Professor Kathleen's CUNY students

Kathleen and her oceanography students helped with today's marsh cleanup. Also, Kim-Nora, Marty, Lisa, and Genie with her son (Danko) and daughter (Becky) kept the work going into the late afternoon.

High of 57 °F | Humidity (avg) 54% | Wind @ 14 mph (SW) | High Tide 5.6 ft. @ 10:45 AM | Moon 90% visible.

Rocky Point Marsh flora and fauna

Phragmites australis: sometimes regarded as the sole species of the genus phragmites…Air breathing snails: Melampus coffea, commonly known as the coffee bean snail… Spartina is commonly known as cord-grass…barnacles…Spartina patens, also called saltmeadow cordgrass, or salt marsh hay, is a species of cordgrass native to the Atlantic coast…hibernating wasps and rollie pollies…lichen or fungi.

Marsh Makers on the March

The Marsh Makers: (in order of appearance) Martin, Genie, Josh, Lisa, Neti, Zack, Moshe, and Sussana do the heavy lifting this spring, rain or shine.

Day 53

Removing wood and trash to clear small channels in the marsh became our main focus today. This will enable flooding during the next high tide. Thanks to a tireless volunteer crew: Kim-Nora Moses, Martin Angelo, John Tebbetts, Francesca Simondi, Josh Rudder, Lisa Scheppke, and Genie Gregor.

High of 47 °F | Humidity (avg) 65% | Wind @ 8 mph (ESE) | High Tide 5.7 ft. @ 8:42 AM | Moon 93% visible.

Day 52: Give 'em an inch, they'll take a pile

The Marsh Makers' mission was to remove all of the trash piles that had accumulated over the months. This would prevent the debris from spreading around the landscape.

A trash burrito (rolled into a tarp) made it easier to move it off the truck bed into the dumpster.

A rare find: an Alexander doll.

One could not ask for a more committed, hard working group: Francesca, Lisa, Genie, Sheridan, Martin, Kim-Nora.

High of 52 °F | Humidity (avg) 60% | Wind @ 6 mph (ENE) | High Tide 5.3 ft. @ 9:41 AM | Moon 75% visible.

Day 51: The Three Marshkateers

Genie, Martin and Kim-Nora continued removing a pile consisting of an unsightly mix of plastic (mostly small broken pieces) and organic matter (mostly phragmites).

When it came to unloading the back of the truck into the dumpster we employed a technique devised by Genie, who had brought a tarp. The tarp was laid down to cover the truck bed. And onto that tarp we piled the debris from our wheelbarrow and buckets. Since the tarp’s full load was too heavy to pull off the truck into the dumpster, we forked off enough debris until we could fold the tarp over like a taco. And then we could drag the remaining load off the tailgate into the dumpster.

It was a wet, messy, cool day and we were covered in grit from top to bottom.

 

High of 57 °F | Humidity (avg) 93% | Wind @ 11 mph (NNE) | High Tide 5.1 ft. @ 5:11 AM | Moon 75% visible.

Day 50: March of the Marsh Makers

Martin, Moshe and Kim-Nora started with trash [pile] removal. In the early afternoon Sheridan and Graham joined the effort. Then came Genie and her two children, Becky and Danko. We all worked until after dark.

High of 53 °F | Humidity (avg) 63% | Wind @ 18 mph (WSW) | High Tide 5.8 ft. @ 8:47 AM | Moon 98% visible.