Nature Nerd to lend easy tips on how to make a difference~

I am an environmental advocate- passionate about conservation and preservation. Not just globally, but also here on our amazing Long Island, an island rich in natural history.  I am so passionate about the environment, educating the citizens of Long Island about IT is my career.   I am extremely fortunate to LOVE what I do and be able to make a positive difference in people’s lives and work with some of the best environmental professionals out there.

That being said, I have never been one to get on my soapbox and preach about what people should do to help our Environment, instead I really enjoy sharing my thoughts and knowledge with my friends and family when they ask, and lead by example, when I can.  I recently heard Patch was looking for bloggers- what a great way to share some good nuggets of information to those who want to know about fun ways to make a difference.   One of my favorite quotes….”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Last year a friend and I decided to post daily hints on how to help the environment each day of the year on Facebook.  It was fun and my friends and family loved it.  We never reached 365, but we did fairly well at 100+.  Why not do the same thing here?   I can also share my personal experiences about Long Island’s nature and answer questions, if you have them.  For example, in ONE day and night in my back yard in Sayville, I saw a Red fox, Raccoon, Opossum. Gray Squirrel, Cotton-tailed rabbit, and Bat (don’t’ know the species).  Amazing for a California girl whose experience of wildlife in So Cal was a sparrow and a crow.

For my first post, I could start off with the simple; take a shorter shower (every two minutes you save on your shower can conserve more that 10 gallons of water) or set your thermostat a degree higher for air-conditioning and a degree lower for heating- you could save $100 a year) or Recycle (if we simply separated the paper, plastic, glass and aluminum products from the trash and tossed them into the recycling bin, we could decrease the amount of waste sent to landfills by 75%!).

I have decided to start with a whammy…VERMICOMPOSTING aka WORM COMPOSTING.  Yes Worms.  Not only have I kept a “worm bin” at my house, I did this project with all three Sayville Elementary schools, grades 1-4 and they loved it! I see some of those wonderful students around town and they call me the worm lady (yea....that needs to go).  With a worm bin, instead of throwing away most of your kitchen scraps, you throw them in a plastic aerated bin full of red worms and let then turn it into amazing organic, rich fertilizer for your garden and house plants.  You’ll grow a better garden, create deeper topsoil, recycle nutrients and save landfill space.  If done correctly, the bin does not smell, it is fairly easy to maintain and you won’t even know it is there.  I will let this sink in...not to totally gross you out and give you all the details next post, but keep in mind- it is fun and amazing to see your watermelon turn into rich soil in two weeks…just sayin’.