As a non-profit board president, I often get asked if non-profit management is different from for-profit management. From the most basic financial perspective,  the only difference is what you do with the profits.

Both institutions need income streams to offset the expenses incurred driving day-to-day operations.  In industry, many companies are driven to maximize shareholder benefit. In non-profits, and government, the goal is to make a difference and every spare penny generated goes back into furthering the mission. The team at the Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability (NBIS) is dedicated to doing a lot while spending as little as possible to deliver the best non-profit value (= results/cost) in the Northwest.

NBIS has been the steward for promoting sustainability and the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) to businesses in the Pacific Northwest through a variety of programs such as:

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• By-Product Synergy Northwest – a program that engages members in innovative, entrepreneurial approaches to materials and resource management. NBIS helps Washington companies increase the amount of their output that is actually profitable while reducing environmental impacts.
• NBIS Salmon-Safe Urban Initiative – NBIS and Salmon Safe work together to engage corporate, commercial and institutional landowners in addressing critical issues impacting Northwest salmon runs and Puget Sound. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, the renewal of the Salmon-Safe grant was not extended this year. This is the only Salmon-Safe program that certifies urban properties such as the University of Washington Campus, REI’s headquarters, PCC market in Edmonds, the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle and the first ever construction management accreditation Turner Construction.
• Grassroots Leaders – NBIS provides quarterly venue for grassroots change leaders to share best practices about how to drive initiatives and product development at corporations to maximize their triple bottom line: People, Planet, and Profit.
• Consulting – NBIS empowers profitable sustainability by helping companies organize sustainability planning and action. NBIS leaders Mary Rose and Karl Ostrom help businesses identify opportunities, set goals and implement systems for advancing effective, results-oriented initiatives.
• Eco-Hours – NBIS Eco-Hours are a popular social hour for NBIS members and friends. Each monthly Eco-Hour is hosted by an NBIS member company and provides an opportunity for members to showcase their companies and share a bit about their work. Eco-Hour emphasizes one of the values of NBIS: bringing people together across industries to get acquainted and learn from each other.
• Green Bag Lunches – Learn from leaders in the industry about the changes happening in different industry sectors. The most recent Green Bag lunch co-hosted by NBIS and The Arbor Group, included a topic on the Soil Capital: Innovative Approaches Transforming Local Food Systems in Washington State.

With all these great programs NBIS is looking forward to the The Seattle Foundation’s one-day, online charitable giving GiveBIG event on Thursday (June 23rd). GiveBIG is a community-wide giving challenge created by the Seattle Foundation that will provide matching funds to any donations made to NBIS.  So please mark your calendars and give on the 23rd to help NBIS advance its mission.

To learn more about this one-day program and how you can help, visit the NBIS GiveBIG page for more details.

We were all shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the shutdown of Grays Harbor Paper Company this past week. For the past eighteen years, Grays Harbor Paper has found innovative ways to make quality products and grow market share in a difficult business environment. The company pioneered Harbor 100 recycled paper and had built up a strong network of sales. The Quigg family gave life to an economic revival in Hoquiam and enlivened every interaction with their good will and enthusiastic spirit. We express our deep gratitude for your leadership and collegiality and on behalf of NBIS and our community, we send Grays Harbor Paper, its leaders and employees our heartfelt respect, concern and support.

View the press release here.

Headlines often focus on climate change, energy policy, and the economy. But you know what? All of these issues are, in part, symptoms of how we use materials. If we want to address the issues behind the headlines, we need folks, especially business persons, like By-Product Synergy NW participants, who are willing to address the material foundation of our economy. In fact, as we know deeply, the thriving of future life for people and all living things depends upon how we relate to the Earth — how we use materials.

NBIS and By-Product Synergy Northwest are champions of sustainability. This is our Spirit, but the foundation of this work is based upon materials and how we use them. As we expand our program’s problem-solving work, I want to highlight its urgency and importance. We can pursue materials management and By-Product Synergy with more effective zest if we hold our work in the context of a vision that begins with the Earth as the beginning and end of materials flow –

the material that flows through all of Life,
including wood, minerals, fuels, chemicals,
agricultural plants and animals, soil, and rock;
the full range of materials flowing
through our economy and businesses,
and then returning to the Earth.

