1. home and garden

The Pound Ridge Land Conservancy
Green Spaces
www.prlc.net
P.O. Box 173
Pound Ridge, NY 10576
914-372-1290
Armstrong Education
Center
1361 Old Post Road
Pound Ridge, NY 10576
914-205-3533
[email protected]
Private Non-Profit Organization
Preserving Pound Ridge Lands Forever
Spring 2015
Upcoming Featured Events - Armstrong Education Center
2015 Fall and Winter Calendar
We have over a dozen events scheduled from now through the end of the year. See the Events section
on our website and our Online Calendar of Events for full event listings and more information.
www.prlc.net
Workshops and Events
Mixing Edibles and Ornamentals in Garden Design
Sunday, July 12th 1-3p.
Join special guest Xenia D’Ambrosi of Sweet Earth Co. local to Pound Ridge to learn about beautiful garden design that
mixes edibles with native ornamentals and supports important pollinators and wildlife.
Nature Education and Play for the Whole Family!
Sunday, August 9th 2-4p.
Take this lazy Sunday afternoon and turn it into pure fun and games! From free-range outdoor discovery to board games
and apps, let’s talk and discover what engages young minds to learn about nature in ways that are engaging, spirited and
collaborative.
Botanical Photography: How to Capture that Perfect Subject.
Sat., Sept. 12th 3-5p.
PR’s own Gail Jankus has captured images of over 200 species of wildflowers and an equal number of garden plants.
We’ll take a good look around us at the Clark Preserve and explore how to capture best the variety of plants that appear
in their autumn glory.
Guided Walks and Hikes
Visit the rare Isaacson Fen
Saturday, July 18th 10-12 noon.
A Fen is an oasis for wildlife where humans rarely tread. We’ll take a moderate walking tour of the
surrounding landscape not usually open to the public. Culminating Invasive Species Awareness Week,
we’ll work briefly to wrap up our season to control the spread of the Giant reed otherwise known as
Phragmites.
Annual Mushroom Foray at Clark Saturday, October 24th 10a-12 noon.
Be immersed in the magical world of mushrooms and learn how to explore PRLC’s protected preserves
safely finding these often miniature and sometimes sculptural treasurers.
Explore the local Geology of the Bye Preserve Sat., Dec. 5th 10a-12 noon.
Come face-to-face with the geologic history of PR on this guided hike where the forest is dominated by
hemlock growing from thin soils between patches of exposed bedrock.
Volunteer Work Sessions in PRLC’s Preserves
Gifts from the Garden Saturday, September 26th 10a-12 noon.
Harvest and Winter Planting Opportunity. Gather in the harvest from the Armstrong’s permaculture-style Mandala
garden, prepare the hoop house for colder weather crops and learn about season extending additions to your garden. Prep
home-grown harvest goodies for winter storage.
Maintaining Halle Ravine Preserve’s Trails Saturday October 3rd 10a-12 noon.
Join local volunteers to help limit soil erosion along the trails and control the spread of invasive species- two actions that
protect water quality in the ravine and downstream.
Native Plant Propagation & Beehive Seasonal Maintenance Sat., Nov. 7th 10a-12 noon.
Learn about PRLC’s ongoing preserve restoration projects. In the course of our field work, instruction will be given on how to
collect and process seed and cuttings of select plants, late fall treatment of planting areas and beehive maintenance for an
upcoming, productive spring.
Private Non-Profit Organization
Preserving Pound Ridge Lands Forever
Spring 2015
President’s Message…
[Inspired by a Feb 8th 2015 NYT op-ed, “How to be Invisible” by Akiko Busch author of The Incidental Steward: Reflections on Citizen Science.]
www.prlc.net
Board of Directors
Elyse Arnow Brill
President
Deborah Sherman
Vice President
Michael Kagan
Treasurer
Steve Greenbaum
Secretary
Jim Evans
Josh Fischer
Cynthia Forrester
Albert Gunnison
Andy Karpowich
Ken Okamoto
Colin Rudd
Krista Munger
Land Steward
Our Preserves
Clark
Carolin’s Grove
Halle Ravine
Russell
Bye
Richards
Thalheim
Isaacson
Della Torre Fancher
Meadow
Goldfein
Robert Whitehead
Armstrong
Honey Hollow
Sand
Schwartz
Old Stone Hill
Laurel Ponds
Preserve
The Pound Ridge
Land Conservancy
is a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization
tem— including its water, soils health, undeveloped natural spaces and its critical flora making up the diverse
habitat needed for other living things to prosper along
with ourselves— is the basis of our work with local
landowners and their families.
