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Ironworker Creates Sportsmen’s Oasis for 911 Responders with Disabilities |
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John Sferazo, a retired member of Ironworkers Local 361 from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of the first responders after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. Like many of the firefighters, police officers, reservists and other union members who worked in the devastation of the bombed out World Trade Centers, Sferazo suffered psychological and physical damage, including the loss of more than one-third of his breathing capacity.
But despite his adversity, Sferazo is actively working to build a top-rated wildlife and nature program in Maine, which he is opening for hunting to veterans and first responders with disabilities.
In 2000, Sferazo, a member of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, purchased a parcel of land in Maine known as Owen’s Marsh. A former asphalt plant, the site had been reclaimed, including the construction of a dam, which created a deep-water marsh. Five weeks after Sferazo purchased the property, the dam breached, releasing a 73-acre wall of water.
“I can’t explain the amount of waterfowl—ducks, herons, egrets—utilizing this body of water,” Sferazo told the Ironworker magazine.
So the breech ripped my heart out. The reason I purchased the property went down the highway, more or less.
Sferazo began again to reclaim the property. With help from friends and colleagues, Sferazo, who holds an environmental sciences degree, planted organic matter to replace the washed-away topsoil. Then he added flora, wintergreens and other winter food sources for deer and other browsers like moose and the snowshoe rabbit.
He even took advantage of nuisance beavers, allowing the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to release them on his property.
He tells the magazine:
I wanted these little convicts on my property because they’re going to do their job—build dams. Dams contain a body of water, which provides habitat for birds, moose, and other animals.
In conjunction with the Pine Grove Program, which helps heroes who have survived man-made or natural disasters through nature therapy, Sferazo opened his property to veterans and first responders with disabilities.
He says:
It gives them the edge they need because of their disability, such as being confined to a wheelchair.
What we’re doing through Pine Grove is giving these people the opportunity to let the pressure valve go off through time spent outdoors.
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