What do we know about the present status of material flows in our global and national economies and communities?

The overview is one of crisis and promise:

On the crisis side, our exponentially increasing use of materials is challenging the capacity of the Earth – air, water and land – to sustainably support the thriving of Life as we now know it. On the promise side, we are beginning to practice lifecycle management, learning how to reduce the materials that run through our economy, discovering how to decouple mass and toxins from added value.

Given that most of us don’t get urgent about making changes until threat is upon us, here are Down-to-Earth indicators that it is time for innovation in our use of materials.¹

• In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history.
• With less than 5% of the world’s population, the US was responsible for about one third of the world’s total material consumption in 1970 – 1975.

I recall a few decades back when U.S. was responsible for 40% of the world’s total material consumption! But now, the rest of the world is consuming more and catching up!

• In 1900, 41% of the materials used in the U.S. were renewable (e.g., agricultural, fishery, and forestry products); by 1995, only 6% of materials consumed were renewable.
• Our reliance on minerals in the manufactured products used in the U.S. – including cell phones, flatscreen monitors, paint, and toothpaste – requires the extraction of more than 25,000 pounds of new nonfuel minerals per capita each year.
• Heavy demand for “rare earth” minerals is a potent cause of labor exploitation (including children) in underdeveloped countries.
• Ecosystem damage caused by the rapid rise in material use includes habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, overly stressed fisheries, and desertification.
• Freshwater withdrawals have doubled between 1960 and 2000; rivers including the Colorado, Yellow, Genghis, and Nile do not reach the ocean in dry seasons. Water scarcity is fueling conflict between nations.
• Roughly 42% of US greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change, are associated with the provision of materials and goods.
• The crisis is escalating – Projections are that between 2000 and 2050,
  • world population will grow 50%,
  • global economic activity will grow 500%,
  • global energy and materials use will grow a whopping 300%.

Unless economic growth can be dramatically decoupled from resource use and waste generation, environmental pressures will go off the chart!

Opportunity as well as threat

The opportunities presented by life-cycle approaches to using materials are being demonstrated in many places today. During the past several years, many companies, including By-Product Synergy NW members, have discovered ways to do what was previously thought improbable or even impossible. By changing the ways they use materials, they have found ways to lighten their environmental impacts significantly while increasing profit. They are becoming more competitive with products that are recognized as more sustainable.

Approaches² to reducing system-wide material use include:

1. Prioritize the use of renewable materials and those that can be used in closed loop systems
2. Increase material efficiency in the supply chain (eliminate materials waste, utilize by-product synergy opportunities to extend life and use of materials)
3. Utilize industrial and product redesign opportunities to reduce mass, material use, packaging, lifecycle energy requirement, and toxicity
4. Reduce transport in the supply chain – increase efficiency
5. Emphasize consumer products that are less material intensive, made with recyclable components, and more durable
6. Substitute services for material-intensive services and products
7. Join By-Product Synergy NW – get smart and innovative in keeping materials in the economy by finding new uses and extending the use of materials across this network of industries.³

¹Sources for the following indicators are cited in “Sustainable Materials Management,” EPA document (2009).

²Approaches summarized in “Sustainable Materials Management,” (EPA 2009)

³By-Product Synergy Northwest is one of a growing constellation of regional networks associated with the US Business Council for Sustainable Development

Often when you see people giving donations to plant trees, or saving a forest sometimes it’s never really as close or as significant when it’s right in your own backyard. This is the case with Trillium Forest located on Whidbey Island in Washington. The 664-acre property is the largest piece of privately owned property in Island County. Before it went into foreclosure it was originally divided into 124 plots and approved for development. This property is literally less than 3 miles from where my husband and I are in Greenbank, and just north of Freeland. In a rural setting, this is your backyard.

A nine-inch Northwestern Salamander on a Red Alder log. Whidbey Is. Photo by Robert J. Pennington.

Earlier this year the Whidbey Camano Land Trust was given the option to purchase the property and raise $4.2 Million. If successful, the WCLT would work to turn it back into recreational trails for hikers, birders, horseback riders, etc., and help restore the health and wildlife of a forest that had been logged back in 1988.

If the funds cannot be raised, the property will be divided and sold privately. Originally the Land Trust had until June 10th to raise the funds. As luck would have it they received an extension until September 10th.

