Category Archives: PSA

In the neighborhood, PSA

A hero for the coast

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Dery Bennett passed away yesterday.

If you know Sandy Hook, you most certainly knew Dery.

The American Littoral Society, a coastal preservation organization which he directed for some 35 years, is located next to the bird observatory on Sandy Hook Bay. It lobbies on coastal land use, development and water quality issues; works to protect water quality, habitat and wildlife, and runs educational and research programs, including the largest volunteer fish-tagging program in the country.

Bennett most recently was the organization’s director of special projects, after relinquishing the directorship a couple years back. But for many, me included, he WAS the American Littoral Society – its conscience and guiding light. Dery was probably one of the best advocates the coast and ocean has ever known… he fought for public beach access and against developers and lobbyists. He edited the society’s newsletter and led beach walks on New Year’s Day. He was a fisherman and a wisecracker and a genuinely good guy.

I’ll miss crossing paths with him at North Beach… miss that shock of white hair and his friendly wave across the dunes.

“He talks about the ocean as if it is more important than the economic viability of the state.“
— Hal Bozarth, a lobbyist for the Chemistry Council of New Jersey

Photo of Dery, in a wetsuit and presumably on a surfboard, from The Newark Star Ledger. He was 79.

From the field, PSA, Whatever

World AIDS Day/The Mask Project

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In an effort to raise awareness of issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, housing, poverty and justice, clients and supporters of The Center in Asbury Park participated in a mask-making project that resulted in an amazing array of one-of-a-kind works of art.

During the face casting process, each *face donor* was asked a series of self-reflective questions; the answers were then used by the artists to depict the face of the person. Found objects were used to decorate the masks as a way of mirroring the experience of homeless persons who make do with the resources available to them in their daily travels.

The masks were auctioned off tonight as part of the local commemoration of World AIDS Day and I stopped by to see the exhibit. I’d been hearing about the project for months through a couple of my clients… some of whom *donated* their face for a mask… of the 60 masks, this was the only one I thought looked familiar.

😉

Were you aware of anything happening in your community today to commemorate World AIDS Day?

A video about the project is available on YouTube by clicking here.

Birds, PSA

MCAS field trip

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Monmouth County Audubon’s first Fall field trip is this Saturday at 9 am at the Rocky Point section of Hartshorne Woods.

I’m not sure that we can expect to see very many birds, but I think this is the best time of the year to be out looking for them! The nights are getting chilly, beach plums are ripening, dog-day cicadas are in full chorus and goldenrods, boneset, and asters are in bloom.

If you’re in the neighborhood, why not join us!

PSA

The song of the white throated sparrow

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The crystal clear notes
of a white throated sparrow
floated down through the trees today.
And then a mile further up the trail, another.
The first songs to come my way
in the spring forest.

I like winter
when white covers the earth.
I like summer
when the woods are green and warm.
But I love the wild forest
when things are changing.

Now, the first week of spring.
Still, some patches of snow linger
in the shade under the big trees.
The air warms then cools then warms
in the bright sun.
Trees with swollen buds, waiting.
The first birds are back.
Their songs celebrate what is
about to come.

We humans know four seasons.
I wonder how many seasons
the inhabitants of these woods know.
Maybe fifty-two.
Maybe each week is a new season
for those who go about their routine
deep in the woods.

The long, hard winter is over.
New life will soon fill these woods.
A flood of green, bird song, wildflowers.
And the white throated sparrow
sings its song anticipating
the change to come

–Rodrick W. MacIver in this week’s Pause for Beauty

If you visit Heron Dance in the links on my sidebar, you can sign up for *A Pause for Beauty* which is a weekly email newsletter featuring paintings, poetry, and reflections. Check it out!

From the field, In the neighborhood, PSA

Where will you sleep tonight?

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“Living is easy with eyes closed,
Misunderstanding all that you see…”

–Strawberry Fields

Statistics from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition indicate that the average “housing” wage needed to afford a two bedroom apartment in NJ is approximately $23.00 per hour. A “living” wage, which would also include the costs of food, utilities, daycare, transportation, insurance and the other expenses of family life would have to be… how much more? Half again, at least? Considering that the “minimum” wage in NJ is just $7.15 per hour, most of our preschool teachers, home health aides, security guards, accounting clerks, cashiers and receptionists would have to work three full-time jobs just to pay the rent.

