SUMMER QUARTERLY MEETING - TUESDAY JULY 25, 2006
Program Co-sponsored by Rockland Community College

Place: Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site, Route 9W, Stony Point, NY
Take PIP north to Exit 15. Turn left (east) toward Stony Point to the end, about 2.7 miles. At traffic light, turn left onto Route 9W north proceed about 1 mile. Look for sign on the right indicating park entrance as the next right. This is Park Road. Proceed on Park Road to the entrance.

10:30 AM - Meeting at the museum

Overview of happenings at the Stony Point Battlefield
Julia Warger, Site Manager

Presentation of the Rockland County Conservation Association Eleanor Burlingham Award to:
Bruce Brown, Nanuet High School
Presented by: RCCA Award Co-Chairs, Faith Leigh, Jeanne Nelson.

11:15 AM - Program:

Overview of Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) activities presented by: Carol Ash, Executive Director Palisades Interstate Park CommissionS

All are welcome. Please bring a picnic lunch.

Your continued membership and contributions are greatly appreciated and necessary for RCCA to carry on its work. Please invite a friend to join. Thank you

Bruce Brown, Recipient of RCCA’s Eleanor Burlingham Conservation Award

Bruce D. Brown of Nanuet High School’s class of 2006 has been awarded the Rockland County Conservation Association, Inc’s Eleanor Burlingham Award. The award goes to a graduating senior of a Rockland County high school who has demonstrated as active cumulative interest in environmental conservation.

Bruce Brown takes global warming seriously because he has experienced a cornerstone of the global ecosystem up close and personally. Seeking to view challenges to planet earth’s environment, he traveled to Antarctica to study climatology, ornithology, cetaceans, glaciological and alternative energy theory.

Bruce calls his trip with Students on Ice (SOI) organization an experience that “led me to a new place in my life”. He examined land formations and studied climatic changes by inspecting ice flows and testing the integrity of ice and snow. He observed habits of Antarctic wildlife including species of whales, seals and penguins.

SOI director Geoffrey Green commends Bruce as an active team member who played a leadership role among his peers and expedition staff “…he took charge of certain aspects of the program, such as the expedition website photo collection and organization which we uploaded by satellite each day so that thousands of youth around the world could share in our expedition experience.”

Bruce sought out other cultures as a People to People International Student Ambassador participating in farming on a ranch in Australia and also as a student guest in Germany. Over his high school years, Bruce has coached and mentored middle school students, volunteered in a church sponsored breakfast program and community ambulance youth corps, maintained his grades and pursued interests in theatrical production and photography.

But it is his awareness of global climatic change and his drive to be involved in dealing with impending challenges that brings him this year’s Eleanor Burlingham award, Bruce says, “I want to help protect the amazing places like Antarctica. To do this I need to immerse myself in a background of science, engineering and international law so I can work…to protect the environment.” Bruce will attend Texas A&M University in September.

The Eleanor Burlingham Award has been offered for fifteen years to a graduating senior of a Rockland high school. This year’s recipient will receive $1,000.00 from the all-volunteer Rockland County Conservation Association which is celebrating its 76th year and obtains its funds from members’ donations only.

The award is named for Eleanor Burlingham who served as RCCA president for twenty three years and has been memorialized by President Emeritus Betty Hedges as “the heart and soul of Rockland County conservation”. Mrs. Burlingham’s legacy endures in many of the projects, laws and agencies she influenced during her many years at RCCA.

