Faber Park's "Green Teens" take FIRST Place Again...

Faber Park has taken first place for the 3rd week in a row in the

City-Wide Energy Contest.

We have located oppurtunities for sasanble inicitives such as weather striping, energy consevation action plans, energy saving ideas and pledges fom staff and center afterschool and teen members

Stay tunned contest ends this month. Prize money at stake but our planet is

 THE REAL WINNER !

Green Teens on TV

On August 1 the Green Teens teamed up with Million Trees NYC to demonstrate how to care for Street Trees in your neighborhood.  NY1 has the story http://www.ny1.com/content/165950/staten-island-teens-water-trees-in-oakwood

Today we took a trip to Fresh Kills Park.  We recieved a tour of two of the four open secions.  The park is projected to be finished and fully open to the public in 2036. 

From the South Park mound we saw a very rare site indeed, all four bridges on Staten Island are visible at the same time. 

Fresh Kills Park has 2,200 acres (almost three times the size of Central Park) and the largest park building project in New York city in over 100 years.  Due to the fact that Fresh Kills used to be an enourmous landfill, much of the garbage that was kept there is still decomposing.  The gas released by this decomposition includes carbon dioxide and methane, which is fed into gas wells scattered throughout the park.  This gas is then collected, refined, and then sold as gas for homes.

We also learned that at Fresh Kills there are other ways Parks is working to remove invasive non-native species.  One such way is by importing a heard of goats to eat entire fields of weeds and garbage.  These goats seem to be extremely efficient in clearing the land of non-native invasive species. 

In our opinion, the tour was extremely informative and helpful in learning to understand how old space gets redesigned and reused to create better, cleaner, public space.  It is basically a giant land recycling program, taking the Fresh Kills area from landfill to park. 

The Staten Island Green Teens have officialy blown past our original goal of 500 bags of recyclables and invasive plant removal.  Through our combined efforts at Faber Park, Staten Island Events, Citywide and Central Park Events, etc, our Green Teens have established a new benchmark of 1000 bags. 

Our new throwback motto for this summer's Green Teens has been adopted from Woodsy Owl, "Give a hoot, don't pollute!"

Non-native Invasive Plants

A biological invasion of non-native plants is spreading into our nations' fields, pastures, forests, wetlands and waterways, natural areas, and right-of-ways. Variously referred to as exotic, nonnative, alien, noxious, or non-indigenous weeds, invasive plants impact native plant and animal communities by displacing native vegetation and disrupting habitats as they become established and spread over time.
Drawing on recent publications by the USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA APHIS PPQ and the Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council, this web site covers identification characteristics, distribution, and control options for 97 tree, shrub, vine, grass, fern, and aquatic plant species that are invading the eastern United States. For each species, a menu of control options is presented, including mechanical treatments, specific herbicide prescriptions, and, for selected species, recent advances in biological control.
Here are some non-native invasive plants you may have seen by your house.

 

Norway maple leaf

  Swallow-wort

                                                                                                             reed canary grass

Information submitted by: Lawrence, davonne, wilshaun

Recycling

What is Recycling Recycling is the process of making or manufacturing new products from a product that has originally served its purpose. If these used products are disposed of in an appropriate, environmentally friendly way, the process of recycling has been set in motion.

Items that are made from materials such as aluminum, plastic water bottles, and certain kinds of paper (plus many more) can be separated from your regular trash and put in an appropriate recycling bin.

Isn't paper just paper?
No, As a matter of fact, paper has its own "DNA" makeup kind of like human beings. Corrugated cardboard boxes & brown grocery bags
Are made with a high-grade fiber to give them extra strength required for their use. Milk cartons & drink boxes
Many people think you can't recycle milk cartons because of their thin plastic lining, but this is easily removed during the recycling process.

When they're recycled, a single 1 liter milk carton can be turned into five sheets of high quality office paper - this makes cartons a valuable recycling commodity. Newspaper
Creating newsprint out of old newsprint requires that it be deinked and turned into slurry in the hydrapulper "like a big blender". After that point, the process is similar to starting with wood chips. The pulp is screened and spread over rotating drums where it is pressed and dried into large, continuous rolls of paper. Copy paper & junk mail
This type of paper is more commonly recycled. It is recycled at home, in the office, even at school. But there is a better than recycling alternative to junk mail, and that would be to write to: Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Assn.
PO Box 9008
Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-9008

Ask them to take your name off of their list that may have your name on it. Include a list of all the name-Michelle & Dejia

What is Sustainability?

Sustainable means to keep something going forever. Sustainability refers to ensuring that planet EARTH

and all of its resources can continue to provide a home for humans and all other species (animals and

plants) forever.

Since our grandparents were born, humans recognize that we have created some problems on Earth.

These include loss of animal’s homes, air and water pollution, decreasing resources, climate changes

and many other factors affecting our environment and living communities. When we find “sustainable”

solutions to problems it means we find solutions that work well now and for the long term.

Thinking about Sustainability

When you think about sustainability, it is helpful to think about where the products and services that you

buy or use come from, where the waste goes, and what impact your consumption of products and

services has on other humans and other species.

Resources

As you think about a product, ask yourself about the resources needed to manufacture the item. Are the

materials from resources that are renewable or non-renewable? Renewable resources are those that

can be naturally regenerated as fast or faster than they will be depleted (used up). Also, energy

resources are needed to make and deliver the product and services? Energy also comes from

renewable and nonrenewable sources.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE:

Choose the more sustainable choice in each of these 10 situations, and circle it. Then look at the key

to see how much you know already about sustainability.

1.When I bring my lunch, I bring:

a. a homemade sandwich

b. a prepackaged lunch meal.

2. When I head to soccer practice, I take:

a. bottled water.

b. a reusable water bottle.

3. I live close to school, I:

a. Walk or ride my bike.

b. Get my parent to drive me.

4. I need to buy school supplies, I:

a. buy whatever paper looks the best to me.

b. buy the post-consumer recycled paper.

5. My mom says we are out of milk, I:

a. suggest that we walk the half mile to the store to get some.

b. stay home and watch TV, she’ll drive over to get some.

6. We stopped at the farmer’s market last Sunday, I

a. couldn’t wait to leave so we could go to the store and buy some mangos.

b. was thrilled to find some local apples.

7. We went crabbing last summer and

a. kept all the crabs we could get, then tried to eat them all, but had to throw some out.

b. kept enough crabs for our family, and left the rest to grow up and reproduce.

8. I will be starting a garden in my yard this year, I plan to:

a. spray herbicide to keep weeds down.

b. pull the weeds by hand.

9. When I get old enough to buy my own car, I want to get:

a. the biggest, fastest car I can afford.

b. a hybrid or other fuel efficient vehicle.

10. To maintain forests as a renewable resource:

a. all the trees can be cut because they will grow back.

b. only a portion of the trees should be cut so as to leave the environment for animal homes.

1)B, 2)B, 3)A, 4)B, 5)A, 6)B, 7)B, 8)B, 9)B, 10)B

Information submitted by: Joshua, Ian, Sally.