SAVE THE DATE!
TARRYTOWN ECO FAIR IS SEPTEMBER 21, 2024
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By Jenny OConnor, TEAC Member

Our annual Eco Fair is scheduled for September 21, 2024 (rain date Sept 28) at Patriots Park from 10am to 1pm, in collaboration with the TaSH Farmers Market.The Eco Fair brings together community sustainability organizations and local businesses to educate and share ideas to enrich our Villages and enhance the environment. It is an opportunity for community members to increase awareness and engage on environmental issues. The goal is to highlight things that we can all do at home and in our own neighborhoods.

Something for the whole family including kids activities, games, amazing live music, and fresh local food vendors at the TaSH farmers market!  Key topics will include zero waste, solar power, food scraps recycling, local sustainability initiatives, home energy savings, sustainable DIY projects, healthy lawns, native plants, the Hudson River, local waterways, and more.   

Also calling all organizations and companies that would like to be a part of the Eco Fair. Please reach out to tarrytownenviro@gmail.com for more information. 

A DIFFERENT KIND OF GARDENING: 
PLANTING CORALS IN INDONESIA 
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By Kerstin Erdbrink, SHEAC Member

I have recently returned from a two-year stay in Bali, Indonesia. My family and I had the unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in a different culture, reconnect with nature, and experience amazing adventures, such as exploring ancient temples and participating in traditional Balinese ceremonies.

Our time in Bali was filled with unforgettable moments and I feel grateful for the enriching experiences I had.

Being an avid native plant gardener at home in Tarrytown, I found myself deprived of my beloved yard, though. Not so knowledgeable about plant life in Southeast Asia, I turned my attention to a different kind of garden: a coral garden.

Coral reefs are essential for fish, in much the same way pollinators need gardens with native plants. Despite occupying less than 1% of the ocean floor, coral reefs are home to over 25% of all marine life in tropical and subtropical waters. They are considered to be the "rainforests of the seas" due to their importance as nurseries, habitats, shelters, and food sources. Without coral reefs, ocean life would be severely impacted as they are crucial for supporting marine ecosystems.

As the number of pollinators has decreased at an alarming rate over the last 50 years, so have the coral reefs. Scientists believe that if we don’t do anything now, 70-90% of all reefs will be gone by 2050, with disastrous consequences for the oceans.

So, when the opportunity arose to participate in a reef restoration project through a local NGO, I didn’t hesitate and signed up for coral gardening.

Since then, it’s been quite the journey with numerous learning opportunities, countless hours above, in, and under water, and hundreds of new corals planted.

Coral gardening on a pontoon.
 

Planting is done on artificial sand-coated steel structures called reef stars. Each star can hold up to 18 coral fragments, which are then positioned on the reef by the local dive team.

If you are a diver, you can complete the whole process underwater, which is better for the corals, as they don’t like to be out of the water for long (but can survive up to a couple of hours if necessary).

Coral gardening underwater.

I have to admit that being a diver was a bit more spectacular as we got to experience the marine life around us.

Our first visit was in November 2022. At that time, we were looking at a barren seabed while working on a couple of structures we had bought for our family as a contribution to the ocean.

We returned regularly to help plant or assist in events for the reef to raise awareness of the state of the oceans and the UN SDG 14 – Life below Water.

Over the next 18 months, we were privileged to witness not only the growth of our little piece of reef, but also the rebound of the marine ecosystem around us. We saw baby sharks making the reef their home, turtles, invertebrates, and schools of (juvenile) fish.

It is amazing the impact the actions of a few dedicated and passionate individuals have had. The oldest parts of the reef have fully matured.

You can’t see the underlying artificial structures anymore and instead, you are looking at a gently sloping reef, a real coral garden!

Mature section of the coral reef in Padangbai, Bali (Livingseas Coral Restoration Site)

ENERGY NOTES:
CARBON EVERYWHERE
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By Dean Gallea, TEAC Co-Chair

We’re made of carbon, we eat it, drink it (carbonated soda), breathe it in and out, wear it, and use it in practically every physical object we interact with. It’s essential in that sense. Yet we are letting too much of its gaseous form loose into our planet’s atmosphere. That’s an indisputable fact, regardless of any political opinion.

Though emissions from transportation fuels is a close second (and declining), the largest source of carbon emissions is still from our residential and commercial building infrastructure:

The Village of Tarrytown recently completed a Climate Action Plan for Municipal Operations, recognizing that the building sector – primarily gas-fired heating needs – was the low-hanging fruit that we can best use to mitigate current carbon emissions.

