Conservation Council Members Visit Spear Elementary School

Port Jefferson NY

09 May, 2022

8:01 AM

Description

Press release from the Port Jefferson School District: May 9, 2022 Edna Louise Spear Elementary School first graders are a caring group of students with lots of knowledge about the environment. They shared it with two special guests to the school – Dr. Heather Lynch, a professor in Stony Brook University's Department of Ecology and Evolution, and Rebecca Kassey, a Port Jefferson Village Board trustee. Both are members of the Port Jefferson Conservation Advisory Council Re-Treeing Task Force subcommittee. The duo shared information on the village's plan to plant trees and gave each curious student a packet of information on native plants and a voucher for a sapling, to be picked up at the Port Jefferson Farmers Market on Sunday, May 8. The students had a choice of a red oak, a white spruce or a winter berry. According to Kassey, who chairs the committee, the saplings are an opportunity for Port Jefferson residents to plant on their own property or village properties, including the Port Jefferson Country Club and the community garden. The benefits of the plantings are twofold – to increase the beauty of the village and to improve native ecosystems. "It is our hope that this could turn into a yearly tradition," Kassey said. This inaugural group of students will get to appreciate the trees' growth, beauty, shade, home to birds such as woodpeckers and more when they graduate high school in 2033. This press release was produced by the Port Jefferson School District. The views expressed here are the author's own.