Our 2015 request for funds from NYSCPP was approved. We asked for an amount we could handle to continue our work creating resiliency in our varied protected
habitats as a small community-based organization supported mostly by our neighbors. We do not wish to grow
beyond our means and hope only to dig deeper and do
what we do better. In fact, PRLC was awarded a second
grant of 5K to conduct a facilitated organizational assessment of our current competencies and strategic planning
processes aligned with National Land Trust Alliance published Standards and Practices. It should be an interesting
ride!
You can help of course. Join others in our community
including local private foundations to financially support
our work. Become a member in whatever amount is right
for you and your family. Take a look at our website where
we capture some of our learnings and disseminate them
for other’s benefit, and sign up for our monthly ebulletin
on our home page, giving you first-hand knowledge of
upcoming events and latest news. By participating, understand firsthand how we tie programming to individual
learning and accomplishment, through our internship and
volunteer programs, partnerships and workshop opportunities. Join us for a quiet hike where our staff will follow your lead and spur your curiosity to learn more.
Don’t underestimate your expertise or energy which is
needed to provide continuing community leadership on
PRLC’s board of directors and working committees. “Invisibility” is important in some respects but not when it
comes to supporting us or being involved!
For those of you who have stepped forward to do this
rewarding work, thank you.
…” when circumstance confers invisibility upon us, perhaps it is something to appreciate and even welcome, as
some iteration of the small imprint, low-impact living it
makes sense to aspire to. Or possibly as a more profound
poise, a fuller appreciation for our place in the greater
scheme of things”. …Akiko Busch.
As Akiko points out in this op-ed piece, we live in a
time and place where personal display is valued and
recognition is most often derived from outward appearance and demonstrable effectiveness and influence.
Akiko continues … “that we are of a larger world and
that our survival depends on knowing this… is not a bad
thing to be reminded of“… as our human footprint continues to wreak havoc with natural and environmental
systems.
PRLC, your town’s land trust, with 18 protected preserves in town totaling just over 360 acres, is conducting
an experiment in what it means to do our job well- stewarding land and its natural resources and creating handson learning opportunities to move you, and your
neighbors, toward conservation and a smaller human
footprint. Our educational outreach and programming, in
part, highlighted in this twice-annual newsletter, is meant
to speak to your interests and from there, provide opportunities for further self-directed exploration into resource
conservation and land protection. Our commitment in
2007 to gut renovate a 1912 residence and create an education center for our community and a land steward residence for our single staff, was intended to build
organizational capacity and share knowledge. At the
time, it was a huge leap of faith.
We are now in our fifth year of programming. The
projects, pursuant to a grant in the spring of 2014 from
New York State Conservation Partnership Program
(NYSCPP) and New York’s Environmental Protection
Elyse Arnow, President Spring 2015
Fund, are coming together this spring, summer and fall.
Shortly, you will see new
signage for a self-guided
tour at the Armstrong
Preserve of five ‘outdoor
classrooms’, which take
you through a meadow,
vernal pool, woodland
trails, and working backyard landscape. This
landscape includes edible
and native showcase gardens, each a venue for interpretive and hands-on
learning tied to long-term
land stewardship demonstration projects. Understanding
that
our
backyards are an integral
part of the local ecosys- The Armstrong Education Center and Residence
Private Non-Profit Organization
Preserving Pound Ridge Lands Forever
Spring 2015
Notes from the Field… Spring 2015:
Armstrong Edible and Native Gardens - A Learning Landscape
PRLC’s summer is already
backyard landscape’ is our title
in full swing at the Armstrong
for all this inter-connectedness
Preserve and Education Cenand is an important teaching tool
ter!