So here we are on September 1st, just ten days away and I feel like I’m watching a horse race between thousands of people trying to save a forest and a financial institution. (I promised myself, I wouldn’t go there). Because I am familiar with the work the Whidbey Camano Land Trust does, it boggles my mind to see them spearhead what would seemingly be an impossible mission. As of this writing they need just $900,000. $300,000 has already been promised, leaving $600,000 left. From their newsletter posting today, “To help raise the remaining $600,000, an existing donor has made a pledge to match, dollar for dollar, the first person to donate $100,000 between now and September 10. After the Land Trust raises $600,000, a second anonymous donor will contribute the remaining $300,000 needed to complete the campaign.” That’s not much considering where they started, but it’s a still a big stretch in 10 days.

Curled fern. Whidbey Is. Photo by Robert J. Pennington

While it does comes down to money, it’s about so much more than that. It’s about watching people from all over Island County and beyond, work together to save this giant piece of land. You cannot walk into a local store, cafe, or lumberyard without seeing donation jars with “Save the Forest Now” buttons and postcards on them. Hikers, joggers, birders, photographers, horseback riders, and other groups lead talks and rides through the property. Even small schoolchildren are not spared, helping raise funds and teaching people about why we need to Save the Forest Now.

If saved, I have no doubt this forest could become one of the best teaching grounds and case studies in the U.S., both environmentally and socially. It can even provide inspiration for more successful transactions while leaving an important legacy for generations to come. The reach of what happens in the next few days goes far beyond the waters around an island in Puget Sound. If it can happen here, the lessons learned can teach others everywhere not just how to save a piece of land against the odds and in a recession, but how to bring a much larger community together, regardless of politics, religion or economic status.

So now it’s down to the wire and I’ve got my money on “Trillium” comin’ up on the outside, yelling, “Go baby! Go!” A photo finish for the ages.

Offset your carbon footprint! Find out more about this property and how you can donate, check out the status on the Whidbey Camano Land Trust’s site: www.SaveTheForestNow.org

Or contact the WCLT at:

Whidbey Camano Land Trust
765 Wonn Road, Barn C-201
Greenbank, WA 98253

house coloring sketch...one day...

A few months ago, I read an article in DWELL magazine talking about the “slow build movement” happening in this country. Here I thought we were just slow builders, but it turns out we are actually part of a “movement.” While I’m not too sure the “slow build movement’ is going to catch on like wildfire, (mostly because people don’t like to live too long with unfinished projects), we realized the time we’ve been taking to build may have actually led us do a few things right. We know this because we are still married. Pointing out what could have been done differently is a bit too easy, because it hits you like a cast-iron frying pan on the head. So I thought I would note a few things that have made a huge difference on our project.

Study the land. We spent 4 years figuring this out. Making our way through paths of prickly salmonberry bushes, old skidding trails, taking short courses on forest stewardship, coloring the woods with strange looking ribbons, and noting the changes in the position of the sun in the winter and summer. Watching where water pooled or vernal ponds formed. The best money we spent in the very beginning was getting our property surveyed and knowing where our lines and corners were. The architects and I used the PDFs the surveyors gave us to figure out all kinds of things.

Ted Hunter organizes panels on top of the slab.

Surround yourself with great folks and seek the right help. Find people who won’t dismiss you when you tell them you are going to build your house yourself. Architects Tara Romano and Neil Stevenson from Neil Stevenson Architects gave us a great modern house design, with an open floor plan that would allow us some flexibility. Our contractor, Ted Hunter came with his own crane truck and preferred to work alone with owner/builders. Steve Thornton, a friend and designer/builder became our sounding board and offered up great advice along the way.

Build community. When you build on an Island, everyone knows each other. Building suppliers, equipment rental places and landscapers become a big part of your world, so pay your bills on time and it’s amazing how many people will want to work for you.

Getting electrical through the conduit in utility trench.

Utilities first. We first dug a 400 ft. trench and put in all our lines ourselves, leaving the connections to the experts. We carefully hung the water and telephone lines above the propane and electrical conduit. (Care had to be taken with this trench along the driveway as it went through part of our wetland). More important than a toilet (you can rent those), was having access to the internet, electricity (no noisy, gas powered generators) and a wired phone line since cel reception is spotty. Putting in the lines in first also allowed us to build a gravel driveway to accept heavy equipment in Summer. (See video of utility trench).

