The Garden Club of LBI’s Environmental Chair, Mary Wilding, updates members each month on such important topics as seismic testing, fracking, plastic pollution, sea-level changes, and other threats to our environment.
Mary goes to great lengths to raise our awareness of threats to the environment, even becoming a “Bag Lady,” which means donning a suit of plastic bags–made from the exact number each of us discards every year. Mary also solicits volunteers for local clean-up projects that keep our island safe and beautiful.
A Message from Mary: During this extraordinary time, please be smart, safe and well. Our hearts go out to all who are struggling and have suffered loss. Hopefully the coronavirus will become a challenge we all faced together and life will return to a better “old normal” and perhaps we will gain wisdom from this trying time. The decrease in carbon emissions due to decreased travel, stalled economies, cities locked down, businesses closed and people confined to their homes resulted in major recorded decreases. While the extreme reduction in activity is untenable for an extended period, it does demonstrate the feasibility of making a large difference in carbon emissions and an impact on climate change. Hopefully the “new normal” may be better if we are all willing to make changes and our leaders support industries who move to environmentally sound practices.
Noteworthy Recycling News
We can now throw aluminum foil that is clean into our single stream recycling bins for pick up. This new phase also includes clean foil take-out containers and pans.
In addition, you can leave bottle caps on #1, #2, and #5 plastic on glass bottles. As an FYI, I am waiting for school to resume to see if there are any classes who may be interested in the Buddy Bench project. I’d like to take some plastic caps and bottles we already collected as demos. Moving forward, please leave the caps on the #1, #2, plastic containers. I will let you know about continuing to save them in the fall.
Taking the time to check for the arrow for the #1, #2, and #5 items, flattening and recycling clean chipboard (cereal, tissue, etc.) along with recycling aluminum foil products does take a few additional minutes. But you are taking a step to be a steward to our planet. My two college age grandsons expressed their concerns for the future of our planet and seem to be well informed about climate change and debris we have created. Sorry I didn’t have all the information available for the 7/25 Blast. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions because I know it is a lot of information – Recycling 101!
If you would like a visual representation, Just click on the link: http://www.co.ocean.nj.us/OC/SolidWaste/frmRegContentSW.aspx?ID=e74c1d05-011a-4c24-b481-0fd7cab6c1f0
Barnegat Bay Day – July 2021
On July 7, 2021, Barnegat Bay Day at the Long Beach Island Foundation was held as the restrictions of Covid were lifted. Representing the our garden club, the Environmental and Birds & Wildlife Committees provided a variety of activities for children.
It was the first opportunity for Kathy Gronostajski and Gillian Rozicer to use the Activity Sheets created by Tracey Cameron of engaging pictures to be colored, along with mazes and word puzzles. Each page featured an environmental theme. As the spotted lantern fly continues to be a concern in Ocean County, committee members emphasized the importance of spotting and reporting information. A colorful lantern fly tattoo was offered to the children. Tracy Houtsma provided information about the need to reuse, refuse and reduce our use of plastic. The committee handed out stickers proclaiming “I AM the Solution to Plastic Pollution.” Bonnie Brodman rendered information on monarchs and milkweed. Barbara Reynolds showed the children how to upcycle nature calendars to create origami butterflies . Along with JoAnne McKee and Cindy McGrath, six Garden Club members participated.
Painted Shells Appear on Long Beach Island
Photos: Mary Wilding
Kids Clean Up December 2020
Beach Sweep October 2020
Clean Ocean Action Fall Beach Sweep was held at 60 locations in New Jersey on Saturday, October 24,2020 with a few changes this fall. Volunteers were asked to review and follow COVID-19 protocols and each individual registered for the event. Leslie Karvan, Judy and Marc Lipman, Doris McKee, JoAnne McKee, Jeanette Michelson, Ginny Scarlatelli and Mary Wilding all wore masks and maintained social distancing. It was very gratifying to find much less debris on the beach in Loveladies. There was a striking reduction in plastic water bottles, cigarette filters, bottle caps and beverage cans which have been found in considerable numbers in the past. The greatest number of items continued to fall into the “Plastics” category. A rather large aluminum and plastic item that we think was a large circular fan blade roof vent unit and the small Angelina Ballerina plastic figure were unusual finds. Although Gillian Rozicer was not able to join us on the beach following surgery, she was very innovative and recruited her neighbors in North Beach to collect litter. Gillian tallied the material collected to be added to the Clean Ocean Action count. Gillian reported there were lots of balloons and fishing gear collected. All of us can reduce the impact on the marine ecosystem by collecting debris whenever we find it. Click on photos to enlarge.
Photos:Jeannette Michelson
Single-Use plastics
Continuing to advocate for the single use plastic bags is a priority. During the summer of 2018, The Garden Club of Long Beach Island sponsored 5 screenings of the film “A Plastic Ocean” which provided information on the causes and graphic images of the consequences of plastic pollution in our oceans.
