Great Muscoota River Paddle at the Harlem River Ecology Center. Our educator is holding a striped bass he caught while guiding the eco-cruise.

 

Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy

The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy (UDEC) is a not for profit environmental & cultural organization committed to active participation in restoration, revitalization, restoration, and protection. In addition, UDEC is committed to public education for our coastal resources with a special focus on the urban estuary, its watershed and the community that lives, learns, works, and play in and along its shore. The UDEC focuses on urban youth in the inner city and the challenges they face due to increased urbanization and decreasing clean, green spaces. 

 

Learn more at: http://www.urbandivers.org/

 

Because the UDEC operates a site both upstream and downstream of the urban estuary, this season's Urban Birds workshop will encompass a program at both of these locations.

The first event will be at the Harlem River Ecology Center and will incorporate a guest presenter with wildlife demonstration, an arts and crafts project and an outdoor survey.

The survey portion of the activity follows with a follow-up action plan that entails the planting of a donated berry tree and seed sunflowers in our front garden which is located at the front entry of our urban nature center. During this segment of the program, we will distribute seeds and provide training for participants to follow suit and plant seeds. The program will be offered as weekend family activity and offered as a workshop activity within our school fieldtrip program.

The second event at Gowanus/Red Hook South Brooklyn Harbor follows suit with the same format, except that, for the outdoor survey, we will incorporate an on water eco-cruise along one of our project sites in that area, the historic and notorious Gowanus Canal, Gowanus Bay and Erie basin section, Fresh Creek Jamaica Bay or Coney Island Creek/Dreiyer Offerman Salt Marsh. Our data collection will take place on water, aboard our unique 32ft Indian Shipping canoe that comfortably and safely accommodate 21 paddlers.

The program will focus both on upland birds as well as aquatic birds known to visit or reside on these sites. The numbers and variety is not well known. This activity services many goals as this is also one way to have the community become better informed about the significance of an ecological restoration of any of these waterways, a concept which is at the forefront of a debate in the community.

The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy has been a leading institution in educating the public and raising awareness for the ecological to these waterways, since our inception in 1998 and on-going.

The advantage of having both an upstream and downstream site along the urban estuary, affords us a unique opportunity to connect communities by water, while offering a wonderful resource to better understanding the dynamics of the urban estuary and its interconnectivity with many neighborhoods and regions.

Click here to see UDEC's past participation with the Cornell lab of Ornithology.