HarborLAB Distributes 100 Fruit Trees!

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Erik Baard

HarborLAB distributed 100 apricot, pear, and fig trees in partnership with MillionTreesNYC, New York Restoration Project, Queens Library, and Triple R Events. Our sidewalk fruit forest of baby trees was spoiled by a morning of gentle rains and an afternoon of cooing adoration from adoptive gardeners. Huge thanks to organizer Lynne Serpe of both HarborLAB and Triple R Events. Volunteers from HarborLAB included Liz Lopez and son Danny, Mairo Notton and son Tormi, Irene McLoughlin, Patricia Erickson, Roy Harp and sister Viola Anderson, Erik Baard, and Bob Din.

Trees absorb storm water that would otherwise contribute to combined sewer overflows (street water and bathroom flushes go into the same pipes) that damage our estuary. Fruit trees also sustain pollinators.

HarborLAB is restoring a section of crumbling waterfront bulkheads as a welcoming, green, and beautiful shoreline for education and passive recreation, in addition to boating. Thanks to today’s work we’ll have a new apricot and fig tree for human consumption in the edible uplands section of the GreenLaunch. The rest of the site will be devoted to indigenous species. Our intertidal area will be lush with spartina marsh grass, topping bladderwrack seaweed and mussels. Our slopes will be resplendent with shadbush, inkberry, beach plum, and other natives. We’ll also have a hackberry tree and a tulip tree. Our upland with be edged by even more butterfly-sustaining goldenrod and milkweed than we had this year. We’re seed gathering now!

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Aboard with HarborLAB Oct 4 – Oct 11! (Tours, Events, Volunteer Opportunities)

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Erik Baard

thomas zellers,Though the public paddling season is drawing to a close, we still have fun paddles and volunteer opportunities! We’ll also have autumn and winter activities — as you’ve seen, HarborLAB is not merely a recreational paddling club, but a community organization dedicated to social good and environmental science service learning.

Here are a few events for the coming days.

Oct 5: GreenLaunch Work Day! (POSTPONED FOR RAIN DAY)

9AM-2PM

https://www.facebook.com/events/362728887219729/

53-21 Vernon Blvd, LIC, 11101 (directions: http://harborlab.org/location-and-directions/)

Email volunteer@harborlab.org with the subject line, “GreenLaunch Work Day” to participate.

Help HarborLAB create the GreenLaunch! We’ll remove bricks in the morning to donate to Build it Green. In the afternoon we’ll gather wildflower seeds, improve safety, and build planters and raised beds from wooden pallets (and other used wood) and used vinyl billboard posters. Students and artists will also make a Newtown Creek map on vinyl to permanently hang at our site, and decoratively paint the planters!

You needn’t be a big brute to help with the bricks. We’ll be hand carrying therm to two vans at the gate in small batches — don’t overdo it! And you needn’t be a Marie Cassatt to help with the painting either!

After 3PM volunteers are welcome to canoe the creek with volunteers or go for a brief skyline kayak tour!

Oct 5: Newtown Creek Photo BioBlitz!

https://www.facebook.com/events/571214066339086/

53-21 Vernon Blvd, LIC, 11101 (directions: http://harborlab.org/location-and-directions/)

Email tours@harborlab.org with the subject line, “Photo BioBlitz” to participate.

Come canoeing with HarborLAB to photograph the plants (especially spartina. milkweed, goldenrod), animals (especially ribbed mussels), and fungi that are cleaning the Newtown Creek and its shores!

HarborLAB volunteer Roy Harp will coordinate the tour, partnering with GrowNYC Environmental Educator Thomas Zellers. Sadly, because the Newtown Creek is a very polluted waterway, participating is by adult, informed consent. No minors.

We’re doing this in support of the Fall Mud Ball (https://www.facebook.com/events/1469669146637761/) bioremediation event, a fête thrown by Masters of Succession Collective at Smiling Hogshead Ranch urban farm.

To participate click “join” and email tours@harborlab.org with the subject line “Photo BioBlitz.” Roy Harp is the coordinator for this program.

We’ll map our finds bother electronically and on a community billboard at the farm that might be reused at the HarborLAB GreenLaunch.Those who arrive early can help gather milkweed seeds (this is Monarch Butterfly larvae’s sole food — http://www.monarchwatch.org/milkweed/).

You’ll also see surprising areas of life, the city’s little-noted infrastructure, recycling plants. derelict old rail passes and bridges, egrets, herons, and other sights to delight an urban archeologist or naturalist alike. This trip requires some climbing.

