The Roslyn AYLUS branch assisted at The Long Island Native Plant Initiative from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at the LINPI greenhouse. The Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) is an all-volunteer cooperative effort of over 30 non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, nursery professionals, and citizens. LINPI strives to preserve Long Island’s biodiversity by cultivating ethically sourced ecotypic plants to ensure the commercial availability of native plants for nurseries, communities, and habitat restorations.
First, the instructor, Pam, handed out brooms for us to clean up the rain inside the greenhouse, and we went into a team effort where one was responsible for pushing the rain from both sides into a groove in the middle of the greenhouse and the other was responsible for draining the dirty rain outside with a broom. When we had cleared the room, our instructor took us to the second greenhouse. She carefully taught us how to seed the wheat. Therefore, we followed her instructions and put the dried wheat one by one on a table of iron sand and then rubbed the seeds from the roots of the plants with our hands. Of course, we need to be safe before we go to work. We’ll make sure everyone wears gloves and masks when they’re rolling wheat.
By noon, the instructor had become a very knowledgeable teacher. During our breaks, she taught us about the unique plants they had on their farm. Although it made us a little tired from the sound of the rain from outside the greenhouse, did not stop us from discussing interesting topics above the plant world. In the afternoon, we gained enough energy to happily continue the work. When we look back at the space for wheat, we realize that there is less and less wheat. Observing these will also give us a kind of inexplicable sense of achievement for us.
While we are establishing a commercial source of ecotypic seed for native plant production, we think that this is such a good opportunity to spend our time under a rainstorm, and we also enjoy the knowledge that our instructor offered us. We are very glad to be part of their work and we are grateful to be allowed to learn from them.
Members who participated：
Max Li(4 hours), Simon long(4 hours)
Reporter: Simon Long
