|
|
| Huntington Audubon Society -
Newsletter/Local News |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Smithers
Estate Saved!
|
|
|
The Nassau County Legislature voted
unanimously on Monday, February 25th, 2008
to buy most of the 31-acre Smithers Estate
in Mill Neck for $7.8 million and preserve
it as open space. This important acquisition
creates a continuous preserve all the way to
the Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge,
helping to protect water quality so critical
to the health of the Oyster Bay/Cold Spring
Harbor estuary system. The Smithers estate
is within a state-designated Special
Groundwater Protection Area and contains two
ponds, as well as many of the fresh-water
springs that supply Shu Swamp, Beaver Dam,
Mill Neck Creek and on into Oyster Bay. The
NY State Department of Environmental
Protection has documented 74 species of
birds breeding in the area, and as all local
birders know, this area is a safe haven for
migrating birds. It also provides critical
habitat for numerous fish species, such as
Brook Trout and the American Brook Lamprey.
The successful preservation of this property
was truly a collaborative effort by a group
of local environmental organizations (such
as Friends of the Bay, North Shore Land
Alliance, Huntington Audubon Society, North
Shore Audubon Society, TR Sanctuary, Citizen
Campaign for the Environment and Trout
Unlimited) who all worked to get the word
out that the public needed to let their
legislators know how strongly they felt that
this property, ranked as the #1 priority for
acquisition by the Bond Act Advisory
Committee, be preserved.
The real message of this story is that by
working together, local environmental groups
made it easy for the politicians to say
"yes". By providing them with the scientific
justification for the purchase, as well as
an emotional and heartfelt appeal, we helped
them carry out the wishes of the 77% of
Nassau County voters who supported the Bond
Act and the preservation of important open
spaces for the Long Island environment. |
|
|
|
|
|
Oyster
Festival 2007 |
|
|
Once again we had wonderful weather
for the Oyster Festival held in downtown Oyster Bay.
This year HAS shared a booth with Wildlife in Need
of Rescue and Rehabilitation, Inc. (WINORR).
A terrific time was had by all. Volunteers
were Blair Broughton, Simone DaRos, Cathy Fitts,
Alice DelBosco, Stella Miller, Richard Ingordo,
Bobby Horvath and Vinnie Schiappa.
Attracted by the birds of prey we had on
display, hordes of people stopped by. We had
on hand a Barred, Screech, and Barn Owl, Red Tailed
Hawk and American Kestrel, all handled by Stella
Miller. The birds were the main attraction and
as Stella displayed each bird, the crowd was
sometimes ten people deep!
We kicked off our membership drive at the festival
and were very successful in signing up new members.
These new members received either a free HAS tee
shirt or tote as a thank you. Once again we
sold Marcia Polling’s gorgeous hand painted
Christmas ornaments. We also raised a
substantial amount of money for the wildlife of
WINORR.
We handed out literature, talked about what we do as
an organization and answered many questions. The
days were long, but the volunteers never wavered in
their commitment to providing community awareness of
what both groups do. We look forward to
seeing new faces at our meetings and field trips,
and attracting even more new members!
We would like to thank the festival goers who
stopped by our booth on both days and especially the
volunteers who worked the booth. We would
especially like to thank Bobby Horvath, of WINORR,
for loaning us his birds of prey for the two days.
This was the first festival for these birds, and as
hard as the volunteers worked, the birds were the
real troupers! One could include Micah,
Sabrina, Kiki, Cosmo and Diana in the list of
volunteers!!! We look forward to Oyster
Festival 2008! |
|
|
|
|
|
News from
the Board |
|
|
Some changes have taken place on
the Board of Directors.
Elections resulted in the following: President,
Stella Miller; First Vice President, Blair
Broughton; Second Vice President, Ginger Mahoney;
Treasurer, Petie Szabo; and Recording Secretary,
Simone DaRos. They serve one-year terms. Elected for
a three-year term ending in 2010 were Sharon Brody,
Simone DaRos, Catherine Fitts, Stella Miller, and
Vinnie Schiappa. We welcome Charlotte Miska who
joined the Board of Directors to fill a vacancy for
a term ending in 2009 and Pat Aitken our new field
trip co-coordinator. Thanks to all for sharing their
time and talents on behalf of Huntington Audubon.
The board continues to work hard on local and
national conservation issues. |
|
|
|
|
|
Looking for
more local news?? |
|
|
Click
here
for our local news archive. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