Student volunteers
for interns, on-site volunteers, and
helped to start seed indoors
guests.
under grow lights powered by
Birds and bees are an integral
a cliff-side, solar electric
part of our backyard ecology and
panel array of the Armstrong
are served here with a banquet of
residence, for both our vegnative trees, shrubs, and flowering
etable garden and native plant
plants that provide pollen, nectar,
restoration areas on the Preberries and seed to wildlife. The
serve. Our seasonal garden inhoneybees pay us back by pollitern, Christiana R., a recent
nating flowers, resulting in more
graduate of Pace, is planting
fruits and vegetables for us and
daily to bring a bounty of
for the birds and squirrels. They
food both for our consumpalso make honey to our delight!
tion and for local wildlife. Armstrong’s Mandala Vegetable and Herb Garden 2014 .
What we chose to plant in our
The Armstrong Preserve garbackyard landscapes determines
dens, including the permaculture-style edible garden and native plant what and who can live in these landscapes. By selecting productive
showcase gardens are a big draw for students, gardening and herb species, we can add to the life we witness; by using nonnative plants
clubs and other visitors as they are a microcosm of re-occurring nat- such as the Asian ornamentals that dominate commercial nurseries,
ural processes and seasonal events and are, therefore, excellent we literally prevent it. [Suggested reading: Doug Tallamy, Bringing
teaching tools. Even at this mid-spring time, their produce is deli- Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife With Native Plants]
cious to the taste and beautiful to behold.
Our working backyard has created a diverse and colorful landscape
The vegetable and herb gardens are arranged in a mandala or circular that is, by design, directly applicable to any homeowner wishing to
pattern, with each section housing a complementary group of plants learn how to use their landscape productively and as an integral part
that assist one another in achieving their greatest productivity. For of our local ecosystem, conferring its multiple benefits across human
example, the pest deterrents of basil and marigold have been inter- created property boundaries and fencing barriers.
planted with tomatoes so that no chemical pesticides are needed on As the summer rolls on and autumn harvest approaches, we encourthese beauties; the carrots planted throughout will find a perfect bal- age Pound Ridge residents and their friends and family, to experiance of sun and shade throughout the summer. We have included ence, first-hand, the benefits of mimicking natural processes to create
ground covers such as strawberries that
a self-sufficient backyard oasis by visiting the
flank our blueberry bushes and are visited
Armstrong gardens and working backyard
by honeybees kept on-site to promote viglandscape. You are invited to visit for a tour,
orous flowering and fruiting. Trellis’ hold
to volunteer, or on-your-own time, have an inclimbing pea and bean and are spacetimate experience of this special place of learnsavers for the multitude of other flowering
ing. The gardens are open Wednesdays during
the summer from 11am to 2pm. To visit, turn
and fruiting edibles including borage, nasturtium, cauliflower and squash, to name
in to the driveway to the Armstrong Preserve
a few. Lettuces, chards, kales and herbs
and Education Center at 1361 Old Post Road
are beginning to exhibit colorful, textured
(Rt 121 just north of the causeway), and proceed to park at the top of the driveway. Visifoliage throughout the garden.
tors are welcome during these scheduled open
Since the summer of 2011, when the
hours. (As the gardens are also the backyard
educational garden was first planted, soil
for our resident landsteward/educator and famhealth has been improved through regular
ily, we do need to maintain some privacy duradditions of compost and mulch, and niing other times.) Feel free to pack a lunch, but
trogen building cover crops. It is easy to
no pets please. Check out our upcoming garsee which beds have received the most nuden events where we combine hands-on learntrients, both from the color of the soil and
ing with small group instruction and plenty of
the color of the plant leaves. Our enriched
compost was created through a mixture of
time for questions and personal exploration.