Mary Wilding and Kyle Gronostajski, Executive Director of the Alliance for a Living Ocean, as The Bag Monster
The screenings were part of the ongoing effort to encourage Long Beach Island communities to ban single-use plastic bags and to bring home the message to visitors and residents of the damage being done to the marine environment, all its inhabitants and the impact of microplastics. Switching to reusable cloth or non-woven polypropylene bags is one step toward reducing plastic pollution in the oceans,waterways and on the land. Currently three of the six boroughs on Long Beach Island and Stafford Township on the mainland have passed a ban on single-use plastic bags. Stafford has temporarily reinstated the use of single-use plastic bags during the coronavirus crisis.
In September 2018, Senator Bob Smith, Chair of the N.J. Senate Environmental Committee introduced the strongest statewide ban on plastic products in our nation. Sen. Linda R. Greenstein co-sponsored the bill (S2776) which would ban merchants in the state from using most single-use plastic bags, straws and plastic foam food packaging. The bill was amended to read single-use plastic bags, single-use carryout paper bags and polystyrene foam food products and limiting single-use plastic straws. It passed in the New Jersey Senate, moved to the Assembly Environmental Committee on March 5, 2020 and must be voted upon by the Assembly before it goes to Governor Murphy for signature. Because of the coronavirus this bill is not expected to be acted upon until October 2020.
Continuing to advocate for island wide and a statewide ban are primary goals of the Environmental Committee for 2020, as is providing information on reducing our plastic consumption, especially other single-use plastics such as straws, utensils, bottles, cups, containers etc. Since 80% of the plastic debris in the ocean comes from the land, there are actions to reduce the pollution. The volume of single-use items is staggering. Collins Dictionary made “single-use” the word of the year! Generating community support to address plastic producers and major corporations to take action and to support those that have, is the another objective. It is important that we all take our reusable bags for groceries etc. The major grocery chains do allow customers to pack their own groceries but request you keep your reusable bags in the cart or use the slide-out tray at the end of the conveyor belt to pack the groceries. Clerks are not to touch bags brought in to the store. Sanitizing the reusable bags should be done as usual.
Seismic Blasting/Oil Exploration
The issue of seismic blasting and industrialization of the Atlantic Ocean is another area of great concern. The Environmental Committee intends to actively advocate against seismic blasting and industrialization. With seismic airgun blasting, compressed air is fired into the seabed every 10 or 20 seconds for weeks or months at a time in an effort to find oil and gas formations. The intensity of the blasts can injure or disturb and increase the risk of calves being separated from their mothers for more than 138,000 dolphins and whales, including the North Atlantic right whale. The threat of disrupting important fisheries is also a concern.
There are three bills pending which address protections from oil and gas drilling: H.R.1146, Arctic Cultural & Coastal Plain Protection Act, to restore protection from oil and gas drilling for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an ecologically important coastal plain and home of the Native Gwich’in people. H.R. 205, Protecting & Securing Florida’s Coastline Act of 2019, and H.R. 1941, Coastal & Marine Economies Protection Act, would protect the nation’s offshore waters to new drilling, including the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the eastern Gulf of Mexico near Florida. These bills would also protect 50 National Coastal Parks as well as communities, businesses and wildlife along the coastlines. All 3 bills have passed in the House, have been sent to the Senate where they have been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources. We continue to follow the status of the bills and advocate for their passage.
Action Items
The Green New Deal
“Green New Deal has been presented in the House and Senate and its policies would address climate change and inequity and could accomplish three things: 1)Tackle the climate crisis and toxic pollution, 2)Create good, high-paying jobs and 3)Fight racial, economic and gender inequity. Sierra Club has five big ideas for a Green New Deal, explaining how it could revitalize our infrastructure, retrofit our buildings, revive clean manufacturing, and restore our ecosystems. If you would like to review their article and consider asking our members of Congress to support resolutions calling for a Green New Deal, click on the following website to learn more. (https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2019/01/five-big-ideas-for-green-new-deal) If you want to add your support there will also be a website listed you can access (https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/National?actionId=AR0140538&id=7010Z000001qreEQAQ&data=ce8ea67170db396344d2de2322b1521cc9132dc6a4a23395b11c488c1e419a7aff8e347b1259c2d8ddafa895f257de84&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sierraclub&utm_campaign=internationalclimate.”
NEW JERSEY DRAFT ENERGY MASTER PLAN
SPOTTED LANTERNFLY – WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:
Shellabration – October 19, 2019
Our Garden Club was a sponsor for the event and members Judy Bouton, Bette Dellatorre, Julie Eller, Marge and Sal Girardo, Nancy Hampson, Teresa Hagan, Gillian Rozicer, Ginny Scarlatelli, Camille Sharp, Marilyn Upton and Mary Wilding manned a booth. The Garden Club provided information on 3 main topics: The Monarch Butterfly which included information on milkweed plus packets of seeds for planting. Second was facts regarding Plastic Pollution highlighted by an appearance of the Plastic Bag Monster(Mary Wilding) and a sorting activity with visitors choosing which item was recyclable and which was not. And third, identification and reporting instructions on the spotted lanternfly, a harmful pest which has now moved into New Jersey(See above for details)