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Our Green Team convened for the first time in February 2020 and continues to make progress on diverse projects despite some challenges during the pandemic.
The Green Team's mission is to facilitate good stewardship of God’s earth within our congregation and community. We work to develop practical policies and activities to encourage participation in a daily sustainable lifestyle. We seek to inspire our community, to raise awareness, and to enhance engagement about environmental and climate change issues -- local, national, and global. For more info, email us at 1presbyterian@gmail.com! |
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Pollinators and natives. One of the Green Team's goals is to create a Pollinator and Native Garden in 2021. The group plans to remove the grass in two areas that are directly in front of the church -- the grass around “Rose’s Garden,” and the small area left of the main entrance. In place of grass, we plan to grow beautiful native plants that are lower-maintenance and attractive to local birds and other important pollinators.
The church lawn is a large swath of non-native grass that sucks up lots of water; requires mowing, fertilizing, and maintenance; and creates a barren “food desert” for our native insects and birds, including critical pollinators, which are in serious decline locally and globally. Pollinators play a critical role in producing 1/3 of the food we eat each day, research shows. Green Team member Jean Llewellyn is spearheading this project, in consultation with local landscape designer Jennifer Zwarich and professional gardener Kory Riesterer. The Green Team looks forward to working with our consultants on more specific plans and renderings of the two areas in early 2021. Then in the spring, it will be all-hands-on- deck as we welcome volunteers to help us plant our garden (safely, of course!). "This year of Covid has been such a fallow time that the idea of this earth-friendly gardening project with new life and new beauty is very exciting!," says Rev. Rachel Thompson, Green Team Coordinator. "We are grateful to the Hudson River Presbytery for awarding us a Challenge-to-Change grant that is supporting our pollinator garden project!" |
Rev. Rachel Thompson and consultant Kory Riesterer
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Worms and waste. A big topic of discussion at our most recent Green Team meeting was worms! "It turns out that worms in a compost bin are great consumers of food waste," notes Rev. Rachel, "and they turn the food from your kitchen into excellent fertilizer!"
Green Team member Elise LaRocco is an experienced worm-bin composter. She and her daughter Allie LaRocco have produced a 7-minute video about how to build a worm compost bin. We hope to be able to share a link to that video on this page very soon. Once we’re all back in our church building, the Team plans to use some of our Challenge to Change grant money to buy two composting bins for the church. Thanks again to the Hudson River Presbytery! You can join our Green Team! Your membership, ideas, and enthusiasm are welcome. To learn more, just email us at 1presbyterian @gmail.com. Let's GO GREEN at FPCP! |
Want to volunteer? Have a "green" idea to share? Contact us! Just fill in this handy form.