Read that again, maybe. There’s not enough hours in a week, I don’t think.

Is it the same where you live? Do you even care?

I got to do something really fun for work today. Each year, counties in NJ and across the country, conduct a survey of the homeless population. The data gathered includes questions on how long a person or family has been homeless, how many times they have experienced homelessness in the previous three years, what incidents may have led to their homelessness and where they stay during their time homeless (hotel, shelter, on the streets, etc.) The survey asks about the services they may need, what they have been turned down for, and what they currently receive in an attempt to measure gaps in local services. The information gathered is used to justify federal grants for homeless services.

It’s a fine opportunity for local politicians to get their photo in the paper serving lunch at the soup kitchen down the street and for social workers like me to do something a little different. I’m asked to help out because I’m bilingual and because we have a good number of undocumented workers in our area that are needy and under-served by community resources.

I spent the day completing silly surveys, handing out donated winter coats, blankets, toothbrushes and interpreting for the visiting nurses who were doing free health screenings. And listening to stories. Wonderful stories from hard-working people who have a lot to offer. Some of my coworkers were out before dawn at the places where illegals gather to find work, in order to connect them with basic services like free clinics and food pantries and legal aid. Others were in mobile units visiting the homeless in abandoned buildings, or along the boardwalk, or in tent communities in the woods.

Yes, people live in the woods. Working people.

Does that surprise you? Anger you maybe, I hope?

A great many of us live with blinders on, I suppose, or imagine the poor to be deserving of the card that life has dealt them. They’re mostly lazy and like living off government handouts, right?

Do you know that cash assistance grants to families on welfare haven’t increased in more than 21 years? That a mother and child on welfare receive just $322 a month, plus a similiar amount in foodstamps, to live on? How long would $322 plus some milk and bread last you?

Pfft.

I’m faced with these numbers everyday when I do my federally-mandated job of promoting self-sufficiency for my clients. We work on budgets and planning for the future and how to make things better. The best many can hope for is a minimum wage job, which in turn, will trigger a loss of free daycare, free health insurance, free transportation and free or reduced housing. How can I sincerely push them into a full-time job that’ll keep them well below federal poverty standards and with no safety net?

None of these people are truly homeless, of course. We’ll put them up, if need be and for the sake of the children, in some seedy motel, or a horrible smelly shelter. We call that enough and blame them for it all the while.

Illegal aliens, the general public will be happy to know, receive nothing from the government. Nothing. They are not among the homeless, generally, and are very good about making do. They rely on non-profits and churches, but mostly on each other. Plus, they’re gracious and say thank you for this out-of-style-coat-that-doesn’t-fit exactly-right and then compliment you on your poor Spanish. All of which feels pretty nice.

😉

The ones we really need be concerned for are the elderly, and veterans, and the mentally ill. There’s no real way to reach them, no program in place for the ones that have truly been wronged by fate.

—End of Rant—

PD: Be an advocate for affordable housing in your area… learn the statistics… speak out!

Birds, In the neighborhood, PSA

Collared

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I’d rather it be a band on a nicer bird that I’m reporting, never having done this before, but I suppose I should think instead of the scientific or research value. How an understanding of this one mute swan’s behavior might help to protect less beautiful, but more endangered waterfowl species.

Click for a prior rant on mute swans.

😉

I’ve been bothered to notice mute swans on my local rivers lately. Every spot with open water that I visited today had a bunch of them. There were quite a few sleeping on the ice mixed in among the gulls, too. At least they’re mostly civil to the other waterfowl at this time of year and tame enough (big, too!) to pose for my camera.

My favorite complaint while chasing ducks is that the prettiest ones are the first to fly away. Not so with a mute swan.

Anyone else ever reported a banded bird? Do they really send a certificate, like they promise? Anyone else find this form long and overly intimidating?

Birds, Pastimes, PSA

Your local bird club needs you!