Design for dual purposes. Instead of wasting space, much of our space does double duty. For example, a larger hallway is not just a corridor but massive storage space allowing my husband to roll out big metal racks that travel down to the living room/photo studio. At the other end of the house, my office contains a recessed wall bed to quickly become a guest room.

Amazing screeders Conner and Jason Chang

Concrete love. Our first floor is all one big 6-inch concrete slab with a radiant floor heating system. Taking great advice from Jason Chang, our fabulous screeder, I designed a joint control pattern (cuts that are no deeper than 2-inches) that connected all interior corners and left no areas more than 100 square ft. Not only effective but very cool looking. As soon as it was done, our contractor Ted had us put 4×8 sheets of masonite on the entire floor to protect it. It has made a huge difference.

The second floor goes up on a very cold day.

Prefab is fab. We chose to build with a Structural Insulated Panel System or SIPS. Our design was prefabricated and shipped to us and I am amazed at how little waste we have had on site. We’ve been building for two years, and we are only now about to make our third trip to the dump with a small Toyota Rav and a small 4×8 ft. trailer. Are there things that are a pain about building this way that no one tells you? Oh yeah, but I am beginning to see and feel the benefits. One of which was how easy it was to fit and level the windows and doors.

Bob prepares to install a door in his own unique way.

Don’t scrimp on windows and doors. This was our biggest expense next to the SIPs and I have no regrets. (I can live without that fine Italian couch, Herman Miller desk set and Espresso machine.) Between the SIPs and the windows, we noticed the difference immediately when we were able to heat up an unfinished, enclosed room in the middle of winter in just two hours with a couple of electric heaters.

An organized jobsite is a happy site. I am a piler. It is both an attribute and a fatal flaw. When working with SIPs the panels had to be organized in a certain order so the crane could pick them up in succession. I built a workbench for our little tools, bits, blades, squares, etc., and put it on wheels and put together some of our other wheeled shelving for heavier duty tools. Lumber is still stacked in the big room on dunnage. Garbage cans were laid out for food waste, usable wood trimmings, and recycling. A massive stack in the front of our property divides up the good and bad wood scraps. Folding all visqueen and plastic sheeting scraps, saves tons of room. Sweeping up at the end of every weekend, made it so much easier to work.

Draintile surrounded by gravel and wrapped in groundcloth before burying.

Go with the flow. In the Pacific Northwest, water is a major issue and due to a slope in the back of the house, we have installed three lines of defense against water intrusion against the foundation. The first is actually a FormaDrain footing form. Slits in this recycled plastic channel allow water to flow around the perimeter of the house and collect in an outlet on the SW corner. Meeting up with that is a draintile about 2 feet out from the foundation running around the entire back and sides of the house. (Another is planned later). Against the stemwall foundation we installed a Delta Foundation Drainage system to waterproof the stemwall. We have even purchased metal furring strips from Furring Master for a rainscreen that will provide an airspace between the house siding and the weather wrap. Lastly, a cistern will collect runoff and draintile water and be used as fire protection in summer. In winter any overflow is part of a plan to make the hydrology healthier in our wetland through yet another level-spreading infiltration trench.

Jen Pennington is the owner and designer for Rhizome Design & Images. She lives and works part-time in Seattle while building a green house with her husband, photographer Robert J. Pennington on Whidbey Island.

by Jen Pennington

photos by Robert J. Pennington

On a recent tour of the largest living green roof in North America atop the Vancouver, B.C. Convention Centre, one can’t help but be awed. The tour organized by Dow Chemical Company as part of Globe 2010 was a rare glimpse into the dichotomy of what you see vs. what you can’t see. Designed by LMN Architects, the building is the world’s first LEED Platinum convention center. It’s about taking in something visually and understanding at a deeper level that natural beauty and the creation of new wildlife habitats in urban settings can successfully coexist with the right mix of landscape architecture, engineering, and construction. The fact that one can easily take for granted the man-made materials underneath an organic surface is a testament to its success.

