals to reduce or eliminate the use of gasoline powered maintenance equipment in favor of cordless electric and manual equipment; and promotes those strategies through its green zone certification program that allows the owners of properties of any size to create, maintain, and promote their own zero-emission green zone. It is working with the Town of Southampton on a similar project.
Petrone said he was grateful for the community participation in this effort.
“I appreciate Huntington CALM’s efforts to raise our consciousness about the environmental effects and health dangers of gas powered landscaping equipment, including significant noise pollution,” Petrone said in a statement. “Heckscher Park and Town Hall are perfect locations for a demonstration program to test the feasibility and efficiency of battery powered equipment that reduces emissions and operates at significantly lower decibel levels than gas powered equivalents. I look forward to seeing, and not hearing, the results.”
By George and Maria Hoffman
Two years ago the United States was the leading voice on global climate action at the Paris conference. Then came the November election and this week the new president will be deciding whether or not the U.S. will even remain in the Paris climate agreement.
Facing such a policy sea change, we decided to travel to Washington D.C. April 29 and join with more than 200,000 people from across the U.S. to show our support for continued government action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are dangerously warming
our planet.
At 2 a.m. our journey began, meeting a bus at Stony Brook University that was chartered by the local chapter of the Sierra Club. There we were joined by dozens of Long Islanders who like us were compelled to travel to Washington and take part in the People’s Climate March.
The bus was filled with college students, retirees and people of all ages in between, who joined together because of their concern about our planet.
We arrived at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in the early hours of the morning, converging on Washington with hundreds of other buses filled with people from other states across the U.S. There was a friendly, small-town camaraderie as we were given instructions by march organizers about the day’s events and where we were to meet up by the Capitol building.
It was heartening to see so many people who were willing to wake up in the middle of the night to travel hundreds of miles to the Capitol for the purpose of using the power of our numbers to show our leaders that the issue of climate change needs action now.
As the sun climbed the morning sky, the April temperatures started to feel like summer, eventually reaching a record 91 degrees Fahrenheit degrees. But the marchers were not discouraged by the heat and marched from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House with signs and banners supporting clean energy, staying in the Paris agreement and warnings that our seas were rising and the planet was in jeopardy.
As we walked to the White House, we noticed there were a lot of people carrying signs about the effect of climate change on honey bees. As beekeepers ourselves, we know that the effects of climate change—from extreme weather fluctuations to earlier flowering times—can have a devastating impact on both pollination and the survival of local bee colonies and wild pollinators.
One of the most powerful moments of the march happened as we passed the Newseum, the museum dedicated to the five freedoms of the First Amendment, and we saw etched on its facade the solid and simple words of the First Amendment that gave “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” To read this amendment carved in stone before us as we exercised the very freedoms made real by those words was profound and moving.
After the march was over and we returned to our buses for the long drive back to Long Island, many of us shared stories about the day’s events and how energized we were by taking part in a show of strength in our nation’s capital in support of continued action on climate change.
After almost 24 hours from the start of our journey, we pulled back into the university. We were tired from our long march down Pennsylvania Avenue. But a spark returned as we spoke of that moment as we passed the Newseum and saw the words of the First Amendment. That moment seemed to be fundamental both to the day and to what it meant be an American citizen. We had peaceably assembled, and petitioned our leaders to accept the scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and to take action to prevent further harm.
By Susan Risoli
The Setauket Harbor Task Force gave an update recently to the community about its ongoing efforts to protect Setauket Harbor and the surrounding shoreline. Approximately 70 people came to the task force’s third annual meeting, held at the Setauket Neighborhood House April 19.
“How Clean Is Setauket Harbor?” was the title of a talk given at the meeting. The goal was to give people the opportunity to learn about the health of the harbor and find out what the task force is doing about it.
Setauket residents who noticed the harbor was struggling founded the volunteer, nonprofit organization in 2014, said task force board trustee George Hoffman at the meeting.
“Sometimes the water looked cloudy,” Hoffman said. “There were a lot of algae blooms. We knew that nobody was really speaking out for Setauket Harbor.”
Now the task force wants to partner with the organization Save the Sound, Hoffman said, to create a citizen-scientist, water quality monitoring program in Setauket Harbor. Local volunteers, trained by Save the Sound personnel, would start taking water samples next spring and work through October.
Peter Linderoth, water quality program director for Save the Sound, spoke at the meeting about his organization’s Citizen Science Unified Water Testing program to begin this summer in some Long Island Sound harbors and bays. Twice a month, he said, volunteers will record precipitation data; look at water clarity, seaweed and eelgrass; and track levels of dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, salinity and temperature.
The Setauket program would be similar, Hoffman said in a recent phone interview. He said the cost of training volunteers would be covered by the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative, a group of funding organizations that pool their resources to help protect the Sound. The water quality monitoring equipment will be provided through a grant Save the Sound obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Hoffman said.
About a dozen volunteers have already signed up to monitor water quality in Setauket Harbor, and the task force is looking for more, Hoffman said.
The April task force meeting also addressed a DNA analysis of pathogens in Setauket Harbor. The harbor is closed to shell fishing due to high numbers of disease-causing bacteria associated with human and animal waste.
Lorne Brousseau, marine director for Cornell Cooperative Extension, said the six-week study — commissioned by Brookhaven Town and conducted last fall — revealed that “birds seemed to have the biggest impact” on numbers of coliform in the water, with Canada geese being the worst offenders. The second highest source, Brousseau said, was “human-derived fecal coliform.”
“Where that came from, we’re not sure,” he said. “It could be boat discharge or septic systems.”