Jeanne Nelson, Director

Help Combat the Invasive Mile-a-Minute Vine

The Problem: Be on the lookout for the non-native and invasive mile-a-minute vine (polygonum perfoliatum L.) that is invading the lower Hudson Valley. It has been called the kudzu of the northeast because of its very aggressive nature. Early germination and fast growth allow mile-a-minute to outcompete native vegetation. This annual vine can grow up to 6 inches a day and reach lengths of more than 23 feet a year! Prickly stems and leaves allow it to climb over surrounding vegetation and form dense, tangled mats that shade out the sun and choke underlying vegetation. This can lead to a decrease in biodiversity while reducing the aesthetics of the landscape. Mile-a-minute is easily recognizable by its triangular leaves, downward facing prickles, ocrea (circular leaf surrounding the stem), and iridescent blueberry-like fruits that appear in late summer. This invasive vine has been found Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, Sullivan, Putnam, and Orange counties. Rockland County infestations include Iona Island, near Blauvelt State Park, off of the Palisades Interstate Parkway, and on the Sparkill Creek floodplain.

The Solution: Look, Find, Pull, Monitor! Government agencies and other organizations have been collaborating to launch an early detection and rapid response to this invasive in the lower Hudson Valley in order to eradicate the vine when possible and halt the it’s expansion in New York State. Early detection and rapid response includes: detection of the vine, control of infestations, and monitoring of controlled sites for signs of recurrence. There are currently volunteers out surveying areas in order to find new infestations. There have also been some scheduled weed pulls where volunteers hand-pull the vine. Iona Island and Blauvelt are 2 locations where this has been done.

How to Help: Be on the lookout for this non-native invasive! Volunteers are needed to survey areas and look for new infestations, control known infestations through hand pulling, and/or monitor controlled sites for signs of recurrence. To report an infestation or to volunteer please contact Margie Turrin at mkt@ldeo.columbia.edu or 845-365-8494 For pictures and general information go to: www.ipcnys.org

Submitted by: Kristen Fix

 

 

Is There A Road Less Traveled in Rockland?

Terms like urban, suburban, sprawl, open space, density, rural, Smart Growth@, all conjure concepts of planning. All denote choices. Rockland Legislature Chairwoman Cornell has convened various summits on key issues facing our County and is seeking to establish a revised County Comprehensive Plan. The decisions made in crafting the revision must be responsive to the right assumptions in defining the needs, problems, barriers, and solutions for Rockland County. Rockland County may have reached another point in time where fundamental decisions about how we define ourselves may change. The County was once rural. Our modes of transportation, housing, healthcare, education, economics, natural resources all contribute to what defines our neighborhoods, our homes and Rockland County. Traffic congestion and related air quality are key concerns for our region.

Most recently transportation was the topic, specifically the I-287/Tappan Zee “corridor”. As aptly highlighted by several attendees the term “corridor” should be substituted with “neighborhood”. This speaks poignantly to the issue. For within these confines we all share in the values or commonly termed “quality of life” measures.

In the 1966 book “Megalopolis Unbound-The Supercity and the Transportation of Tomorrow” Senator Claiborne Pell writes…”All the evidence suggests that the automobile has produced the greatest change in the urban landscape since cities stopped building walls. The automobile, more than anything else, opened to every citizen the prospect of breaking free of the city and acquiring his own place in the sun. Thus the automobile filled the open places of the Northeast states and built our modern Megalopolis-or, as some have facetiously called it, “Scatteropolis.”1

Senator Pell quotes Doxiadis, “The networks are the newest elements in the city. The modern city is out of control because a haphazard pattern of highway, railway, airfield, water supply, sewerage and drainage, electric, gas and telecommunication networks preceded city expansion out into the countryside. The upper, visible part of the city was committed long before it was built. This is like trying to create a human body by throwing some veins and arteries here, some bones there and a nervous system in yet another place. You have to conceive of the total.”2

Clearly a synergistic approach is needed, in order to address the transportation and infrastructure dilemmas of our region. Public participation is vital to the process, which was echoed at the June 29th Transportation Summit. However, a fundamental problem mentioned, which cannot be overlooked is funding. The allocation of funding is tied to local and regional priorities. Key to this is, who pays, and for what are we paying?

