National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Final Programmatic Report Project Name and Number: Rocking the Boat-On Water Education (NY) #2006-0102-016 Recipient Organization/Agency: Rocking the Boat, Inc. Recipient Organization Web Address: www.rockingtheboat.org Date Submitted: 12/30/08 1) Summary of Accomplishments In four to five sentences, provide a brief summary of the project’s key accomplishments and outcomes that were observed or measured. Rocking the Boat’s On-Water Education Program is successfully engaging young people in the revitalization and stewardship of the Bronx River, and in so doing, educating and empowering them to create positive change in their own lives and environment. Key accomplishments include collecting data on aquatic species present in the Bronx River, including their patterns of movement and their relationship to water quality; establishing a strong community education program, targeting schools and the general public; creating and maintaining artificial oyster habitats; compiling a record of human interaction on the fish population of the Bronx River; and performing weekly water quality tests at specific sites along the Bronx River. Students learned a range of maritime skills, performed environmental monitoring protocols, took part in restoration projects, and explored the social and natural history of Bronx waterways. 2) Project Activities & Results If your grant agreement included an approved logic framework, paste the logic framework table here. Activities • Describe and quantify the primary activities conducted during this grant (refer back to your approved logic framework, if applicable). • Briefly explain discrepancies between the activities conducted during the grant and the activities agreed upon in your grant agreement. The primary activities conducted during the grant period, all ongoing, were a Creel Survey, Oyster Reintroduction Project, Water Quality Monitoring, and a range of public education activities. Two activities did not take place as proposed: the Fish Map project was suspended because of redundancy and the Stormwater Capture System never took place for lack of funding. Results • Describe and quantify progress towards achieving the project objectives or outcomes described in your grant agreement. (Quantify using indicators from your approved logic framework, if applicable, or by using new indicators not included in the application.) • Briefly explain discrepancies between what actually happened compared to what was predicted to happen. • Provide any further information (such as unexpected outcomes) important for understanding project activities and results. Rocking the Boat made excellent progress toward achieving the project objectives as indicated by: fully enrolled after school and summer On-Water Program classes every semester; a high degree of retention of students from semester to semester; daytime On-Water Programs operating at full capacity; high turnouts at public events including community celebrations and open rowing sessions; a growing interest in Rocking the Boat’s restoration activities in the environmental community and amongst casual observers; and significant numbers of students inspired to pursue careers in environmental fields. At the same time, Rocking the Boat consistently demonstrated its value to the environmental community, filling a much-needed information-gathering role in their restoration projects. Partners such as the Natural Resources Group, Bronx River Alliance, and Lehman College relied on Rocking the Boat students to regularly and accurately collect data they would not otherwise have access to. Bill Tai, Director of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation’s Natural Resources Group, for example, recently included this statement in a recommendation letter he wrote on Rocking the Boat’s behalf to the Environmental Protections Agency: “Data that Rocking the Boat students gather will increase the likelihood of approval of permits to stock the Bronx River with alewife and oysters.” 3) Lessons Learned Describe the key lessons learned from this project, such as the least and most effective conservation practices or notable aspects of the project’s methods, monitoring, or results. How could other conservation organizations adapt their projects to build upon some of these key lessons about what worked best and what did not? Rocking the Boat can recommend its method of interrelating several different projects with a common thread, in our case the Bronx River. Exposing students to various aspects of a complicated subject, such as the factors leading to a healthy Bronx River, allows them opportunities to think critically and gain a genuine understanding of the problem and its potential solutions. Rocking the Boat also strongly suggests the practice of using real environmental science work as a medium for education and youth development. Every aspect of Rocking the Boat’s environmental education relates directly to the accomplishment of real scientific goals. This relevance has created a learning environment where young people feel genuinely committed and see a purpose to their learning beyond themselves. Rocking the Boat encourages others to work with the members of the scientific community to identify projects that young people can contribute to. 4) Dissemination Briefly identify any dissemination of lessons learned or other project results to external audiences, such as the public or other conservation organizations. As described in the Phase 2 Report, On-Water Program participants regularly analyzed all of the data they gathered and presented that data in a number of different formats: Rocking the Boat - On Water Education (NY 2006-0102-016) A Rocking the Boat student measuring liquid in .5ml increments to determine the turbidity of the River, part of water quality monitoring at the Hunts Point site. One student cleans the turbidity tube in preparation for use, another completes a dissolved oxygen test, while a third acts as recorder. Rocking the Boat - On Water Education (NY 2006-0102-016)(NY OnEducation Water - Boat the Rocking Plant and animal samples collected from the Bronx River on display during Saturday CommunitySaturday Rowing. during display on River Bronx the from samplescollected animal and Plant Rocking the Boat students introduce community members to rowing on the Bronx River. Bronx communitythe on members rowing introduce to students Boat the Rocking Rocking the Boat - On Water Education (NY 2006-0102-016)(NY OnEducation Water - Boat the Rocking Creating the oyster reef. oyster the Creating Monitoring the oyster reef. reef. oyster the Monitoring Rocking the Boat - On Water Education (NY 2006-0102-016)(NY OnEducation Water - Boat the Rocking Monitoring the oyster reef. oyster the Monitoring Looking at a nitrates test as part of water quality monitoring. monitoring. quality water of part as test nitrates a at Looking Rocking the Boat - On Water Education (NY 2006-0102-016)(NY OnEducation Water - Boat the Rocking Getting ready to go out on the water. the on out go to ready Getting Seining at Hunts Point, part of the Creel Survey. Survey. Creel the of part Point, Hunts at Seining restoring oysters in oysters new york/new jersey in new york city harbor There are many efforts to research and restore oysters in the New York/New Jersey Harbor. A few of these local efforts include: • The NY/NJ Baykeeper Oyster Restoration Program: This program created oyster reefs in New Jersey to help restore hundreds of thousands of oysters in the estuary. written by: • The Bronx River Pilot Oyster Reef Restoration: The Rocking the Boat Natural Resources Group, a division of NYC www.rockingtheboat.org Department of Parks & Recreation, Rocking the Boat, and the Bronx River Alliance have been working together on an oyster restoration effort in the Bronx edited by: River. The pilot project consists of shell bags and NYC Department of Parks & Recreation loose shell created and placed into the water by Natural Resources Group students and community groups. These were placed www.nycgovparks.org to create habitat space for young oyster spat. • Oyster Gardens (A partnership of the River Project, funded by: the NY/NJ Baykeeper and the New York Harbor José E. Serrano’s WCS-NOAA Bronx River School): Mesh floats of live oysters are adopted by Partnership oyster gardeners at over 30 different locations in the NY/NJ Harbor. The oyster garden program uses community volunteers to track the growth of oysters. additional information: Rocking the Boat: Tony Archino ([email protected]; 718.991.2032) NYC Parks Natural Resources Group: Janine Harris ([email protected]; 212.360.1432) Bronx River Alliance: www.bronxriver.org NY/NJ Baykeeper: www.nynjbaykeeper.org Rocking the Boat students placing clam shell substrate at the Bronx River Pilot Oyster Reef Restoration site. importance of basic oysters oyster biology create habitat space Oysters usually grow on top of each other in a reef. can i eat Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) were historically Building this reef creates more habitat space by found in the New York City Harbor in great numbers increasing surface area. The more the reefs grow, the a nyc oyster? and are still seen in small numbers in the harbor, more habitat spaces there are available for other including in the Bronx River Estuary. No. Oysters take in water pollutants, some that they organisms to attach to or hide between. In New York can deposit on the estuary bottom, and some that An oyster is a bivalve mollusc, which means that