HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station. This group of seedballers was perhaps the most fierce of the day. 🙂
HarborLAB volunteers had a wonderful time at the LIC Springs street festival, teaching kids and adults how to make seedballs. This means of planting native species helps restore habitat and stabilize shorelines. We focused on seaside goldenrod, which sustains migrating monarch butterflies and other beneficial insects in the autumn and shelters the eggs of black skimmer shorebirds. Our seeds were gathered by HarborLAB volunteers and students from Hunters Point Community Middle School in coordination with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and Hunters Point Parks Conservancy.
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HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station. Some were super serious seedballers. 🙂
We’re very grateful to Long Island City Partnership, our local business improvement district, for organizing this annual event, which is much more than a block party. Our lead volunteers for the day were Dylan Geil, Patricia Menje Erickson, David Borgioli, Scott Wolpow, and Erik Baard, with Thomas Dieter helping us get shipped out from the site. Thanks to David Kistner of sponsor Green Apple Cleaners as well, who did the leg work of picking up and delivering the 50 lbs bag of red clay powder needed for our seedballs.
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We’re also grateful to our Seedball friends (http://http://seedball.us/) for teaching us this ancient propogation technique, which mimics the critical ecosystem process of endozoochaory (spreading seeds by animal droppings). We simply mix natural red clay powder, a pinch of sand, seeds, compost (cocoa husks), and a bit of water until the ingredients reach a cookie dough-like consistency. Then the “dough” is rolled into penny diameter balls. These are air dried for a few days and then bottled. Then HarborLAB distributes the seedballs along shorelines to stabilize them and provide habitat and sustenance for pollinators and birds. In cooperation with conservancies and governmental park agencies, we’ve seeded shorelines from Queens to Coney Island and Staten Island!
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HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
The Mayor of LIC visits HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station.
HarborLAB at LIC Springs! Seedball making station. Some were super serious seedballers. 🙂
The view from the ReservoirLAB launch Chandler’s Cove on the Neversink Reservoir in the Catskill Mountains.
HarborLAB warmly invites NYC public schools and community organizations to paddle with us for FREE on our Neversink Reservoir kayak and canoe fleet to learn about the natural and engineering wonders that make our city’s water wealth possible!
Here are our initial program dates:
June 10 and 11
July 8 and 9
August 5 and 6
Sept 10 and 11
Sept 17 and 18
Oct 8 and 10
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We’ll add dates as volunteer staffing and public demand both grow.
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To participate please email edu@harborlab.org with the subject line “Neversink Reservoir.” To volunteer for this program, please email volunteer@harborlab.org with the subject line “Neversink Reservoir.”
No permit is required of children under the age of 16 if accompanied by a valid permit holder over the age of 18, as will always be the case with our programs. Anyone 16 years old or older must apply for a permit.
Bus transportation grants are available from the Watershed Agricultural Council for groups incorporating forestry education into their visits to the Neversink Reservoir. ReservoirLAB will take participants on forest walks and using NYCDEP materials we’ll teach how forests protect and clean our drinking water. Classroom visits by NYCDEP professional educators also cover this topic. Apply for grants here: http://www.nycwatershed.org/forestry/education-training/urbanrural-school-based-education-initiative/bus-tours/
We’re grateful to HarborLAB Camping Co-Manager Ray Tan for exploring alternative affordable busing options.
HarborLAB educator Kamala Redd and camping co-manager Ray Tan exult in the knowledge that ReservoirLAB will soon launch!
The ReservoirLAB program is provided by HarborLAB volunteers and was made possible by a Catskill Watershed Corporation grant and its kind donation of boat racks; the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, which taught our volunteers to be “watershed docents” and provides reservoir access (NYCDEP also provided funds to the CWC for the grant); and ExxonMobil’s community outreach program for the Greenpoint Remediation Project, which financed a dozen volunteers’ Red Cross certification in CPR, AED, and First Aid (all for juveniles and adults) and basic water rescue for all of our programs from the Newtown Creek to the Neversink Reservoir. HarborLAB Facilities Manager Patricia Erickson is kindly allowing HarborLAB to use her mobile home as a camping base (for volunteers serving multiple days) and equipment storage site near the Neversink River and reservoir. Frost Valley YMCA has stored our five canoes and ten tandem kayaks, and our paddles and live vests, while we completed training and permits.
Below is a gallery of photos from a recent site coordination meeting of HarborLAB volunteers with NYCDEP and CWC officials at the Neversink Reservoir. Note nearby campgrounds, posters about invasive species and other environmental matters, a hiking path, Chandler’s Cove, and the boat racks donated to us by the CWC.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
ReservoirLAB, a HarborLAB program based at the Neversink Reservoir, provides educational paddling programs to teach NYC youth about our drinking water.
Seedballs. Photo by Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens.
