The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • 17

tEbejQurlinjjton 2frec press Living Today HIGH: 47 LOW: 34 Rain and snow IlKely. Clourly. Vx Saturday 25percent chance ol rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy. HIGH: 47 LOW; 31 DE SECTION INSIDE Calendar 2C Comics 3C Classified Sunday Partly cloudy.

Southwest wind. 52 TQv HIGH: Ci? LOW: HIGH: 36 Friday April 4, 2008 Living Editor Becky Holt 660-1856 or (800) 427-3124 PAGE 1C .1 '4 bk5- Jem A 11 i DANIEL AVILA, Photos courtesy of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation New York City Water Trail: www.nycgov parks.orgsubthingSL.todofacilitieskayak is New York Unveils a Network of Kayak and Canoe Launches By David B. Caruso The Associated Press Interactive NYC Water Trail Map Hot yMir nquH mw tm sot sHck for mon tn Bronx Hon Kay NEW YORK arks officials hoping to promote public access to one of the city's least- 1 I Ma ft Quean some launching areas and added a few new ramps and amenities. The city and the nonprofit group Going Coastal are also distributing a map of 28 spots where people can legally canoe and kayak. Going Coastal founder Barbara LaRocco said the organization had 10,000 waterproof copies made.

Two additional ramps are listed on the interactive, online version of the map, which also includes latitude and longitude coordinates for boaters navigating by global positioning system "It's really cool. It's a whole other experience when you are out on the water looking back at the shoreline," said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski, an avid kayaker who has paddled in Turkey and Alaska Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe celebrated the establishment of the trail Thursday at a ceremony at a launch in Brooklyn's Red Hook section, within easy rowing distance of the Statue of Liberty. Paddlers need to buy a $15 annual launch permit to use the ramps, which are open from April 1 to Dec. 1, dawn to dusk. Some ramps offer entry to waters with spectacular views of the city skyline.

Others are majestic in a different way: Canoers using the ramp located next to a wastewater treatment plant in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood can see junkyards and warehouses as they travel toward the East River. Local boaters said they are thrilled. "We were told all of our lives, 'Don't go in the river. Don't touch it. Stay Now, we have the city on board.

It's a big change," said Owen Foote, a member of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, whose primary launch is on an industrial canal in Brooklyn. He said many of the waters around the city are still polluted, despite big improvements in recent years in water quality, and suggested that promoting public access might help raise awareness about continuing problems. rt Brooklyn Uused recreational zones its waterways have created its first formal network of kayak and canoe launches. Dubbed the New York City Water Trail, the 28 small boat ramps are sprinkled along the shorelines of all five boroughs, in places as remote as marshlands in Queens and as bustling as the six piers along the Hudson River in Manhattan. Many of the ramps aren't new.

Urban kayakers have quietly been using them below-the-radar for years, sometimes without city permission. But over the past year the Department of Parks and Recreation put its stamp of approval on what had been an informal network, cleaned up Staten Island c1 "3C r. 1 SIGHTINGS NEEDED: Report rusty blackbirds Leahy secures $270,000 for Green Mountain Club headquarters -I By Julie Hart Special to the Free Press anted: a few good birders to track the migratory movements of a rapidly declining North American songbird Rusty blackbirds have declined by as lif much as 98 percent in the last four decades, making them among the most threatened species on the continent. Help scientists save this species by "Hmmwiuif WATERBURY ive years after a fire surfed its visitor cen- "The club is now in a position to go forward this year with over a million dollars of construction," said Ben Rose, J4 I ter, the Green Moun- tain Club has the club's executive director. The Green Mountain received funding that will ensure it can build a replacement.

Sea Patrick Leahy, D- Club celebrates its 100th birthday in 2010. Last 4 Viii'-'8 reporting your sightings to eBird. Such is the plea that just went out to birdwatchers around the country. Rusty blackbirds were once an abundant species, one of those species we hear about that formed massive flocks that blackened the skies. These stories are hard to believe for most of us, and it seems especially hard to believe for this species.

Rusty blackbirds are literally disappearing before our eyes. Now, birdwatchers get excited when they see 15 of these birds together, a far cry from the thousands upon thousands that delighted our ancestors. Unfortunately, very little is known about this species. Rusty blackbirds disperse widely on their breeding grounds in remote wooded swamps and bogs in the boreal forest, a habitat that is hard to access and undesirable for many people. Recent studies have been initiated in Maine and Alaska to learn more about their breeding requirements.

In the winter months, they congregate in similar wet wooded areas in the southeastern United States to feed on nuts and seeds. See BLACKBIRDS, 4C 1 'J hi i i. u- i year, in preparation for the milestone, the club announced the "Second Century Campaign," with the objectives of raising funds to rebuild from the fire, conservation of Long Trail lands, and increasing funding for future maintenance of the Long Trail, trail shelters, and stewardship of land near the Long Trail. The Green Mountain Club set a minimum goal of $5.25 million for the Second Century Campaign, with support coming from several area businesses and hundreds of individual donors. Vt has secured a $270,000 federal economic development appropriation to help the club rebuild the center, which includes the Marvin B.

Gameroff Hiker Center. On Jan. 26, 2003, the center, located off Vermont 100 in Waterbury Center, was severely damaged by fire. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer. The Green Mountain Club is a member-supported nonprofit founded in 1910 to build, maintain, and protect the Long Trail, the hiking trail that runs the length of the state.

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