“greens” (lawn clippings, vegetable peelPlease let us know if you would like to bring a
ings, coffee grounds) and “browns”
larger group and we’ll be ready for you! You
(leaves, hay, paper). The dozen or so
may even be treated to a fresh, cold glass of
herb or minted water- pumped from our well
chickens that roam the preserve also contribute with their waste, bedding, and Visiting Herb Group to Armstrong’s Backyard by solar generated electricity. All this- to live
lighter on the land we share.
cracked eggs. ‘Armstrong’s working Working Landscape.
Preserving Pound Ridge Lands Forever
Private Non-Profit Organization
Spring 2015
PRLC’s Preserves: Perfect Areas for Habitat Restoration and Place-Based Education
Look to PRLC’s website to document much of our work in the field. forest understory changes in these exclosed areas.
In fact- editions of this newsletter are an easy way to follow our At the Armstrong Preserve, the vernal pool dried up early this spring.
progress on a number of longer-term projects. They are be found This month, interns and volunteers have put in 100 new plants to atunder the ‘About Us’ tab at www.prlc.net. As reported in spring and tract pollinators that will encourage seed and fruit product and therefall 2014- our single staff- land steward and educator, Krista Munger- fore, the regeneration of native flora. Swamp milkweed, bonset and
along with our summer, student intern teams and volunteers, have Joe pey weed have been planted as they like wetter soils. Trees and
been busy in the field protecting and restoring wildlife habitat and shrubs planted in 2013 and 2014 have had their protective tubes recreating outdoor learning venues. Our 43-acre Armstrong Preserve placed with fence cages to prevent deer browse. In the Armstrong
now claims a fully looped and marked trail with an information kiosk. meadow, enclosures on four corners have a variety of native plantings
Find out about this trail and oththat correspond to different light
ers by going to our Preserves
and moisture conditions. Arwebpage where you’ll see
rowwood viburnum and Eastern
downloadable maps and links
red cedar are growing in the
for directions, along with a desunniest part of the meadow and
scription of each preserve.
willow and silky dogwood preSeveral of our 18 preserves have
dominate where soil conditions
ongoing projects being done in
are wetter and light conditions
conjunction with both funding
shadier. The seed mix we
and conservation partners. At
planted in fall of 2014 has taken
Carolins Grove, the Winfield
hold over approximately 50% of
Foundation and the family of the
the invasive stiltgrass. Several
original Carolin, made a 10K
days in May were spent pulling
gift to have the significantly
second-year Garlic mustard as
damage Grove cleared of a myrthe seeds mature early, and a
iad of downed Spruce and topgroup of AmeriCorps students
Installing deer exclosure fencing - Carolin’s Grove
pled limbs from Superstorm
assisted in clearing remaining
Sandy. This created a cleared understory for a replanted, more di- Japanese barberry and tree strangling vines.
verse, conifer forest. In addition, a one-hundred foot perimeter deer Throughout various habitats, we have been planting and protecting
exclosure has been constructed, with others planned, to facilitate re- native understory shrubs and trees to augment a layer of the forest.
generation. This spring, we are witnessing wonderful new growth on Red chokeberry is doing well, with and without protection, as is
the forest floor.
shrubby St. John’s wort, spicebush, and winterberry with plantings
At the 70-acre Clark Preserve, committed volunteers continue to re- designed to create a softer edge around clearings beneficial to wildlife
move invasive Japanese barberry and Oriental bittersweet from an and songbirds. Flowering raspberry is replacing the invasive
ever growing number of acres of forest understory and multiple, large Wineberry with intervention. Also seen at the Armstrong Preserve
deer exclosures have been established viewable from the trail, all with deer exclosure, several young tree seedlings: black and white oak,
ongoing support from the NYS Watershed Council. Private donations sugar maple, hickory and in the understory, serviceberry, witch hazel
have been made of native woodland shrubs and small trees to repop- and wintergreen- all in the soil seed bank and emerging now that deer
ulate these protected areas. Watch for future updates as we document have been excluded.
Adults - Be a Volunteer!
Students:
Earn Community Service Credits
Email us at [email protected]
Donate Today!
Online at www.prlc.net or with the
Donation Envelope provided
Support our projects and programs
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