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The saying goes that when you really need people, a few seem to turn up. If you have much experience with community groups, you’ll know that it’s the same few people that always turn up… the same few dedicated faces at every board meeting, every event, chairing the empty committee spots, volunteering for yet another project.

My local Audubon chapter has been struggling for volunteers for as long as I can remember. I think someone assigned me a job at the very first program I attended, but I was eager to get involved and to learn about local conservation issues and participate. That doesn’t seem to be the case with a lot of birders. Our chapter has a healthy enough membership, but getting those people who come to the programs and field trips to step up and get involved is just impossible.

A fair number of our membership are excellent and active birders, but their interest ends in the field, it seems. The rest of our membership are people I would never recognize with a pair of binoculars around their necks; in fact I think they come to our monthly programs just for the free snacks afterwards!

I wonder where the young people are, the beginning birders, the people with fresh ideas and energy. Our club needs them. Our volunteers are a dedicated group, with diverse skills and interests, and many have held the same committee chair position for years on end, or served as president multiple times. What happens, though, is that we get tired and frustrated with the lack of support from our membership and then we end up losing those volunteers who care the most about the organization and who do the most work to support it, simply because they’ve burned out.

It happened to me almost; after volunteering to be hospitality chair (to rescue another woman who had been stuck with the job for years) – I found myself doing it and became annoyed after a couple years at being the first to arrive and the last to leave the meetings, cleaning up alone, listening to members complain about the way I made the coffee, etc – pfft! Come early and fix the coffee yourself if you don’t like it! Donate a box of cookies for once! I quit volunteering and became another of those anonymous faces in the crowd at the monthly meetings for a few years. Then my guilt got the better of me and this year I’m the chair for two committees.

Again I’m taking over for two dedicated people who simply got tired of the lack of cooperation from the membership. Funny is that one of my jobs is planning and scheduling the club’s field trips for the year… anyone that knows me at all knows what a poor planner I am. So far, the rest of the board has taken my *fly by the seat of my pants* approach with a good bit of humor; we’ll see how long that will last. My point is that I’m clearly not the best person for the job, but I’m the one willing to do it and if it weren’t me, it would be one of the other people who’s already wearing three different hats, you know?

So… if there’s a local bird or nature club that you care about, please find a way to become involved. Introduce yourself to one of those familiar faces you see at every meeting; maybe the geeky guy who always sets up the slide projector and makes sure the microphone is working, or the lawyer-type lady who brings neat things for the raffle each month, or even the blessed soul who toils away in the kitchen to get the coffee just right for you. Offer to help, maybe. Just once, even. Ask what you can do. We need you.

Birds, In the neighborhood, PSA, Whatever

Little killers free to a good home

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Cat lovers cover your ears.

I used to like cats. Then I decided that I liked birds and other wildlife better.

What really happened is that I had a beautiful fat black cat that got sick and broke my heart when I was a kid.

So I swore off cats for good. I like other people’s cats well enough, but I really don’t like my neighbor’s cats that are allowed free run of the neighborhood.

Some of my favorite people have *mostly* indoor cats that are *let out* each day to do whatever it is that their dear owners think is so necessary to a domestic cat’s nature.

Kill birds and torture small furry innocent woodland creatures and HAVE KITTENS UNDER MY SHED!

Why are these kittens my problem? I don’t own a cat.

Have I mentioned the free catch and release (to the SPCA) program we run here?

😉

This was tonight’s catch. 4 adorable and hissy-scared little killers. We’re trying to catch their mother, but she ran the DH out of the backyard one too many times and he finally said uncle. What a protective mother!

I don’t know the answer. I don’t understand why this behavior is tolerated from cat owners. Jeez… I can’t even walk my dog on a leash in the local park except for under the cover of darkness for fear that I’ll be ticketed by the local police. My town is very serious about protecting our parks from dogs. I once had the police follow me home after walking my dog in the cul-de-sac that leads to the park.

Cats get a free pass. Why is that?

NJ Audubon has collaborated with the American Bird Conservancy in an effort to educate cat lovers to be more responsible cat owners. Cats Indoors has lots of great info, but I’m not so sure that anyone will be so easily convinced as me.