Dorice Madronero, president

“We should start by conceiving the economics or a society, the social goals of the society at a given moment, and then see how these goals can be achieved by mobilizing and utilizing all resources for the largest possible number of people.”1959 Constantinos A. Doxiadis, Architect and Urban Planner

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1 Megalopolis Unbound copyright 1966 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. pp. 52
2 Megalopolis Unbound copyright 1966 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc. pp.56

Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition Presents

A Special Event with Helen Caldicott Internationally renowned expert on the health effects of radiation

Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Global Warming!
Sunday, September 17, 2:30 p.m.
at the Community Unitarian Church in White Plains
$10 suggested donation

Dr. Caldicott, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, is one of the world.s leading spokespersons for the antinuclear movement. A founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, she is a powerful speaker on the dangers of nuclear power, combining science with passion, and urgency with humor.

Community Unitarian Church is at 468 Rosedale Avenue in White Plains, NY

Cosponsors: Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC), a coalition of 70 local groups, & Actions for Social Concerns Committee of Community Unitarian Church, Beacon Sloop Club, Citizens Awareness Network, Citizens. Campaign for the Environment, Clearwater, Code Pink, Ct. Coalition Against Millstone, Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action, Council on Intelligent Energy & Conservation Policy, GRACE, Nation Discussion Grp., NY Physicians for Social Responsibility, Nuclear In- formation & Resource Service, Radiation & Public Health Project, Riverlovers, Rockland County Conservation Association, Rockland Peace & Justice, Sierra Club-Lower Hudson Grp., WESPAC., WestCAN

For more information or to join our growing list of cosponsors, contact: Darcy Casteleiro at darcy@riverkeeper.org or call (914) 478-4501, ext. 239.

In Memoriam

Malcolm T. Wane

We note with sadness the death of Malcolm Wane on June 12, 2006, after a valiant struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

He joined the Rockland County Conservation Association in 1989 and was a former member of the Board of Directors. His wise counsel was always important and much appreciated. He and his wife, Elly, also a Board member, represented RCCA at meetings of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. Among other duties, they were active in planning the Association’s 65th Anniversary celebrations at Bear Mountain and Pomona Cultural Center in 1995. Later they were made Honorary Members of the Board of Directors.

Malcolm was a Professor Emeritus of Columbia University. He was a consulting engineer for the NYC Board of Water Supply and with the NYC Transit Authority. He was instrumental in founding the Village of Montebello serving as a Trustee from 1987 to 1992.

He was a participant in a long-term study of Parkinson’s disease at Columbia Presbyterian Neurological Institute and had willed his brain to research.

Malcolm Wane was devoted to common good. He truly cared for his community and served it well.

Zipporah S. Fleisher

Zipporah Fleisher joined the Rockland County Conservation Association in 1972 and served on the Board of Directors for more than 25 years, until her death on June 1, 2006. She was one of RCCA’s most active members taking on tough environmental issues with never a thought of giving in or giving up.

Zippy, as she was known to all was a formidable presence at utility hearings and meetings. She opposed Indian Point facility and testified before the Atomic Energy Commission, which later became the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She worked tirelessly on utility rate cases and system expansion plans. One of her many campaigns was against the sale of United Water to the Paris-based Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. She spoke at a Public Service Commission meeting on this matter, “Promises are pie-in-the sky. I don’t see anything businesslike in the takeover agreement. We can’t accept it because it doesn’t tell us what the water company can or cannot do”.

Zippy and her late husband, Walter, were prominent members of the West Branch Conservation Association, which formed to protect the west branch of the Hackensack River and to preserve watershed and open space. In 1973, the Fleishers donated 32 acres to the Town of Clarkstown. It became part of the 87-acre Davenport Preserve in New City.

After Walter Fleisher died, Zippy was appointed to fill his position on the Rockland County Parks Commission. She served from 1995 to 2006. RCCA nominated Zippy for County Executive’s Outstanding Environmental Volunteer Award in 2000, and a redbud tree was planted in her honor at Kennedy Dells Park in New City.

We shall always be grateful to Zippy Fleisher for her heroic defense of the environment for so many years.

Betty Hedges, President Emeritus

 

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