Brilliantly colored sedums looking towards the water

As you step out the doors onto the first level, one is struck by the brilliant red, orange and pink beauty of native sedums blooming in spring amidst a precisely placed irrigation system. Bruce Hemstock, Landscape Architect for PWL Partnership explains that the irrigation system utilizes black water from the convention center and desalination machinery to water the plants making it a very sustainable system. The vast expanse of this orderly growth is amazing and you can’t even see the grasses above yet. Walking along the sloped path that leads to the green areas of the main roofs, one passes by the apiary of bees that help pollinate the area. As you step up to the grassy rise of the roof you are instantly transported to a park in the sky. It is so large at six acres that you never feel as if you are on an actual roof, and therein is the real beauty of it. Now in its second year of growth, the illusion is so surreal in an urban environment that it’s easy to disregard what lies beneath the top layer.

Roof layers and substrate display at Dow's both at Globe 2010.

Digging down into what makes the roof so unique is the fact that the layers that go into a normal roofing system are inverted. As Mike Kontranowski, the Strategic Market Director, Architectural Markets for Dow Building Solutions explains, “It’s turning the roof upside down.” In this case, 2.5 million board feet of Styrofoam™ brand insulation and more than 500,000 board feet of Styrofoam™ Highload insulation from Dow sits directly on top of the roof. On top of that lies a series of other substrates, and protective barriers before the placement of soil and the thousands of indigenous plants and that grow there. With the addition of all these materials, the lightest weight component, keeping the roof thermally stable, reducing weight load,  and enhancing energy efficiency at the base is the Styrofoam™. A dimpled water barrier on top of that prevents water from seeping through and also holds droplets of water to retain moisture in the soil.

The roof is truly inspiring with its many levels of beauty and sustainable attributes. As green roofs become more popular in cities, my hope is that those in the design, building and materials industries share this knowledge readily. Not just amongst the largest architecture firms and contractors but down to the small business levels of builders and designers in outlying areas or smaller cities where adoption is slower to manifest. If we are truly concerned about creating eco communities and championing environmental and energy efficiency benefits, the challenge for all is how to inspire change broadly while making it affordable to install in the first place.

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All photos copyright 2010 Robert J. Pennington.

I can’t help but remark on a concept Philips is promoting for an outdoor lighting structure that transforms from a solar flower during the day to a wind turbine on cloudy days to a nightlight. It’s been out for a few months, but as a designer, I’m drawn to both it’s functional and aesthetic qualities. The concept is called Light Blossom. And I definitely want to see this concept bloom.

The idea is to provide a large tower that collects solar energy on the inside of its open petals, moving in harmony with the position of the sun. On cloudy or windy days, the petals half-close upward to catch the wind and convert the movement to energy. At night the petals close to form an LED nightlight providing only the light that’s necessary. Great for cities, but even better for rural areas where a power infrastructure is not possible, or power outages are frequent. A smaller version for residential use I believe would find a very willing market.

What I truly admire about the concept is that it takes an everyday mainstream item like a streetlight and serves up sustainability with style. Truly remarkable is how simple a concept it is in theory and how in line it is with the Philips brand of sense and simplicity. With so many variables, it surely won’t be easy to build nor maintain. Harder still will be making it cost efficient enough for cities and communities to afford. But if Philips can make it a reasonably priced option to retrofit or build into new communities, that’s not good design–that’s great design. Just think of it…wild energy flowers scattered from the seeds of imagination.

Find out more about this concept at www.Philips.com and check out the concept called: Simplicity Tomorrow – Light Blossom

When we purchased our property, I always knew I wanted to get it certified as a stewardship forest. I loved seeing those cool little green and brown signs along someone’s private drive. How do you get one of those things? I had heard about some elusive short course class but could never find it. Then one day I finally stumbled across it and signed up. When we realized the initial location of the class was going to be at the top of Whidbey Island, this would be a challenge. It can take two and a half to three hours to get to class when you live in Seattle.

But we were determined to do our part as stewards of the environment even if it meant driving for two months every Thursday night 100 miles to get there. The irony of knowing how much gas we would use to take the class is not lost on us. I was also amazed at the mass of paperwork you receive during class. It’s as if each student receives a full tree by the end of the term. That said, I still have every piece of literature in my bookcase.

Chick with chainsaw

When I first went to class my goal was to preserve all the trees on our land in any way shape or form. My mantra was “no wood leaves the property.” Cutting a tree down was something we would do only if we had to. I was determined to only use the firewood from naturally, downed trees. Little did I know the forestry class I would take would change that mindset entirely and make me feel like such a wuss.

