Environmental Education Environmental Education is Teatown’s core competency. Below are some highlights from the year:
• Teatown piloted Nurtured by Nature (NbN) a preschool environmental education enrichment program for 45 students at Yorktown Head Start. A weekly program throughout the school year, NbN provides creative, hands-on learning experiences in the outdoors to instill an appreciation for nature and a foundation in the basics of ecology.
• In July of 2012 Teatown
Community Events After an intense snow storm on the scheduled date, Teatown’s Hudson River EagleFest℠ 2013 was held the following day bringing thousands of people out to view and learn about our national bird. Pancakes were flipped, award-winning syrup was poured and guests left full and satisfied at the Annual Pancake Brunch.
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Mother’s Day Weekend brought out the avid gardeners for our Annual Plant Sale. Shoppers were greeted with a wide variety of annuals, perennials and native wildflowers for sale. Teatown participated in a number of community events, such as New York Botanical Gardens Native Plant Garden opening, Yorktown Street Fair, WHUD Kid’s Fair, IBM’s Earth Day Celebration and Chappaqua Library Museum Day.
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conducted a series of watershed education programs for the NYC Housing Authority. Over 300 children from all five boroughs came to Teatown to learn about the NYC water supply system from source to consumption. For many children this was the first time they hiked along a brook, caught crayfish in a stream and learned about point and non-point source pollution. Teatown partnered with the Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) to present the fourth annual Focus on Nature (FON) film series. Through film and discussion the series celebrates nature and investigates current environmental issues. Part of the FON program included Seasonal Scientists in which Teatown’s educators assisted second grade students from Brookside Elementary School in Ossining with an after school program. Students studied phenology, changes in nature, throughout the spring and created a short film which was shown at the JBFC. FON is made possible through the generous support from the Hoch family and the van Hengel Family Fund. Teatown continued to offer its No Child Left Inside scholarship program to 1,500 children, offering much-needed, enhanced environmental education opportunities to Pre-K-6th graders attending schools in underresourced communities in Westchester. Our teen volunteer program, Teens in Teatown has continued to grow and now has 22 involved, active and enthusiastic local teens volunteering in education, stewardship and animal care.
• Teatown continues to participate in the coordination and presentation of 4
Conversations on Conservation, a forum on current environmental issues for
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civic leaders and the general public. Recent topics included “Going Locavore,” “Medicines on Tap,” and “Pedaling Off Your Carbon Footprint.” In collaboration with the Hudson Valley Writer’s Center, Teatown hosted noted local author Joan Gussow for a reading from her book, Growing, Older. For the third time, Teatown’s Maple Syrup won best in the Hudson Valley at the syrup tasting contest held annually at Sharpe Reservation. Over 15 syrup producers competed this year for the honor of being named Best in the Valley.
• Teatown continued to offer a variety of popular public programs, including full moon hikes, wilderness skills survival, “Decorate a Tree for Wildlife” and “Animal Ambassadors” (many of these programs were sold out), educating more than 1,600 people during the year.
• Programming continued at the Kathryn W. Davis RiverWalk Center in Sleepy Hollow which included programs for Paulding Elementary School in the Tarrytown School District and “Ramble by the River.”
• Teatown’s highly regarded summer camp enrolled over 600 campers in 2012, including a session of the popular Nature Girls group.
Capital Projects
Teatown puts enormous effort into maintaining its grounds and buildings, all with limited funds. The improvements for the year include: • Repairs were completed on the boardwalk which had been damaged during Super Storm Sandy. • New signage was created to tell our story in the Nature Center. • Renovations were made in the Croft Annex. • New short wave radios and repeaters were purchased to better support our summer camp programs. • Renovations to the Carriage House included refinishing the wood floors and renovation of the kitchen. • We purchased a flat screen television for the Nature Center to expand our membership outreach to those visiting Teatown.
Stewardship Teatown’s efforts to maintain its 1,000-acres include: • Teatown hired Hillary Siener to serve as its Assistant Conservation Scientist. Hillary recently completed a master’s program in ecology at Antioch College in New Hampshire. Her areas of expertise include ornithology and plant ecology. She will be assisting with the stewardship of our preserve and our science research programs. • Teatown hired Trail Steward/Volunteer Coordinator, Leigh Draper. Leigh was formerly the east of Hudson Trail Coordinator for the NY/NJ Trail Conference. Leigh has an extensive background in trail design and maintenance and volunteer recruitment. Her role is to maintain and improve the trails on our preserve while expanding our volunteer programs. • Eight trail skills workshops were offered with 63 participants from the region resulting in 12 new Teatown trail volunteers.
Hillary Siener, Assistant Conservation Scientist
• 14 stewardship interns performed over 650 hours of service, including removing invasive plants and assisting with science research projects.
• We began monitoring breeding bird populations on the preserve in an effort to create a long-term record of the bird populations and to gauge the health of the preserve.
Leigh Draper, Trail Steward/ Volunteer Coordinator
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