Sunday: Local Food Potluck in Bay Ridge

This Sunday, August 1, the Bay Ridge Food Co-op will celebrate its first "birthday" (in quotations because it's not exactly started yet) with a potluck picnic of local food from noon to 4 p.m. at Shore Road and 79th Street. Intended to raise awareness of this September's “New York State Locavore Challenge,” the picnic will feature a kids’ balloon toss, tug-of-war, and a kickball game, among other activities.

Attendees can bring food that uses locally-sourced ingredients wherever possible — and that can last several hours in the heat.

Recycle Plastic at the Park Slope Food Coop

Bring your clean, dry plastic to the Coop on the second Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the third Thursday of every month from 7 to 9 p.m. and the last Sunday of every month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Here is what’s collected:

• Numbers 1 and 6 clear plastics — mouth is wide or wider than the body, meaning not bottles. Labels okay.

• Number 5 — plastic tubs, cups and specifically marked lids and caps. Must be especially clean and dry. Discard any with paper labels, or cut the labels off.

• Plastic film and bubble wrap. One hundred percent transparent only — you must be able to see through the plastic. No colored or opaque. No paper labels. Minimal writing okay.

Be sure to arrive 15 minutes prior to collection time to allow for inspection and sorting of your plastic. Visit www.foodcoop.com for the Coop’s tips on how to be a really great recycler.

It's Not Brooklyn, But...

This Saturday, July 31, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ocean survey vessel, the OSV BOLD, will be open to the public at Riverbank State Park in Manhattan from noon to 4:30 p.m. EPA scientists and staff will give tours of the ship and demonstrate water sampling and research efforts taking place in New Jersey’s and New York’s coastal waters.

The 224-foot-long, 43-foot-wide OSV BOLD is equipped with state-of-the-art sampling, mapping, and analytic equipment including side scan sonar, underwater video, water sampling instruments, and sediment sampling devices, which scientists use in a wide variety of ocean monitoring activities. For more information on the OSV BOLD, visit http://www.epa.gov/boldkids/.

Traveling Environmental Museum To Visit Brooklyn

The EnviroMedia Mobile, an urban nature maritime museum on wheels, will visit IKEA/Erie Basin Park on Sunday, August 15, to continue its Summer Earth Fest 2010, a series of environmental awareness, culture and maritime cultural enrichment events.

An 11-year project of the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy under the direction of Ludger Balan, the museum is a way for New Yorkers to “think of our urban environment as a habitat,” Balan said.

The event on August 15, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m., will include live music, public tours of the mobile museum, refreshments and aquatic recreation activities. Attendees will have the opportunity to play in a raffle and to win an IKEA prize at each event.

On Saturday, Aug 28 the EnviroMedia Mobile will visit Canarsie Piers, Gateway National Park, where the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy, in collaboration with the National Park Service, will host the last of its annual Get On The Water NYC — Urban Rivers Tour Series, with a guided eco-cruise of the Jamaica Bay.

The eco-cruise will be held aboard a unique, giant 32- foot Indian shipping canoe that will accommodate 21 paddlers at a time. Those aboard the canoe will explore and discover the living nature and scenic vista of one of the city’s most significant, yet challenged ecosystems.

On Sunday, August 29, the EnviroMedia Mobile will then travel to Bensonhurst Park, and on Sunday September 12 it will return to IKEA/Erie Basin Park for an end of season bash and back to school celebration, featuring a special urban wildlife appreciation and education program and the popular Live! Beneath the Estuary underwater video observation station.

The museum was designed to help educate students about species native to New York’s waterways and how climate change will impact them. “The success of our environment begins with young people,” Balan said. “If they are not connecting, the stewardship will not be there.”

For more information and to register for any of the events, visit http://enviromediamobile.blogspot.com or call (347) 224-5828. 

Photo courtesy of the Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy