Dear birders and environmentalists: The Floyd Bennett Field issue has resurfaced with draft recommendations put forward by the Blue Ribbon Panel. I received this latest email today if you wished to submit comments. The primary issue for us birders is to protect the grassland habitats, particularly the core interior and the runways within those grasslands. Any "developement " should be kept to the buildings themselves and the outer perimeter. ( and I prefer all interior runways blocked off as a tradeoff; Last weekend, I found a convoy of 30 NYC Sanitation Trucks roaring up and down on the restricted closed off runway along the North Forty tract which likely they had no permission on Federal property.) Based on research I have done, out of 216 species recorded on Cornell's ebird since 2003 , 68 Floyd Bennett species recorded are deemed "Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation out of the 118 SGCN species list for NYS.So all the urgency to protect this fragile Floyd Bennett grassland habitat. this is an excerpt from my letter to the Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in October "Further evidence of Floyd Bennett’s rich diversity and as a critical refuge for birds is found on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) “Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) “ table (http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/9406.html). Of 118 NYSDEC SGCN bird species, 68 were recorded at Floyd Bennett (correlated with the Cornell Ebird data since 2003). Interestingly, among SGCN is Buff-breasted Sandpiper I mentioned in my last paragraph. This means 58% of NYSDEC SGCN species are found here, on the old runways, grasslands, bordering pine forest and maritime forest in the “North Forty section”, which makes Floyd Bennett a very exceptional bird sanctuary it is." Regards, Peter Dorosh President Brooklyn Bird Club -----Original Message----- From: Maya Borgenicht <[email protected]> To: Maya Borgenicht <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Dec 22, 2010 12:21 pm Subject: Floyd Bennett Field Blue Ribbon Panel Draft Recommendations Available Hello, hank you for your interest in Floyd Bennett Field. The Blue Ribbon Panel is urrently preparing recommendations for their final report. Public input ontinues to be vital to our process and we would welcome your comments on these reliminary draft recommendations. lease go to the Panel's website, www.rpa.org/FloydBennett to download the draft ecommendations. If you would like to comment, please respond before January 1st, 2011. We will also be sending a reminder in early January for those who iss this notification over the holidays. incerely, arian S. Heiskell Deborah Shanley anel Co-Chair Panel Co-Chair aya Borgenicht esearch Associate - Regional Plan Association irector of Public Programs - Governors Island Alliance Irving Place, 7th Floor ew York, NY 10003 [email protected] hone: 917.652.6359 ax: 212.253.5666 ww.rpa.org ww.governorsislandalliance.org witter @govisalliance= -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
