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Actionable Items: Rehab Fire Breaks

9/12/2023

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From monitoring to tactics & procedures, to finances & training we're taking actions to rehab dozer lines thanks to ongoing fundraising efforts.  This is a followup story to:  The Lahaina Banyan Tree and the Fallen Pitch Pine.​
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Dozer Line at Calverton Ponds Preserve
Written by Mindy Block, Quality Parks Founder & President
Pictured above is what a dozer line looks like. It has been scraped to mineral soil,  compacted, and its topsoil plowed into piles. The dozer line encourages illegal dumping and invasive species. How can we best undo the damage and rehab these fire breaks?  

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Pollinators Benefit Crop Yields - Centereach, NY

8/23/2023

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Farmingville Residents Association teams up with Quality Parks, and  Bethel Hobbs Community Farm to feed those in need.
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By Marisa Pizza,  Executive Director, Farmingville Residents Assocation
Farmingville Residents Association, Inc., is a 501 C3 nonprofit civic organization, servicing Farmingville, Brookhaven, and greater Suffolk County, New York, with projects and services, with a main focus on the hamlet of Farmingville. One of the projects that our organization, in conjunction with our Youth Civic, runs, is a community garden. We have two 25 foot plots, at Bethel Hobbs Community Farm, whose produce is donated on a weekly basis to local food pantry shelters to assist those in need in and around our area.

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The Lahaina Banyan Tree and the Fallen Pitch Pine

8/15/2023

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According to  the Hawaiian arborist Steve Nimz,  the Lahaina Banyan tree has a chance of survival with triage[1]." The fallen pitch pine was never given such a chance.
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Fallen Pitch Pine at Calverton Ponds Preserve in the Long Island Pine Barrens
Written by Mindy Block, Quality Parks Founder & President
I didn't think we'd get wildfire smoke like LA, then came the Canadian wildfires. I didn't thin we'd ever experience a western fire, then we had the 1999 wildfire season. And I never thought a whole village would be destroyed, and now there is Lahaina (and Paradise, Oregon, in 2018).  My area of focus in on post rehab. A background, there was a recent fire at the Calverton Ponds Preserve in June, 2023. Lack of rain set up a fire situation where bulldozers created fire breaks. The following month I arrived on the scene dismayed. There is still no procedure in place to restore from dozer lines, and that why I created this donation campaign.  Any donation amount wild be greatly appreciated.

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Rewilding Your Garden with LI Native Plants? Meet the Dark Sky Movement

6/22/2023

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Local expert offers tips and tricks on how to get started.  Benefit wildlife, your health, and safety. Take personal, neighborhood, and community actions.
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Plains Milky Way by Randy Halverson @dakotalapse on youtube
by Susan Harder, Dark Sky Society and  NY State Representative for Dark Sky International. (Referenced materials added in by our Editor, Mindy Block)
I’m often asked about the environmental impact of night lighting on the environment and on the night sky. ​

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Downtown Port Jefferson - Mill Creek Project Benefits Birds and Aquatic Wildlife

6/8/2023

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Local landscape architect field trials and tribulations of phragmites and knotweed control. Volunteers needed. 
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Brook Pond
By Bob Laravie, Mill Creek Steward
 What is that horrible screeching sound?  Dragging the canoe into Port Jefferson’s Mill Creek Pond, the area recently rebranded as Brook Pond Park, I am off on another session of underwater cutting.​ ​Underwater cutting of invasive Phragmites seems to work well. Maintaining water depth of the pond is important because if the plants break the water surface they can regenerate quickly. 

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The Daffodil Dilemma in My Wildlife Sanctuary

4/10/2023

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 Reposted with permission, by Laura Markson, Nurture Native  Nature
In early spring my yard becomes a carpet of naturalized daffodils thanks to the hundreds of bulbs I strategically planted years ago. So far, they’ve been given a reprieve from my ruthless efforts to replace the non-native plants with natives to maximize the value of each plant adds to my wildlife habitat yard.
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This daffodil bud is one of hundreds in my yard and the universal sign that spring is on the way! You can see the blurry tangle of dried native plants it is growing through.

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Backyard Restoration, One Native Patch at a Time

3/13/2023

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Tips on how to start rewilding your landscape from a native plant gardener.
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Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Written by Jackie Grennon Brooks
I’m restoring my backyard patch by patch. I’m following the Doug Tallamy rule of 70%. He has found that if we can restore our landscapes to 70% native plants, we can pretty much bring back the other native wildlife. I’ve said goodbye to the garlic mustard, am still working on that pesky English Ivy, and am tackling the barberries this spring.  I am replacing them with natives.

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Garden Obstacles: Alternatives to Invasive Ground Covers

3/10/2023

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by Kim Simmen, KMS Native Plants
It's almost that time of year again to start working in the garden. Here is my rant about The Home Depot, and all the big box stores. 
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Image by Tham Yuan Yuan
Please stop buying your plants at these establishments as they all still carry non-native, awful ground covers like creeping Jenny, English ivy, pachysandra, and vinca.

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Alternative Therapy:  A Guided Walk With Nature

2/26/2023

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by Linda Lombardo, Wild Heart Nature Connection (both in words and in photos)
As a certified Forest Therapy guide, I’m often asked why someone would need me to lead them on a ‘hike’ through the woods. To say that it’s my sacred activism would only create more confusion or even the occasional ‘face screaming in fear’ emoji that mimics Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream. Yes, it’s been done. Perhaps my sacred activism is also to share what I know about what Forest Therapy is and isn’t.
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Hand & Rock - Sands Point Preserve

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Why Consider Rewilding  For Life

1/25/2023

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by Caran Markson
Why Consider Rewilding  For Life? The biggest benefit, also known as a reward  for including native plants into an established garden, is that you increase biodiversity. Pictured below is the rewilding of Carpenter Farm Park by Go Native Long Island, a huge effort underway to restore its natural state.
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    Author: Bob Laravie
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Board Members

Mindy Block, President & Founder
Caran Markson
Fred Edel, Co-Chair
​Jenn Lucas
Phil Benvin
Quality Parks is a professional organization sponsoring projects to improve both business and environmental conditions by balancing social, economic and environmental concerns. We disseminate information, develop and provide experiential learning opportunities, and support efforts designed to stimulate, encourage, educate, and involve the general public in natural resource stewardship practice​s. ​We are a  federally registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, since 2000, based in Port Jefferson, on  Long Island, New York
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Policy Statement
A Tribute To Raymond P. Corwin
A Tribute To Larry Paul
Copyright © 2023, Quality Parks. All rights reserved. 

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