THE WINTER GARDEN:
LAZY GARDENING BENEFITS BIRDS
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By Mai Mai Margules, TEAC Member

During last month’s cold snap many of us were in our yards refilling bird feeders to help  overwintering birds survive those harsh winter days. Feeders are important to supplement birds’ diets, but the most important thing we can do is to create year round healthy habitat. 

Plant Native Trees - Feed Baby Birds 

Did you know that baby birds can only eat insects? Without a sufficient amount of insects they will starve. A single pair of breeding chickadees must find 6000-9000 caterpillars to rear one clutch of young, according to Doug Tallamy, a professor of entomology.

The best thing you can do is to plant native or preserve native keystone trees such as oaks, willows, birches, cherries  and maples. Native trees are our powerhouse plants. Oak trees host over 500 species of caterpillars and moths. There’s lots of variety within native species.  For anyone with a small property, bear oak is a diminutive oak ranging between 3’ and 12’ and is a great oak option. Here is a good article with a shortlist of native trees and beneficial shrubs.

https://abcbirds.org/blog/native-trees-shrubs-attract-birds/ 

Shrubs - Safety and Sustenance

Perennials Provide a Year Round Buffet

In summer the goldfinches compete with the bumblebees for spots on the sunflowers and echinacea in my yard. While the bees dine on nectar and pollen the birds extract seeds. Hummingbirds love the coral honeysuckle, anise hyssop and bee balm, flitting from flower to flower from morning till dusk.

“Lazy gardening “ creates habitat for birds and wildlife. So put down those clippers and watch the birds and squirrels enjoy your garden this winter!

ENERGY NOTES:
REPAIR CAFES: TOOLS OF CONSERVATION
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By Dean Gallea, TEAC Co-Chair
 

The scene at a repair cafe in Tarrytown in 2023. The cafe (yes, there's coffee!) offered free repair services for small appliance and furniture, garments, and even musical instruments.
 

Simply stated: One of the best ways for individuals to cut their resource use and related carbon emissions is to not buy new stuff! And the best way to do that is to keep using the things you have as long as they are usable. To that end, we are lucky in our lower Hudson Valley community to have a robust schedule of Repair Cafe events.

Repair Cafes are pop-up, one-day events organized by volunteers in a Village or Town where you can bring one or two items you own that have problems of the sort that make them more or less unusable. Repair coaches at the Cafe assess the problem and do their best to either repair it on the spot, or if that isn’t feasible, advise you of what’s needed to to get the thing back in good shape. This way, a new one need not be bought, or a cherished heirloom can get a new lease on life. A win for you, and a win for the environment!

Repair Cafes almost always have fixers for common items like lamps, small appliances, clothing (mending, NOT alteration), and jewelry. Many will have craftspeople who can sharpen knives, fix or tune-up bicycles, and repair small furniture pieces. Broken pottery or statuary can be glued. An important part of the Repair Cafe experience is to learn by watching, or if possible, participating in the repair process, so you might do it yourself in the future, or at least know how it’s done.

The second “TarryHollow” Repair Cafe is slated for Sunday, April 28, at the Sleepy Hollow Senior Center on Elm St. It’s one of many events TEAC and SHEAC are collaborating on for that Earth Month celebration. There’s a preliminary roster of events elsewhere in this newsletter.

And, the first Repair Cafe for Greenburgh Town is slated for Saturday May 18th from 11:00am – 3:00pm at the TDYCC located at 32 Manhattan Ave, White Plains, NY 10607.

If you have your own repair skills and would like to serve as a Repair Coach at one of these events, or if you want to volunteer as a greeter or assistant, please reach out to tarrytownenviro@gmail.com, or greenburghrepaircafe@gmail.com, and you’ll be brought on board. (Greenburgh has also posted a volunteer signup for their event.)

Our umbrella organization, Repair Cafe Hudson Valley, has a calendar showing all the upcoming Repair Cafes in our region.


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CAP and MO-CAP and Adapt, OH MY!
TEAC's volunteer CAPI Task Force, in cooperation with the Tarrytown administration and staff, are continuing to develop a Climate Action Plan for Municipal Operations, aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of our Village facilities and Departmental day-to-day activities. We’re looking at ways to reduce electricity, natural gas and fuel usage, which are the primary contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, as expressed in pounds of CO2e annually. We hope to have a draft plan for public review within the next month or two.

We’ve also kicked off a second, related effort, dubbed “CAPI Adapt”, aimed at learning the best ways to feasibly stave off the damaging effects of climate change as they progress over the coming decades. The dangers come in the form of rising temperatures, rising sea level, and increasingly-fierce storm events. And, like most environmental issues, they affect different segments of the population and different economic classes unequally. These concerns will be addressed as we proceed through our analysis and develop proposals for Village residents to review and contribute to in public forums.

After we finalize our CAPs, Tarrytown will receive credit in NYSERDA’s Climate-Smart Communities program, which will make us eligible for grants to help fund chosen actions.

• Compost giveback day at high school - with possible activities like planting herbs
• John Paulding Community Garden Clean-up
• Saturday Academy, at Peabody - Kid-oriented
• Family-Friendly Spring Hikes - both Villages
• Family-Friendly Earth Day Movie and Snacks
• Tree plantings
• Clean Up 10591! - along with an anti litter campaign and ways to reduce plastic consumption! 
• Village-wide Free Day - residents put items they no longer want on their curb for others to take
• Repair cafe at Sleepy Hollow Senior Center on Elm St. (Sunday April 28)
• RiverKeeper Sweep along the waterfront - May 4