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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last 15 minutes today, with Memorial Day weekend looking warm and sunny for the most part, high in the 80s today. This started off some might even say perfect for a beach day. If you're heading around, say, the Western end of the Rockaways this weekend, specifically Jacob Riis Park, you may also notice that as people flock to the beaches, we share those beaches with literal flocks of birds, specifically the species called the Piping Plover. It's a fragile nesting bird, if you don't know the Piping Plover, that has made its home on the western end of the Rockaways around Jacob Riis Park.

That's in large part due to the volunteer work of the New York City Plover Project. Now, in its third year, the group is growing its project to introduce local school-aged children to the idea of being stewards of conservation. At the same time, another program called the Laru Beya Collective aims to make water safety, in particular surfing, more accessible to kids in the Rockaways.

Now, ahead of the holiday weekend, we will highlight these various efforts and what it takes to make beaches safe and fun for kids and birds and beyond. Joining us now, New York City Plover Project founder Chris Allieri, and Aydon Gabourel, founder of the Laru Beya Collective. Thank you both very much for joining us.

Chris Allieri: Thank you, Brian. Great to be back.

Brian Lehrer: Chris, you were on two years ago to talk about the plight of the Piping Plover. Say that 10 times, Chris.

Chris Allieri: It's a tongue twister.

Brian Lehrer: Can you refresh our listeners' memories about the bird and what it looks like and why it lives in Queens?

Chris Allieri: Absolutely. You gave a great intro. The Piping Plover comes to New York. We're really lucky. It's, I think, the only nesting bird species that's protected under the Endangered Species Act that comes year after year. They do flock to the Rockaways exclusively. They can be found actually from Far Rockaway to Breezy Point tip. On New York City parks beaches, on Breezy Point Co-op beaches, and the National Park Service beaches, they're a tiny little intrepid shorebird. They migrate from as far as the Caribbean, Bahamas, Cuba, other parts of the Caribbean. They come back to the same beaches year after year.

There's nearly 100 that come to New York City each year, but there's only about 6,000-8,000 globally. It's really important we do everything we can as New Yorkers to help protect them and assure that nesting success. Those little chicks can't fly. That first month of their lives, they have to walk everywhere and literally run everywhere, down to the water's edge to feed. If our bikes are there, e-bikes or people walking, other uses, unfortunately they won't survive because they won't go down there. These temporary beach closures are necessary to assure that survival.

Brian Lehrer: Aydon, let me bring you in here. I read that 'Laru Beya' means 'on the beach' in the Garifuna language. Listeners of this program may know that the Garifuna are an Afro-indigenous people still residing throughout Central America and the Caribbean. There's also a sizable community here in New York City. Want to give us an introduction to your organization?

Aydon Gabourel: Yes, Brian, thanks for having me on. My name is Aydon Gabourel. I am with the Laru Beya Collective. I immigrated to the Rockaways back in 1981. I'm a lifelong proud resident of Far Rockaway, and started the Laru Beya Collective back in 2018 when my daughter wanted to learn how to surf. We found that it was not accessible to a lot of the local youth here in Rockaway, one, because of the cost, and secondly because a lot of the children didn't know how to swim, which is a huge part of, of course, being in the water and being safe. Myself and my cousin, who was just back from the Marine Corps and had just learned how to swim-- not swim, surf, started this collective.

My wife thought I was going through a midlife crisis [laughter] but here we are, a few years later, we've been able to take over 400 kids into the water safely. We've partnered up with a lot of local organizations to form another collective, the Water Safety Collective, to make swim accessible to all of New York City youth. We're trying to get legislations in the schools right now to have a suite of bills passed so that we can have all kids in New York learn how to navigate the water safely.

Brian Lehrer: This is related to some of the particular challenges that [unintelligible 00:04:58] Park surfers and potential swimmers experience, right?

Aydon Gabourel: Yes. All my years of being in Rockaway, one of the worst things to hear from right around Memorial Day, whenever it gets warm well into the fall, is the helicopters that fly above because usually when you hear those helicopters after six o'clock sometime, it usually means somebody's in the water. It doesn't usually end well for that person. Environmental change, we're having to deal with a lot more of this. Even if you want to avoid the water, you can't avoid the water. We need to learn how to navigate safely around it. We need water safety education. It's an essential right for all New Yorkers.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we can take some calls from anybody in the Rockaways to finish out the week. We always take calls from different groups of people to end the show, or most days we do. Today, if you're in the Rockaways or you go to the beaches at the Rockaways and you know about the Piping Plovers or you know about Aydon's group, or you want to ask about either, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Chris, I see this year the Piping Plover project is kicking off its Rockaway Shorebird and Ecosystem Stewards program. That's a mouthful. Tell us about it.

Chris Allieri: Yes, so we're really excited and we're so excited to partner with groups like Laru Beya, Aydon, and the team have done great work. I think that there's a lot of complimentary work between the work of Laru Beya and NYC Plover Project. We all want a clean, safe, healthy community and environment, and ecosystem for all. I think what became clear when I first came on the show, our volunteer effort was really our signature program and we're really proud of our volunteers. We've done something like 10,000 hours of service.

Our volunteers come from across the Rockaways and all five boroughs. They're a really incredible group of people. Most have never seen a Piping Plover or picked up binoculars before. What became clear is that we had to get into the classroom. Over these last nine months, we've kicked off an education program. We have a new education director, and we're in the classroom from K-12 now. Through partnerships with another great nonprofit like RISE in Far Rockaway, we're able to really engage young people.