Hurricane Sandy, pollution, and development have stripped away much of our dune and coastal meadow habitats, so HarborLAB is joining the effort to restore them! To this end, HarborLAB and other conservationists are following Permaculture farmers in adopting an ancient Japanese and North American no-till agriculture tool that mimics the natural dung distribution of seeds (called endozoochory). It’s simple: make a ball of clay, compost, and seeds and toss them over the area to be revived. The warmth and rains of spring and summer then signal the seeds to germinate. Before long we’ll green the shores of NYC by bombarding them with seed love from our armada of kayaks and canoes! 😉
HarborLAB volunteers learned the art from SeedBall NYC‘s Co-founder and President Anne Apparu in a room made available to us by Dr. Sarah Durand of the Natural Sciences department at CUNY LaGuardia Community College. We made several hundred seed balls, and will make thousands more! The trick is to get the proportions right so that the balls hold together firmly but dry out before the seeds germinate. In terms of consistency, think cookie dough.
HarborLAB used seeds we gathered with Hunters Point Community Middle School and Dr. Stephen Grosnell‘s Baruch College conservation biology students from Gantry Plaza State Park, Hunters Point Park, and our own GreenLaunch, along with seeds provided by SeedBall NYC and Briermere Farms. Hunters Point Parks Conservancy Vice President Mark Christie kindly help guide us in our seed gathering. Species included aster, milkweed, beach plum, beach pea, goldenrod, viburnum, pine, switchgrass, pokeberry, and the humorously named panicgrass (gallery below). These salt-tolerant species support endangered monarch butterflies and other pollinators, and feed birds. They also stabilize the shoreline, allowing complex ecosystems to develop while also protecting property from surges and erosion. We also gathered beach rose from Hunters Point South Park but must be very careful about where to use them, if at all, for biological productivity without enabling invasion.
We’re also grateful to Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens for participating and to Gil Lopez, president and co-founder of Smiling Hogshead Ranch Urban Farm, for inviting a naturalist to join us. We also thank the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation for permission to gather seeds. An especially welcome newcomer was Philip Anthony Borbon, a sailor who moors on the Queens waterfront of the Newtown Creek.
Our next step is to go into classrooms to make seedballs with kids, and to then bring the balls with us when we paddle to areas in need of habitat restoration! If you’d like a classroom talk and seedball making activity with HarborLAB, please email us at edu@harborlab.org!
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
The HarborLAB launch, soon to be the GreenLaunch. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Goldenrod seeds ready to be gathered. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Beach rose hips and seeds. Photo by Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens.
Pokeberry seeds and fruits. Photo by Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens.
Goldenrod seeds. Photo by Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens.
Seedballs. Photo by Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens.
Seedballs. Photo by Maureen Regan, president and founder of Green Earth Urban Gardens.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Facilities Manager Patricia Erickson.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Facilities Manager Patricia Erickson.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Pokeberry seeds ready to be gathered. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
The HarborLAB launch, soon to be the GreenLaunch! Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Goldenrod seeds ready to be gathered. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Mark Christie of Hunters Point Parks Conservancy guiding. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students and staff out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Mark Christie of Hunters Point Parks Conservancy and Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Hunters Point Community Middle School students out gathering seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Pokeberry seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Phillip Borbon with milkweed seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Naturalist Nancy with pokeberry seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
HarborLAB Facilities Manager Patricia Erickson extracts pine nuts. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Manny Steier with goldenrod seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Beach rose seeds. Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Making the seedballs! Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Making the seedballs! Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Making the seedballs! Photo by HarborLAB Founder and Executive Director Erik Baard.
Mark Christie, HarborLAB volunteer and Vice President of Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, with bouquets of goldenrod seeds. Hunters Point Community Middle School student in the background. (Photo by Erik Baard)
HarborLAB had a fantastic winter day of gathering goldenrod and beach rose seeds with Hunters Point Community Middle School students! Many thanks to biology teacher Mary Matthai and Principle Sarah Goodman, and to the students! Thanks also to Vice President Mark Christie of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy and to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Through this exercise the students learned about bioremediation, shore ecology, evolved means of seed propagation, combined sewer overflows, and genetic diversity. We asked that the school choose only five students for each round of work to avoid trampling habitats.
HarborLAB is creating a marine-to-uplands habitat restoration on the Newtown Creek. We call this project the “GreenLaunch.” Citizens Committee for NYC gave us funds for initial work, which HarborLAB Facilities Manager Patricia Erickson oversees. We’ve applied to the Hudson River Foundation for a larger Newtown Creek Fund grant. We hope our City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and State Assembly Representative Catherine Nolan will also partner with us as a wonderful (and only) Queens environmental group based on the creek, and support our work.
Central to the GreenLaunch, conceived by HarborLAB Founder Erik Baard, is a living shoreline stabilized using methods recommended by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. We’re applying for fresh earth from the NYC Soil Bank. Roots from native, saltwater tolerant plantings will hold soil down. We’re gathering seeds from milkweed, pokeberry, goldenrod, beach plums, and beach rose to start. We have MillionTreesNYC shadbush (service berry), hackberry, sassafras, and other native saplings to further strengthen this slope. Milkweed and goldenrod sustain endangered monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Our berry bushes and trees, and rose hips, have deep root systems and feed birds. Below this slope, in the intertidal zone, we’ll grow cordgrass and mussels.
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