Fire Island is not only a beautiful place to live but also to learn, and the Woodhull Elementary School fifth grade students took to their local shores to participate in an ecology project called a “Day in the Life of Fire Island” for the third consecutive year this September.

Joined again by Woodhull fifth grade teacher Gabrielle Donovan, Ranger Kelsey Sucena of the National Parks Service and Adelphi University Visiting Assistant Professor Ruth Coffey, the students spent the September morning taking samples of bay water, sediment and aquatic life and analyzing their results. Meanwhile, students from Bay Shore High School and Longwood Junior High School were in other areas of Fire Island performing similar work.

The “Day in the Life” events, which are organized by several government agencies at federal, state and county levels, take place in various locations on Long Island throughout the year to check the health of its aquatic ecosystems and promote policy changes to maintain them accordingly.