Brousseau also said there was a “low proportion of domestic animal fecal coliform – a few dogs and one horse.”
A man in the audience asked if it were possible to determine what percentage each source contributed to the total fecal coliform in the harbor. Brousseau said many more samples, taken from the water many more times, would have to be obtained to come up with percentages.
“It’s cost-prohibitive and time-prohibitive,” he said.
Brousseau also said fecal coliform in Setauket Harbor increases, and water quality deteriorates, after a rainfall.
“After it rains, the numbers triple, quadruple, sometimes more,” he said.
Task force chairperson Laurie Vetere also spoke at the meeting. She said funds from a $1 million state grant to fund water quality improvement in Setauket Harbor and its watershed are expected to become available soon. The grant, announced last fall, was secured for Brookhaven Town by Senator John Flanagan (R-East Northport), working with Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket.)
The town will use the funds to remove accumulated silt at the entrance to the harbor, renovate the town dock on Shore Road, and continue managing storm water, Vetere said. The grant “was a huge deal, and we’re hoping that money comes in sooner rather than later,” she said. She also said Brookhaven Town employees have recently been cleaning brush and debris from the Setauket pond park next to the Se-Port Deli.
Vetere said in a recent phone interview that the DNA pathogen analysis was an important source of baseline data.
“Even in dry weather, there have been very high levels of bacteria in the harbor,” she said. “We’re not really sure where that’s coming from, but we’re going to be addressing it.”
Vetere also said the Setauket Harbor Task Force will seek ways to work with Suffolk County on its new Septic Improvement Program, a grant and loan program to help homeowners replace outdated septic tanks with nitrogen-reducing septic systems.
Vetere said storm water runoff is an issue for Setauket Harbor. Last November, she said, five task force members piled into a car and drove around the harbor “and just watched how storm water was coming down the streets.” The task force is exploring if it would be effective for homeowners around the harbor to plant passive rain gardens, Vetere said, because the gardens soak up storm water and absorb pollutants.
The Setauket Harbor Task Force will hold its annual Harbor Day — environmental exhibits, kayaking and paddleboard lessons, entertainment and other activities — Sept. 23 at the town dock on Shore Road.
For more information about the Setauket Harbor Task Force and future meetings, call 631-786-6699.
By Ellen Barcel
The catalogs have started to arrive — select the bulbs you want to grow next spring but need to plant this fall. So, place your advanced order now. One of the plants you may enjoy in future gardens are irises.
There are hundreds of species of irises. The name comes from Greek, meaning rainbow, although the most commonly seen irises are in shades of purple. Irises are perennial plants growing from rhizomes that do well, in general, in U.S.D.A. zones 5 through 9 (Long Island is zone 7). Check the directions that come with each package, however, as different varieties can have different requirements.
One of the interesting features of irises is how their bloom time varies, by species, from early spring through summer and even into early fall. So, select the varieties you want based not only on color but on when you want to see flowers. Irises that bloom early will generally go dormant in the heat of summer. Iris rhizomes are usually available in nurseries for fall planting.
Once established, the plant’s rhizomes spread, resulting in a larger and larger patch of flowers each year. Seed pods form after the flowers have faded. Yes, in some cases you can grow new plants from the seeds, but sometimes the flowers are sterile. You can also remove the seed pods when they start to form in order to direct the plant’s energy into the plant itself. As with all bulbs, do not cut the greenery off after the flowers have faded. This greenery is feeding the rhizomes for next year’s flowers.
Since this plant spreads by itself, you may find that you need to divide the clump periodically. Rule of thumb is to divide spring flowering plants in the fall. As with most very showy flowering plants, Irises grow best in full sun but will tolerate light shade. A soil pH that is slightly acidic to neutral (6.8 to 7) is ideal. That means for most of us, we need to add lime to the soil. Test yours to be sure. Irises are deer resistant, but no plant is deer proof if the critters are really hungry.
If you cut some of the darker flowers, check the bouquet every day to see if the flowers are wilting. Once that happens you may see drops of a purple liquid dripping from the flowers. Yes, irises were used as a natural dye before the industrial revolution and the introduction of modern dyes.
Some of the most commonly seen irises include:
· Bearded iris (Iris × germanica) has the largest flowers with a “beard,” a hairlike structure on the petals. Most will bloom in late spring to early summer (but can vary depending on variety and weather). They usually reach a height of about 3 feet tall and are two toned. For example, ‘Pirate Ahoy’ is yellow with deep purple, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ has ruffled white and medium blue petals and ‘Ocelot’ is peach and maroon.
· Reblooming bearded iris (I. germanica) blooms in midspring and then again in late summer or early fall. They, too, come in a wide variety of color combinations.
· Dutch iris (I.× hollandica) does not have the “beard” of I. germanica and the petals tend to be narrower. The plants reach about 2 feet tall. They bloom in late spring to early summer and generally are two toned, various combinations of purple and yellow.
· Orchid iris (I. reticulate) is a dwarf plant reaching just 5 or 6 inches high. This Canadian cultivar blooms in early spring and has white and purple flowers with a touch of yellow. These are really cute little flowers.
· Yellow iris (I. pseudacorus) is native to Europe and Asia. It was used to control water pollution but has become invasive in some areas including ours, so this iris is on Suffolk County’s Do Not Sell List and is not available here and should not be propagated if you see it growing.
For more information, visit the American Iris Society website at www.irises.org.
Ellen Barcel is a freelance writer and master gardener. To reach Cornell Cooperative Extension and its Master Gardener program, call 631-727-7850.
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