• organized a household and clothing swap at the Neighborhood House;

• were “waste warriors” at the TaSH to help shoppers separate resources from waste;

• dismantled the scarecrows which were decorating downtown, to recycle the textiles (clothing, shoes, belts and burlap sacks) and use the straw in gardens, compost bins and send to the organics yard;

• visited CompostEd at the county Materials Recovery center in Valhalla;

• collected native seeds from the public gardens and planters throughout the village;

• helped clear out the community garden and prepare the beds for winter;

• pruned and winterized TEAC demonstration gardens throughout the Village  and plantings on Broadway; 

• consulted with the new Morse School eco club to advise on native garden beds and kids activities; and

• attended a dedication by the Town Supervisor of Greenburgh for 2 new pollinator gardens at Anthony F. Veteran Park and Hartsbrook Park, both in Hartsdale, for which TEAC volunteers collaborated. See article in Examiner.

FROM THE HACKLEY LAKE KEEPERS:
MISSION: CLEAN ECOSYSTEM
______________________

By Mason Lee, Lake Keepers Organizer
 

Hackley Lake Keepers cleaning trash from the Tarrytown Lakes park, near the soccer field.

Why is trash bad for the environment? Aside from disturbing nature’s aesthetics and obviously making everything ugly, it spreads bacteria and pollutes our environment. Trash also inevitably makes its way into the water and can be toxic to the fragile aquatic ecosystem and native habitat of species in the surrounding area. 

Recently, on November 13th, Hackley Lake Keepers held another cleanup and focused primarily on an area north of the soccer fields off the trails. A typically beautiful area beside the water with benches was strewn with cigarette butts, broken alcohol bottles, beer cans, plastic soda bottles, vape cartridges, and plastic bags. While we managed to pick up eight bags of trash, there was some trash that made its way onto the water’s edge and into the water that we could not reach.