It’s bird chirping weather, and one of our favorite times of year! June has arrived which means songbirds from near and far have returned to Rogers Center. Whether it be the Black-capped Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow Warbler, American Goldfinch or an American Kestrel, the relaxing sound of bird song is filling our woods and trails. As businesses continue to cautiously open after being shuttered for the past 10-12 weeks, we too at Rogers Center are wondering when it will be safe to return to ‘normal’. The Rogers Visitor Center falls within Governor Cuomo’s Phase 4 reopening plan, which for us entails a July 15th staggered opening target date for the Visitor Center. Measures are being taken to ensure that when we do reopen, Visitor Center staff and all our visitors feel safe. Due to the unfortunate necessity to cancel our Summer 2020 children’s Adventure Camp – we have redirected and started to refocus our educational efforts in a different direction. Fortunately, technology has grown leaps and bounds since the pandemic of 1918-1920, allowing many of our environmental opportunities to be accomplished. As we progress into the summer months, you may have heard about the Tesla Model S we are raffling off! Tickets are only $5.00 each, or you can purchase bundles up to 200 tickets for $500 for those of you looking to go big! All rules and details can be found on our www.FriendsofRogers.org website. For those of you who know very little about the Tesla Model S, it’s an electric car with a range of 240-miles between ‘fill-ups / or a recharge’. A recharge can occur either at your home from a wall electrical plug with a Tesla provided adapter or you can visit a Tesla Super Charger for a fee of $12.00/a full charge or grab a free-charge in Sherburne at one of the two Village of Sherburne electric vehicle chargers across from the library. As the Friends of Rogers wrapped up 2019 and headed into 2020, our board of directors and staff opted to diversify our fundraising efforts by releasing this new fundraising initiative to support environmental stewardship. We had hoped to exhibit across the state at various events and festivals this summer promoting the Rogers Center organization and the green efforts behind electric vehicles. Unfortunately, that all changed this past March, two weeks after securing the Tesla Model S which could be yours for as little as $5.00! Think green this summer as you get outside and, if you are lucky, you will catch the Tesla out on display at the Visitor Center during one of your hikes at Rogers this summer. The early bird catches the worm!
Some of the environmental projects being done at the center include the Trout Ponds. NYS DEC dredged all three ponds and dug pocket holes in the Ice Pond for the health of the fish. This was a longstanding project dating back to 2013. Although these trout feeding ponds were dredged similarly nearly 15 years ago, nearly 50 dump truck loads worth of silt and weeds was hauled away.. A depth of now between 6 – 10 feet exists in some parts. You can still feed the fish and purchase fish food from the dispensers or you can even buy online and have it shipped to your home or arrange pick up at the center.
See you on the trails,
Simon Solomon, Executive Director