Dune stewards posting new blog

Sportsmen, environmentalists and anyone interested in discovering the unique ecology of the area may be interested in reading a new blog, or online journal, written this summer by stewards of the eastern Lake Ontario dunes and wetlands and the Salmon River area.

Six college students are working on habitat restoration and public education projects in the 17-mile sliver of shoreline stretching from near Clark Point in Henderson, in southern Jefferson County, to where the Salmon River meets Lake Ontario in Richland, Oswego County. The group is collaborating on a blog that will document its activities and experiences in the field.

The blog was launched in late May and new entries will be added weekly through the summer. Also featured are links to special events and Web sites with more information about the area.

The stewardship program is a project of New York Sea Grant, the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and the Nature Conservancy.

On Thursday, the blog detailed stewards' efforts to prevent dune "blowout" at Black Pond Wildlife Management Area by installing snow fencing. Dune blowout occurs when vegetation disappears from a sand dune and the wind blows the sand out, causing various problems in the nearby ecology.

The blog aims to get area residents "involved in natural resources they don't already use," said steward coordinator Mary E. Penney, SUNY Oswego. For example, "the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area has multiple waterways where people can canoe and kayak," she said. "But people in Jefferson County may not have heard of that."

In addition to specific restoration projects, the stewardship program aims to foster responsible use of the dunes and wetlands area through public education efforts. Stewards may remind visitors to stay off the dunes, for example, because of the important ecological function they play in protecting inland wetlands from storms over Lake Ontario.

"The sand dunes themselves are fragile, but they are quite strong as a system," Ms. Penney said. They help to support a variety of rare and endangered plants and animals both in the dunes themselves and in the wetland area, such as the bog buckmoth, bog turtle, dune cherry and Champlain beach grass.

Ms. Penney said she hopes the blog will help "interest young people who are the same demographic as the stewards, and get them excited about these natural resources and their responsible use."

ON THE NET

Dune steward blog: http://elodsrstewardprogram.

blogspot.com