Have you ever heard the saying, "The best time to grow an apple tree is ten years ago..." ?
The second best time is now.
Building the public face of The Sag Harbor Oyster Club is a monumental task, apparently, and important as we are encouraging the public to help amplify the need to whip and drive these initiatives. In our 16th year now this isn't new to us, as we have wire framed the design philosophy to reflect elegant root-cause-based solutions that harmonize ecological restoration with community benefit. The initiatives are stand-alone, but no project is isolated; each piece fits into a living system approach to tidal, forest and property based regeneration. Fortunately, many of these tasks are basic familiar and interesting to most, and the ones that are new and novel represent significant collateral benefits with the same feel-good satisfactions. They each have legs to improve over time, and together, the benefits are exponential.
100% tax deduction immediately to spread the word on housing oysters under the docks and bridges so they can filter clean the tidal reach, and to actually make that happen. Did you know that a single adult oyster can filter clean 40 gallons in the tidal reach in 24 hours, and do it again the next day? Bunch them together and they can form a reef large enough to vacuum up an algae bloom before it becomes harmful and destructive. In these improved environments, these oyster reefs can also send oyster spat in and out with the tide to repopulate the harbors, coves and inlets to form other reefs that do the same. Rumor is that oysters are delicious, but we want to help them repopulate... and keep enough of them there so they can get stronger and extend their beneficial reach.
Re-creating an oyster reef might even be better than planting an apple tree. An underwater orchard maybe? A reef harmlessly cleans up nitrogen loading, lawn & garden chemicals leaching and yeah, sewage. Oysters 'dipurate' what they don't want, but they love the algae that clouds the waters and blocks the sunlight that creates eutrophic conditions that desert-ify bayscape floors. 100% Tax deductible to not only protect your real estate values, but increase the value of it by insuring the tidal reach can defend itself. Your neighborhood benefits too, but we heard that true charity is, in fact, anonymous. We will have and maintain a public list of tidal reach champions though, unless anonymity is requested. You still get the tax deduction.
Food Lawning & Food Forests- Also 100% tax deduction right off the top, and that includes a new food forest that replaces part of your lawn, the side benefits include improved property values, reduced maintenance costs, and even home grown food for you or your local food pantry. This could include said famous apple tree, or peaches, cherries, nuts etc, and we have a menu item that includes raised beds for lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes and even the famous french fry plants as long as they're local indigenous plants, and as long as they're replacing lawn area...to get the 100% full tax deduction.
Bringing Salmon back to a river that used to have them. Incredible feel good moments come with restoring an historic run of Atlantic Salmon, and the side action includes the same 100% tax deduction with the potential for you or your company to share in carbon credit capture which is new, and is a direct result of the old-school farming technology of re-using shell crush from fishing industry and slowly seeping in limestone into riverine systems to raise the PH. Agliming a river to create a river attractive enough to invite Seagoing Salmon to migrate up for frisky springtime action.
Household water economics- Irrigation suggestions, composting, significant care and consideration for lawn and garden chemical use and potential overuse and abuse. On a neighborhood level, this doesn't tough on the laws of the land as our charter is a non-profit that doesn't allow legislative initiatives but spreading good cheer and reasonable information will help those managing a property from a building save some money on maintenance and increase their market values almost immediately. We have seen those get into just a couple things, and found they now have new bird populations singing in their back yard, even bats are reported as new visitors. A bat can eat it's weight in mosquitos every day, and birds'll eat ticks too.
Our non-profit structure is lean and frugal. The required regulatory permits for some of our projects, including NYS DEC and local municipality permissions, (trustees, SCHD, Harbor Committee, Southampton & East Hampton Conservation boards, Army Corp of Engineers, etc) both formal and otherwise. This takes time and money, both volunteers and professionals, and is often demanding and invisible. This requires the same patience as watching fruit trees grow, which is one reason we have four projects circulating concurrently. Much of the donor benefits arrive immediately, but the benefits keep coming in... taking many forms. Of this we know.
-Each task is well considered as they are productive on any level, are complementary to each other, and the sum is a much larger positive than the parts.
-Each is independently scale-able, and even when supported and implemented at different levels, still weave together for positive impacts.
-Each task, by itself or in combination with one or more initiatives, is transferable to other communities, other watersheds, also on any level.
-Each task supported by a donation is 100% tax deductible, and membership is unlimited and free to anyone that gets on board. We don't have a structure to name-plate big donors or host catered affairs, but the donors might want to sport those events in the future. We'll remain lean and focused until then.
We do act as non profit General Contractors to engage local oyster farmers & baymen, local farmers and their kids, marine biologists, botanists, landscapers, masons, students of all ages local restaurants & farmstands that donate to local food pantries to help us get this done. We have had paid college interns help us with initiatives, and every one of them looks back at their time with us changed for the better. If you want to provide a service or services to TheSHOclub.org please do fill out the employment form and write us a note with your strengths and interests, and you could also do the same on the donation forms.
