April is Earth Month, and in collaboration with Sustainable Sleepy Hollow, we’re planning several great, free, family-friendly events throughout the month to celebrate our earth! Some highlights include: 

• Compost Giveback Day, Saturday 4/12, 9 am - 12 pm 
  Grab some empty bins and buckets, come to the Sleepy Hollow High School Administration Building’s parking lot, and bring home up to two large containers of free compost (produced by the Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow Food Scrap Recycling programs). Your garden will thank you! Volunteer signup here.
• Morning Bird Walk with Yoni Rabino, Sunday 4/27, 9 am 
  Join Yoni Rabino, an experienced birder, bird walk leader, and expert in the local and migratory birds of the east coast, for a walk through the Tarrytown Lakes Park. We will meet at the Tarrytown Lakes parking lot and walk to the High School parking lot. (Rides will be available back to the Lakes.) Bring binoculars!

Check out the Upcoming Events listing below for the many other events we have planned for Earth Month (Horsemen Family Saturday, invasive vine removals, Village “Free” Day, Repair Cafe, pollinator gardens clean-ups, and much more)! You can find more details about these events on our website or social media accounts as we get closer to April (instagram and facebook).

Butterflies, moths, birds, bees, and a wide variety of other organisms depend on keystone plants—native species that provide essential support and are crucial for the health of our ecosystems. (The term keystone species was formulated in the 1960s by ecologist Robert Paine, who studied starfish along the Pacific coastline in Washington State. He coined the term to describe the essential role of a species in the ecological community and in the maintenance of its diversity.)

Because keystone plants are primary food sources for a wide range of species and are also crucial host plants for numerous insects, they serve as the foundation of local habitats, play a significant role in maintaining biodiversity, and have a substantial impact on the overall ecological balance.

Keystone plants for our yards

Trees are said to “host the most” when it comes to supporting other species, because of their size and other attributes. (For a deeper understanding, consider reading The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees, by Douglas W. Tallamy), We don’t all have the space or opportunity to plant trees in our yards, but fortunately numerous native perennials are considered keystone plants and are great host plants for butterflies and other insects. Here are three that will thrive in our area:

Goldenrod (genus Solidago) is a perennial herb known for its striking clusters of bright yellow flowers that typically bloom from late summer to early fall. The plant can grow in a variety of habitats, including meadows and fields. Over 120 species of butterflies and moths use this plant as a host.

Image: Solidago puberula, Wild Flowers of New York, Homer D. House, Albany 1918.

Wild violets (genus Viola) is another great native plant. These small, charming flowering plants are found in environments ranging from woodlands to meadows, and play an important role in supporting local wildlife. Their early spring blooms are often a much-needed pollen source for certain species of native bees and other pollinators when few other flowers are available. Their delicate, often fragrant flowers attract a variety of insects. They also serve as host plants for several moths and butterflies and make for a low maintenance, beautiful ground cover.


Image: Viola brittoniana, Wild Flowers of New York, Homer D. House, Albany 1918.

Milkweed (genus Asclepias) is an essential butterfly food source. In New York, eleven wild species have been documented over time. Today, only three of these are common, with Asclepias syriaca being the most well-known. This perennial flowering plant is easily recognizable by its tall, sturdy stems. In late spring to early summer, common milkweed produces clusters of fragrant, pink to purple star shaped flowers that attract a variety of pollinators. The flowers are not only beautiful but also provide a crucial nectar source for many species, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

One of the most notable aspects of common milkweed is that it is the host plant for the iconic monarch butterfly. Adult monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves, and the caterpillars feed exclusively on the plant, which provides them with necessary nutrients and helps to develop their distinctive coloration.

Image: Asclepias syriaca, Wild Flowers of New York, Homer D. House, Albany 1918.

During Tarrytown’s Energy-Smart Homes initiative a few years ago, I, like many others, did some retrofits to my house: attic and upper floor cellulose insulation, basement sill foam insulation, a heat-pump water heater, and a central air-source heat pump. These all made a noticeable improvement in my home’s comfort and my heating budget.

But my central heat pump is not rated for low temperatures, so my furnace uses a natural-gas burner for backup when the temps drop below about 35 degrees. Even when it’s running, the heat pump struggles to keep the house warm when the outdoor temp is below 40 degrees, making it run for long periods while putting out lukewarm air.

So, I’ve decided to proceed with a further upgrade of my home’s HVAC, with a ground-source heat pump (GSHP), often referred to as “geothermal” heating. The big advantage is that the outdoor “ambient” portion of the system is underground, in a borehole reaching hundreds of feet deep, where the temperature is always a mild 55 degrees year-round. In winter, the heat pump only needs to raise the house temperature about 20 degrees from the ambient, which is much easier and more efficient. On the hottest summer days, it remains easy to pump the indoor heat into the ground, as if it were a cool 55 degrees outside.

The initial visit I got from Dandelion Energy, a premier GSHP installer, turned out to be very positive, given that my backyard is large and fairly level compared to many Tarrytown properties. I will have to arrange an entry point for the drilling rig through a neighbor’s parking area, as my house’s side yards are too narrow, but I think that will be workable. My more-detailed site analysis was done last week and it looks like full-speed ahead, with one caveat - the potential need for a zoning variance to allow for a trench carrying the fluid piping to encroach into the side yard setback. I’ll report on that going forward.

The NY State incentives for converting to GSHPs are very good, as there is a mandate to reduce the use of fossil-fuel heating significantly to reach the State emission goals. Administered by Con Ed, NYSERDA will reimburse up to $40,000 of the full cost of the system, provided a homeowner no longer uses gas for heating. And there are tax credits that may reduce costs even further - let’s hope those stay in place!

If you are just embarking on energy-use improvements for your home or apartment, the Cornell University Cooperative Extension has a Smart Energy Choices website for our Mid-Hudson region, cooperating with NYSERDA to help NY residents lower their carbon footprint and save money.

In other news… According to Green Car Reports (as reported in The Verge), the U.S. government is pushing to roll back many of the Biden-era efforts expanding the National EV infrastructure, “pulling the plug” on thousands of EVs and chargers not considered “mission-critical” to the Trump agenda. They have halted a $5 billion program to install new public EV chargers across the country, issued an executive order rescinding Biden’s directives to purchase new EVs for the federal government’s vehicle fleet, and signaled their intention to eliminate the federal EV tax credit and other incentives for consumers. For the near future, the EV tax credit remains in place, and new EV buyers can still take advantage of it.