That’s true for the majority of our homes as well, and the more we can move towards heat-pump-based HVAC, powered by renewable energy sources from upstate New York and Canada, the better we can cut our carbon emissions over the long term. This is crucial to our efforts to meet NY State’s goal of reducing carbon emissions 40% by 2030. (Here’s a good resource from NYSERDA for homeowners looking to electrify.)

Back It Up: My home’s area had a 30-second power outage a couple weeks ago (Aug 31), and a bunch of electrical stuff in my house had to reset when the power came back on. Fortunately, my computer and router are on a battery-equipped UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), so they kept working. It reminded me that it’s now practical to have electrical backup for one’s whole house, without using a carbon-fueled generator. Whole-house battery backup systems are available, either with or without solar panels, and more EVs are being designed with “bidirectional charging” to allow their huge batteries to serve as home backups, while still leaving enough energy to drive the car if needed. A side benefit of a whole-house battery is that it can serve as a temporary local source of electricity during peak-usage events, circumventing the utilities’ need to fire up dirty diesel-powered “peaking plants.”

Speaking of putting solar panels on every building possible (weren’t we?), the non-profit Generation 180 just published their 2024 report “Brighter Future: A Study on Solar in U.S. K-12 Schools. New York is ranked 8th in total kWh installed in its schools, which is not bad, but is way behind New Jersey, so there is a lot of room for future build-out of solar on our schools.

Our Tarrytown Middle and High school campus (shown here) is pretty-well “covered”, but the other schools in the system, not so much. 

We hope that, as the school rooftops are replaced over time, they will also be solarized. There are several Federal and State programs that help fund these projects. And, as HVAC systems are replaced, they should switch to electric heat pumps, preferably ground-sourced ones that remain highly-efficient year-round.

Here’s a shocker: Last year’s Canadian wildfires not only made the air quality dismal in our area for many days, but “produced more planet-warming carbon emissions than the burning of fossil fuels in all but three countries … Only China, the United States and India produced more emissions from fossil fuels than the Canadian fires”, according to a study in Nature covered in a NY Times article. It’s not that there’s nothing we can do about wildfires, either:  We need to adopt better forest and fire management, and to put vulnerable utility lines underground away from combustible materials. And burned areas need to be re-planted with trees to restore the loss of carbon-sinking foliage.

On Zero Waste: The best way for us consumers to simultaneously reduce our resource footprint, our waste stream and our spending is to keep the things we buy and use in operation as long as possible. Local Repair Cafes help people fix things that aren’t working well or at all, at no cost. (Check the TEAC website to see the schedule of Repair Cafes in our area and up the Hudson Valley.) But some unscrupulous manufacturers try to put roadblocks in the way, making it difficult or impossible for even experts to keep their products functional, especially where updated software is needed or service info is made unavailable. 

Consumer Reports (my old job) and a litany of other advocacy groups have sent a letter to the FTC demanding that they “create clear guidance to address the issue of software tethering which … harms consumers who purchase these products in good faith and it harms the environment when those products end up in landfills.” One practice they are looking to end is the sudden “locking” of a product’s features behind a pay wall, requiring a monthly fee to retain full functionality. Another, which I recently encountered, is the programmed “bricking” (blocking use) of printer ink cartridges that are older than a certain date, even ones sealed in the original package. Let's hope we get some action to allow us to keep our stuff working past the "planned obsolescence" dates marketers like to impose.

LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS:
HELP MAINTAIN OUR GARDENS 
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By Mai Mai Margules, TEAC Landscape Committee Chair




Do you love gardening or just want to spend time outside? We could use help maintaining our public pollinator gardens at the Metro North Tarrytown Station, Sarah Michaels Park, Neperan Park, Patriots Park (near the Paulding statue), Warner Library (Wildey St. side) and Gracemere on route 9.
 

Andre Brook Trail Hike

Join a local group of hikers to finally discover where the Andre Brook flows,
where it comes from and where the Andre Brook Trail is

When: Sunday, September 22, from 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Meet-Up location: Sleepy Hollow High School Parking Lot Entrance on Bedford Rd. (Rt. 448)

(For questions, contact Cathy at cruhland@aol.com)

Quick Links

FREE CONCERTS THIS SUMMER

PICNICS BY THE RIVER WITH FRIENDS AND MUSIC
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Speaking of getting outside, be sure to check out the free Thursday night concerts at Pierson Park presented by the Village of Tarrytown AND the Free Jazz Concerts presented by Jazz Forum Arts in August at five Hudson River locations: Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park, Lyndhurst and Pierson Park in Tarrytown, Horan’s Landing in Sleepy Hollow and Henry Gourdine Park in Ossining. Check out the schedule and more information HERE.