In my altruistic ignorance (and I was not the only one), the class taught us how to manage our lots and make our forests healthier. We created plans and learned how to more accurately identify the health of the trees and plants on our lands. We learned how to selectively thin to allow others to grow stronger. I no longer have a sense of horror when we have to take down trees and each of us has our own set of his and her chainsaws. I can sincerely say, I am no longer a forest wuss.

Clearing the trees with a friend for our house site put everything we learned to the test. Twenty-two large Red Alders were felled and trimmed up along with a few hemlocks and some fir. Friends helped us chip the limbs and branches, and we hired a great guy to stack all our logs. We have since purchased a small portable sawmill and this year will finally mill the alder for trim wood and cabinetry for inside the house we are building.

Out of the class came more than just lessons on trees. We got a sense of empowerment that comes with getting to know our land so intimately. We participated as part of a community and made some wonderful new friends. The stewardship plan we developed has given us a great sense of accomplishment. That cool little green and brown sign…we got us one.
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We took our Forest Stewardship Coached Planning class through the extension at Washington State University.

A whole lot of clean up on the house site

When your town is a largely built-out community, the last vestiges of open land take on new meaning. The attempt to determine their future is fraught with tugs on either end of the rope—to build or not, at existing zoning or not, for greater good or not, so as to leave a legacy or not. Control is in the hands of the owner and in the will of the local legislators and review boards. Adding to the mix are the many municipalities across the country that are working diligently to conserve the best remnants through public purchase programs.

As an example, the Town of Huntington, Long Island is assembling a quilt of varying land patches of green to be sewn together by trails, both off and on road. The pieces of nature and assorted other sites are the prime objectives. The local mantra of a national land preservation organization once was, “Saving the last of the least and the best of the rest.” Working for my hometown, the charge is simpler, “What means the most?” With a hungry trend of larger homes and their insatiable tentacles of spreading amenities, subdivisions have swallowed up farms, fields, woods, wetlands, and engulfing views once taken for granted. When a community chooses to tax itself to protect open space, the charge is clear. While the pressure to develop mounts, an appointed volunteer committee reaches out to landowners and asks for an opportunity to appraise their land in the hope of securing it. It is all based on good faith and only proceeds where there is a potentially willing seller. The program is driven mainly by nominations from those that live and work in the community.

Given a blank slate, anyone you ask anywhere could come up with their own priority list for preservation. A local program provides flexibility to balance interests. The acquisitions become unique in their purpose and site condition. What people cherish most about the lands they wish to see purchased is as variable as the acres and their potential. Together they embody community values. In Huntington, lands preserved over the past eight years include farms, sites held by families for generations, ex-government properties, and lands slated for development.

The sites are as notorious as they are cherished, to cite a few: the former home of jazz-legend John Coltrane to be preserved for musical history; a small dairy farm with the last two cows in town provides a destination for children of all ages to mingle and touch farm animals; an abandoned rail line that serves as a community trail; a maritime reserve for endangered shorebirds; an historic homestead providing a doorway to 100 woodland acres and which, through its renovation, evolves into an environmental education center; a diminutive gateway park to anchor and herald downtown revitalization efforts; a former federal Veteran’s Administration site to be reborn as a regional sports complex; a turn-of-the-century farm estate to host a wildlife rehabilitation center with nature programming. Rachel Carson once wrote, “To truly appreciate land, you must look upon it as if you are seeing it for the first time or as if you knew you’d never see it again.” The cost of land in suburban Long Island, New York is high and the competition for resources can be fierce, but the results are at once obvious yet, intangible.

Standing as witness to that first time a child gasps at a hawk resting in a low tree limb, or a group stumbles on a panoramic water view having hiked the twists and turns of mossy paths through dense mountain laurel, or a team engages in fast play on the opening of a new ball field is, without a doubt, simply priceless. A united municipal board that supports a community-based land conservation program is what makes it all possible. It is the true will of government, using public resources to recycle open, or not so open, land into parkland. In this case, a good deed is one in which a municipality can be the grantee.

Margo Myles is an environmentalist and Coordinator of Open Space Conservation for the Town of Huntington on Long Island in NY.