Register here for one or all of our free hands-on educational workshops, sponsored by generous support from the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.
Workshop #1 – Water-Quality Monitoring
Saturday, October 15, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Front porch of Connolly House, 89 Horton Street. Limited to 12 participants.
Water quality is an important factor in an oyster’s life cycle and needs to be measured frequently throughout the year. We use a handheld water-quality measurement device with sensors that measure the water’s temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and pH. Other environmental conditions are also monitored including the flow of the water’s currents as well as the turbidity, or transparency, of the water. Participants will be taken out on the CIOR skiff to learn how to monitor water-quality conditions in our area and about the oyster reef project sponsored by the NFWF’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund.
Workshop #2 – Oyster-Cage Monitoring
Saturday, October 15, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Back porch of Dolensek House, 21 Tier Street. Limited to 20 participants.
This workshop will explain how live oysters in the Billion Oyster Project’s oyster research stations are monitored at strategic locations around City Island. The cages will be lifted out of the water so participants can make observations and record conditions such as spat accumulation, density, and oyster growth. Animals that occupy the cages, including worms, tunicates, crabs, and fish, and predators such as oyster drills, will be counted. Participants will help to record the growth and survivability of the oysters as part of a two-year survey for an oyster reef project sponsored by the NFWF’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund.
Workshop #3 – The Importance of Marshland Restoration with Sketch/Watercolor
Site Study
Sunday, October 16, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Behind P.S. 175. Limited to 20 participants.
In this workshop we will discuss the important role of wetlands in the context of climate change—as habitat, flood and erosion mitigation, and stormwater filtration. We will introduce CIOR’s proposal for returning the site behind P.S. 175 to a Living Shoreline, in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, by observing different vegetation zones and by creating sketches and watercolor studies of the site. For beginners, basic landscape painting techniques will be introduced. Participants will leave with a small set of watercolor paints, a pad, and a deepened appreciation of our shoreline.
Workshop #4 – Sewage, Waste and Plastics (What’s in the water of the Sound?)
Sunday, October 16, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Back porch of Dolensek House, 21 Tier Street. Limited to 20 participants.
The workshop will help to build awareness of the plastic waste, marine debris, litter and raw sewage that exists in the waters of Long Island Sound and the effect these materials have on the habitats of living creatures in the Sound and along the shorelines.