HarborLAB is reviving a 125′ shoreline with Newtown Creek’s first true habitat restoration. Our “GreenLaunch” will have a reef of ribbed mussels at its base. We are consulting with experts at CUNY LaGuardia College and Cornel Cooperative Extension to understand how to best seed and nurture the mussels. The first step is to document where ribbed mussels are already living below the high water mark, and whether they’re thriving or struggling.

We’ll map our finds bother electronically and on a community billboard at the farm that might be reused at the HarborLAB GreenLaunch.Those who arrive early can help gather milkweed seeds (this is Monarch Butterfly larvae’s sole food — http://www.monarchwatch.org/milkweed/).

You’ll also see surprising areas of life, the city’s little-noted infrastructure, recycling plants. derelict old rail passes and bridges, egrets, herons, and other sights to delight an urban archeologist or naturalist alike. This trip requires some climbing.

HarborLAB is reviving a 125′ shoreline with Newtown Creek’s first true habitat restoration. Our “GreenLaunch” will have a reef of ribbed mussels at its base. We are consulting with experts at CUNY LaGuardia College and Cornel Cooperative Extension to understand how to best seed and nurture the mussels. The first step is to document where ribbed mussels are already living below the high water mark, and whether they’re thriving or struggling.

Oct 5: SUBMERGE! NYC Marine Science Festival

http://www.hudsonriverpark.org/events/submerge-2014

Directions: http://www.hudsonriverpark.org/assets/content/general/Pier_26_Directions.pdf

Email volunteer@harborlab.org with the subject line, “SUBMERGE” to participate.

HarborLAB needs volunteer ambassadors to participate in this exciting gathering of groups active in teaching and researching our estuary. This is a great fit for students. Share HarborLAB’s work, distribute postcards, network with educators, have fun, and be inspired!

Oct 11: Tree Giveaway!

https://www.facebook.com/events/707684472619811/

40-20 Broadway, LIC/Astoria (east of Steinway)

Email volunteer@harborlab.org with the subject line, “Tree Giveaway” to participate as a volunteer, or register through this link: http://treegiveaways.com/qnlib

Trees drink up runoff waters that would otherwise overflow sewers into the estuary. They also breathe in CO2 that might otherwise be absorbed by oceans, making them more acidic. We need more trees!

HarborLAB is happy to again distribute 100 trees in partnership with The New Yorker Restoration Project, Triple R Events, and Queens Library at Broadway (4020 Broadway, Long Island City, NY 11103 — just east of Steinway) as part of MillionTreesNYC! Many thanks to New York Restoration Project and Triple R Events for being our partners in this event.

Volunteers set up at 11AM and some meet the tree shipment on Friday.

Giveaway starts Sunday at 1PM, first for those who registered online and then for those who’ve arrived without registering. All recipients must have permission to plant the trees on private property within the five boroughs of NYC.

HarborLAB and Queens Library Tree Giveaway!

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Erik Baard

Come get your pear, apricot, and fig trees at the Broadway Library in long Island City on October 11!

Better yet, come help HarborLAB to distribute the trees to city residents as a friendly and informative volunteer! HarborLAB and Triple R Events are coordinating and staffing a MillionTreesNYC and New York Restoration Project fruit tree giveaway from 1PM-3PM on Saturday, October 11.

HarborLAB coordinates tree giveaways each spring and fall. To help, email volunteer@harborlab.org with the subject line “Tree Giveaway.” Lynne Serpe and Erik Baard are managing outreach and volunteer coordination.

To register for your free tree, click here:

http://treegiveaways.com/qnlib

Why is an estuary group distributing trees? Plants and the soft earth surrounding them absorb rainwater that would otherwise overwhelm our sewer system. When our sewer system reaches maximum capacity, engineers must release untreated sewage into our waterways or back up into our neighborhoods and homes. Trees do a wonderful job of soaking up that excess water and using it to grow, or shedding it into air through leaves. Locally grown fruit also reduces our city’s carbon footprint, slowing sea level rise, ocean acidification and warming, and climate chaos.

May 18: Tree Giveaway and Algonquin Talk!

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Erik Baard

Come down to the HarborLAB launch on May 18 for FREE TREES (register HERE) and a paddling event! We started with Eastern Redbud, Tulip tree, Sassafras, and Hackberry, but they’re going fast!

Our canoe tour of the Newtown Creek will feature an Algonquin lecture and blessing of our boats! Our speaker will be Evan Pritchard, founder of the Center for Algonquin Culture.