Community News
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I NOVEMBER 2019 25
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Queens and Manhattan students
study ecological health of the East
River at Gantry Plaza State Park
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
More than 50 Queens and
Manhattan students got the
chance to study the ecologi-cal
system of the East River,
as part of the New York State
Department of Environmental Conserva-tion’s
(DEC) “A Day in the Life of the
Hudson & Harbor” event on Oct. 24.
Chemistry students from Vanguard
High School in Manhattan and seventh-graders
from Hunter’s Point Commu-nity
Middle School in Long Island City
gathered at Gantry Plaza State Park to
examine the water’s chemistry, identify
macroinvertebrates and fish, and ob-serve
oyster colonies.
They were sponsored by the New York
City Department of Environmental Protec-tion
(DEP), according to a press release.
“New York Harbor is a critical part
of the Hudson River estuary and over
the last decade DEP has invested more
than $10 billion to improve water qual-ity
and restore wetlands and adjacent
grasslands, helping to bring back native
fish populations and allow for greater
recreational use,” DEP Commissioner
Vincent Sapienza said.
Sapienza added that DEC is proud to
partner with DEC to “bring this valuable
program to thousands of young New
Yorkers and to inspire stewards who
will ensure that future generations can
enjoy all the Hudson River has to offer.”
At the event, the seventh-graders and
middle schoolers worked together to
“measure the river’s currents and perform
tests to determine the level of turbidity, pH,
salinity and dissolved oxygen in the water.”
The data collected by the more ap-proximately
5,000 students form 104
different New York schools will be ana-lyzed
and posted on the “A Day in the
Life of the Hudson & Harbor” website,
according to a press release.
The educational event, which is part
of DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program
and sponsored by Columbia University’s
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is
now in its 17th year.
URBAN ECOLOGY
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