Talk:Saw Mill River/Yonkers
From Science and Technology: Baruch IDC 3002H
Hi Sawmill group,
I am impressed with the citations that you guys found. The book on the history of Westchester Co, combined with the materials on contemporary ecology, should be enough for you to pull together a good wiki and poster. Note that the last citation, the fact sheet on raccoons, may be used but does not really count as a scientific citation.
One area that you should explore, and on which it should be easy to find information, is suburban deer management. As you probably remember from walking around all of those parks in Westchester, deer have become superabundant! What are the implications for this deer overpopulation for suburban natural areas in general?
For your wiki and poster, I would like to see about half of the presentation on the environmental history of Westchester, and half on your mammal surveys from the Sawmill bioblitz. I can give you copies of the datasheets that we produced from the weekend surveys. It is up to you guys to figure out how exactly to integrate the bioblitz information, however.
FYI, the Sawmill River Alliance people were very happy with your efforts!
Let me know if you have any questions, and keep up the good work! If you get stuck, try searching for general information on suburban ecology.
Regards, Jason
Hi Sawmill group,
I am going to jot down some comments before our conference tomorrow.
All of your pictures need to have associated captions / citations accompanying them!
The first two sections seem unfocused. Can you refocus them around geology and prehistorical geography? You could expand such a section and include more information.
The Saw Mill section is very disorganized. Think about the major points you are trying to make and how they relate to each other. You should probably start with geology, historical ecology, Native American history, history of European / American development, and then go on to contemporary ecology. Save the Westchester 2025 plan for the end (although you need more information if this section is going to be useful).
The history section is pretty good...what more can you tell us about how the river the was diverted over the years?
The ecology section needs some work. I was expecting to see a focus on the Saw Mill River bioblitz. Start with a map of all of the natural sites that were included along the Saw Mill river, and then include quite a bit of material about the rationale behind the bioblitz.
Describe the methodology (trapping, visual ID of species), and then describe what we found. The deer overabundance section is good, but needs more context. Think quite a bit more how to include the Bioblitz in your wiki. It should be one of the focuses of this wiki.
Regards, Jason