With some support from National Park Foundation and New York Community Trust, we're able to do a high school community science program, which will be kicking off later this year. It's building those stewards at the younger age because they're going to become voters. Birds might not vote, but people do, and really engaged civic-minded folks within the Rockaways who will be a part of a community and fight for the most vulnerable, even if they have feathers.

Brian Lehrer: Laru, do you want to talk about from your vantage point what the connect-- sorry, Aydon, want to talk about the connection between Laru Beya and the Piping Plover project from your standpoint as you see it, because listeners may at first think, "Well, these are very different things." Should I be concerned about the marginalized individuals who need these swimming and surfing lessons and safety tips rather than some environmentalist concerned about some birds, you know what I mean?

Aydon Gabourel: No, Brian, it's all connected. Along with surfing, surfing is the vehicle to get our local youth into the water, but they're also going to have to be the stewards of these beaches. We have visitors every year, and there's a term, not my term, that some of the folks down here use in the Rockaways for. It's DFDs, down for the day. Oftentimes people will come down and they'll leave trash. They won't respect it. Long after I'm gone, the youth, the ones who are coming up are going to have to be the stewards of these beaches.

They're going to have to teach people who are coming to visit how to treat the beaches, how to be safe around, how to be safe in the water, and how to be safe around the birds. The youth is always the answer. I think by educating them and having monthly beach cleanups and learning about the local flora and fauna and the birds that are out there, they'll set the tone. There's a lot we do hand-in-hand with the Plover Project.

Brian Lehrer: I think we have one of your volunteers, Aydon, calling in. I'm going to take Taylor in New Rochelle, you're on WNYC. Hi, Taylor.

Taylor: Hi, how are you? Aydon, I just want to say thank you for organizing Laru Beya and getting it started. I volunteered last summer with helping the kids learn how to surf, learn about water safety. I, myself, and I'm an adult that learned how to surf through your team as well, trying to get in the water and catch those waves. Big shout out to you and I hope to join you as a volunteer this summer.

Aydon Gabourel: Nice to hear from you, Taylor.

Brian Lehrer: Taylor, thank you very much. Sue, in Long Beach, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sue.

Sue: Hi. Aydon, great topic and thank you for getting information out about this. I'm wondering if some of the money could go towards putting up signs by jetties and groins in Spanish. We see in Long Beach as you do in the Rockaways, people coming in and they can't read the signs, which outlines some key safety issues. It's just an idea. If you could do that, that would be great.

Brian Lehrer: Do you already do that, Aydon?

Aydon Gabourel: That's something that-- for any signage on the beach, it has to go through the Parks Department, and that's something that the Water Safety Committee was instrumental in doing for the last few years about putting signs out about where it's safe to enter the water. We are looking to get that done in Spanish. You can look this up on your own time, there's something about the word rip current and it not translating well into English.

It's really, really strange, but it is something that we do. We have a large Spanish-speaking population here in Rockaway and including folks, Garifuna folks from Honduras and from certain parts of Belize. It is something that we're looking to do, but that goes through the Parks Department.

Brian Lehrer: Yohi in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello, Yohi.

Yohi: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. My question was, I often bike and I find myself in Riis Park close to the beach, and I wanted to know how respectfully I can go observe the birds. I also wanted to comment that I saw some posters made by some children about the birds, which I mean, I thought they were seagulls, so it's great to know what they were actually. What's the best way I can go and observe them and see them? Where should I take my binoculars to?

Brian Lehrer: Oh, that's such a great question. I'm sure other listeners are wondering, Chris, how can they actually see these precious piping plovers.

Chris Allieri: Come on down. You have to come see them to believe it. I think for us to care and advocate for something, we have to see it and it has to be accessible. We have a location at Bay Nine right near the Riis Beach Bazaar at Jacob Riis Park. That'll be open from 10:00 to 4:00 Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and every weekend this summer. You'll see our volunteers out in blue t-shirts, or you can find a person working for National Park Service or on the eastern side at New York City Park Beaches, but there is a nest.

We're going to see some hatches. We saw our first chicks yesterday. Our first piping plovers were born on the beaches on both sides. Both in Arverne and Edgemere and also down at Breezy Point Tip. They are accessible, so just try to find one of our volunteers in a blue t-shirt. We're happy to point them out to you. We do have a new volunteer training coming up on June 8th, and that'll be at the Arverne East Nature Preserve Welcome Center.

One more event to plug, on June 1st, we're doing Rockaway's first Black Birders Week, and that'll be a celebration together with our friends and partners at the Garden by the Bay. That will kick off at 10:00 in the morning with a bird walk at the Arverne East Nature Preserve, and then a great reception at the garden afterwards.

Brian Lehrer: Great. In our last 30 seconds, Aydon, anything you want to put on our listeners' radar?

Aydon Gabourel: Yes, we are kicking off our surf season with our local youth on June 1st. It's every Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM. It's on Beach 67th Street in Far Rockaway. Just hop on the A and come down. We'd like you to come out, introduce yourselves. We are still looking for volunteers. You don't have to be a surfer to volunteer. There are other ways you can volunteer, serving snacks, helping with wetsuits, and you can do that by going to LaruBeyaCollective.com or if you're on Instagram, @larubeyasurfing.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome. Aydon Gabourel, founder of Laru Beya Collective, and Chris Allieri, founder of the Piping Plover Project, thank you both so much for joining us and connecting these events and these species, human-

Chris Allieri: Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: -and flying. Thank you both.

Chris Allieri: We'll see on the beach.

Aydon Gabourel: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Enjoy the weekend, enjoy the summer. Listeners, same to you. Enjoy your weekend. Remember our war dead on Monday, and stay tuned for All Of It.

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