Sachem enviro students making a difference

The Sachem North Envirothon team has been busy again.

They have been involved with an enormous ecosystem restoration effort at Sunken Meadow State Park since 2008, alongside Save the Sound, New York Sea Grant, the New York Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, and other partners, called the Sunken Meadow Comprehensive Restoration & Resiliency Plan. In short, tidal flow was restored to Sunken Meadow Creek in 2012 and Sachem students have been collaborating with these agencies to collect data at the site since 2008 to track the biological, chemical, and physical changes in the creek pre and post restoration.

John Perez and Emily Watson presented a poster of this data at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Open Space Stewardship Conference.They shared with other science students and local scientific professionals the positive changes that have occurred since the restoration at Sunken Meadow Creek. John also led a separate Powerpoint presentation, which highlighted the annual data collection event called “A Day in the Life of the Nissequogue River.”

John Perez and Grace Catizone presented the poster at the 25th annual Long Island Citizen’s Summit Conference at Stonybrook University.

Last weekend, 12 Sachem North students volunteered at Sunken Meadow Creek to plant 2,000 plants in the salt marsh, install fencing, and bird-repellant measures. The Sunken Meadow planting project will make the park’s shoreline more resilient to waves and flooding, improve water quality in Sunken Meadow Creek and the Nissequogue River, restore habitat for fish and wildlife, and, most importantly for Sachem, provide opportunities for local students to get involved in this authentic scientific endeavor.

On a few evenings in June, students and advisor Monica Marlowe volunteered for Cornell Cooperative Extension with the Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network at Captree State Park.  One night, the students recorded over 300 mating horseshoe crabs in one 30-minute survey.

The North Envirothon team competed at the NY State competition and placed No. 15 out of 48 counties represented. They have three returning members and they are extremely motivated to do even better next year.