Summer Green Team 101
Hello everyone! This past week the Summer Senior Green Team members have been planning our upcoming Young Naturalists event. We’re going to teach kids between the ages of 5 and 13 about native species! Native species are essential to maintaining biodiversity. Biodiversity is important as it makes ecosystems more stable and resilient, helping them recover from disturbances like disease and climate change. Importantly, biodiversity supports many essential services, such as clean water, pollination of crops, and soil fertility.
While preparing our Young Naturalists lesson, we began reflecting on our time as Green Team Core members. As Core members, we learned about environmental science & justice, green infrastructure, and the animals and plants found around the park. If you know any teens in your life who you believe may love to learn about these topics, please tell them to apply!
As members of Green Team they can learn the difference between native, naturalized and invasive species. For instance, native species are species that were introduced into their habitat without human intervention (e.g. the Eastern Grey squirrel). Invasive species have spread or expanded their range from the site of their original introduction and disrupt an environment's natural balance of resources (e.g. rats, who transmit disease and outcompete native species). Finally, naturalized species are those that, when introduced outside of its native distributional range, can integrate and establish self-sustaining populations (e.g. Honey locust trees).
So, how can you help fight against invasive species?
Kill spotted lanternflies! Originally from Asia, spotted lanternflies cause damage to plants by sucking sap, stressing plants which decreases their health and can cause death. Their waste products also encourage fungal disease.
Don’t feed the animals! The main problem with feeding animals in the park is that they don’t always finish all the food, leaving scraps for rats to come out and finish. As successful as they may seem in our environment, rats are actually an invasive species.
With kind regards,
Jasper, Miles, Monica
Senior Green Team Members