Members of AYLUS Syosset and Roslyn participated in invasive plant/landscape cleanup at Robert Moses State Park. Members used orange tags to mark the beach fences that are there to keep visitors out of the preserved site for the nesting of native birds. The piping plover is a shorebird that is endangered on Long Island and arrives on beach grounds for breeding season starting in early-mid March. Between May and June, an average of 4 eggs are laid per clutch and are incubated for roughly a month. Piping plovers forage for food on the beaches, dunes in the tidal wrack, feeding on mainly invertebrates and crustaceans. This species has been protected since the 1920s. It is important that visitors are aware designated areas of the beach are closed off to them in order to ensure safety and conservation for birds like this one, especially the nests are hard to spot to most people. In addition to plovers, New York State beaches also protect and house least terns, common terns, oystercatchers, black skimmers and roseate terns as well as a number of phocid seals.
Shorebirds are extremely important to their ecosystems because they help facilitate energy and nutrient supply exchanges between the shore and the ocean. They fertilize the mudflats and water which help to keep the phytoplankton nourished.
Members also walked across the shore to pick up trash as a means of maintaining a clean shore for the wildlife. Millions of marine and terrestrial organisms are exposed to plastics and can suffocate, experience impaction and starve from the ingestion of excessive plastic. Not only does plastic itself have severe effects on wildlife, but when exposed to water for long periods the oceans can have fluctuations of harmful chemicals that seep out of the plastic. Thus it is extremely important to be more environmentally conscious about where we dispose of our waste and when possible, clean up after ourselves and each other.
Members participated include:
Alyssa Huang (3.5 h), Jessica Albrecht (3 h), Margaret Zhang (3 h), Sophia Liu (3 h).
