CONSERVE WILDLIFE!
LBI Garden Club Saving Our Marine Wildlife
The Environmental Committee of the LBI Garden Club is on the move to educate local businesses about the dangers of plastic including plastic straws to our wildlife. Their group has contacted some 72 restaurants, diners, coffee shops and ice cream parlors hoping to convince the establishments to reduce or stop using plastic straws. The group has also created fact cards to leave with customers including that 100,000 marine animals die each year from ingesting plastic.
The response has been favorable! Some businesses are now using paper straws, wooden stirrers and other decomposable products. Kudos to LBI Garden Club for getting the word out!
Resource…The Sandpaper, August 7, 2019 issue vol. 45 no. 31
THREATS TO OUR WILDLIFE!
- Habitat Loss
- Climate Change
- Invasive/Exotic Species*
- Pollution
- Illegal Trapping/Poaching
- Accidental Deaths
WHAT YOU CAN DO LIST!
- Preserve/Create a Wildlife Habitat – provide water and plant a native, non-invasive garden
- Protect Birds – Keep cats indoors, apply window treatments so birds don’t crash into windows, provide bird feeders that are located safely away from predators
- Don’t Pollute – spare the plastic!
- Go Natural – try not to use pesticides or herbicides
- Use Safe Sunscreen – without oxybenzone or derivatives
- Protect Hurt Animals – take them to a wildlife rehabilitation center
- Catch and Release Fish – use barbless hooks
- Plant Milkweed! – the only host pant for monarch caterpillars
- Donate to a Wildlife Preservation organization – National Wildlife Federation (NWF), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, The NJ Nature Conservancy, The National Audubon Society, Raptor Trust, the NJ Association of Wildlife Rehabilitators
- Purchase CONSERVE WILDLIFE license plate
- Donation for “Wildlife” – check box on your NJ tax return
If your Club is taking an initiative on Saving Our Wildlife, please get in touch with Diana Kazazis, Wildlife Chair so that we can share your news!
*INVASIVE SPECIES PROGRAM
Our Rake and Hoe Club had an excellent program on Invasive Species from Mike Van Clef of “Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space” and the NJ Invasive Species Strike Team. He clearly outlined the reasoning as to why we need to plant Native species to keep out the Invasive populations. His interactive website is a wealth of information: https://www.fohvos.info/invasive-species-strike-team/
