Manhasset junior Nicole Maliagros lives on Manhasset Bay and oftentimes her friends ask if they can go swimming in the water when they come over. Every time, Maliagros has to tell them “no” due to the poor water quality.
“It’s upsetting to see when there is potential change,” said Maliagros, who added that over-harvesting and pollution – both man-made causes – are at the root of the poor water quality.
In an effort to take care of the bay in her own backyard, Maliagros is working to change that “no” to a “yes” in the future through her involvement in the local oyster gardening project, which raises oysters in the water to replenish the local ecosystem and clean the bay’s water.
Maliagros, 16, is a local Girl Scout who made the oyster gardening project her Gold Scout Gold Award.
The gardening project last year was the Town of North Hempstead’s pilot program. It maintained five cages of oysters in the bay to cultivate the oysters before releasing 20,000 of them into the bay.
The project’s purpose is to cultivate and restore the natural oyster population, which provides ecological benefits. The benefits of the oyster gardens include filtering the bay’s water to improve the water quality.
The project was done in collaboration with the Town of North Hempstead, Cornell Cooperative of Nassau County and Port Washington’s Residents Forward. It was spearheaded by North Hempstead Town Council Member Mariann Dalimonte, who served as Maliagros’ mentor on the project, and led by Christina LoBuglio at Cornell Cooperative.
Maliagros joined the Girl Scouts as a Daisy Scout, the organization’s program for girls in kindergarten and first grade. Engrained throughout her work as a Scout has been an emphasis on community involvement as well as environmental and animal welfare.
Looking for a new way to get involved in her community, Maliagros said she found herself flipping through the local newspaper, where she found a piece on Dalimonte’s oyster seeding project.
Maliagros contacted Dalimonte about joining the project, which the council member agreed to and took on the role of her mentor.
“When we needed things to get done, she was responsible for that and she was phenomenal, literally phenomenal,” Dalimonte said. “…If we gave her a task, she did it, and even if we didn’t give her a task, she did it on her own.”
Maliagros’ responsibilities in the project included training the volunteers, hosting a table at Port Washington’s farmer’s market where she informed locals and recruited volunteers, constructing the oyster cages and evaluating the project’s data.
“It was really interesting to see multiple different aspects of the project,” Maliagros said.
The project was conducted from June through October, with data evaluated after the conclusion of the gardening.
After evaluating data, Maliagros said they found Manhasset Bay had good conditions for oyster growth and that the water’s temperature and salinity minimally affected the oysters’ growth.
One of Maliagros’ biggest takeaways from the project was the ability to interact with both individuals involved in the project and locals interested in learning about it.
“I learned so much about people as we were sitting there cleaning the cages and cleaning the shells,” Maliagros said.
Dozens of people would approach Maliagros at her farmer’s market stand, which she said gave her the opportunity to listen to many interesting stories and experiences from locals who were interested in environmentalism or had similar experiences of their own.
“I don’t think I could pick out one person because they were all so interesting and so curious and genuinely cared about the project,” Maliagros said. “It was interesting to see different perspectives.”
Dalimonte often sat with Maliagros at the farmer’s market and spoke highly of her maturity and professionalism when interacting with everyone. She said Maliagros was successful in getting volunteers to sign up time after time.
While her Girl Scout project has concluded, Maliagros said she plans to continue working on it when it returns this year—and with an expanded scope.
