Tomorrow, it will be the first day of winter, the season whose frigid gales blow us into the new year. Whether your 2024 has dragged on and on, or whether you still wake up thinking it’s March, now is a good time to stop, rest up, and reflect on the year gone by. We did something like that last year at around this time, and it seems only right to do it again.
Of course, when it comes to preserving land and water here in Suffolk County, the biggest occurrence was the passage of the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act. We already did a whole blog post reflecting on that momentous piece of legislation, which you can check out here. Still, it’s worth reiterating that we at the LIPBS were but one of many groups advocating for this act, and it’s very rewarding that the work of so many paid off.
Rewinding to the first half of the year, the LIPBS once again brought its Middle School Kids Go To College program to the Patchogue-Medford school district. Sixty students were taught all about the water quality issues plaguing Long Island and they created projects showcasing inventive solutions to these problems. In addition to bringing them to Stony Brook University for a lecture from Dr. Christopher Gobler and Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge for their awards ceremony, we also brought the students to Fish Thicket Preserve for a mid-semester hike, a first for the program! If you’re looking to find out more about this year’s program, we check out our June blog post recapping it. And if you’d like us to bring this program to your school district, check out our page about the program here and email info@pinebarrens.org. We’re really proud of the expansion of the program this past year, and we’re hoping to bring this program to even more students across Long Island.
As has been the case for the last two years, our chief focus this year was in advocating for the purchase of “The Best of the Rest” parcels, and we’re pleased to say that there has been progress made on a few. The county’s purchase of the 65 acre parcel adjacent to the DEC property in Calverton is about to close, and (insert info about the 111 when we learn). Negotiations are also going smoothly regarding the Shoreham property, and we’re optimistic about that property finally being preserved in the coming year. If that happens, we will see 850 acres permanently preserved, which will represent roughly a quarter of all of the 3,800 acres we consider “The Best of the Rest.” Slow and steady wins the race, as they say, and though it’s been years in the making, we’re confident we’ll win this race!
All in all, 2024 proved to be a good year for the LIPBS. We’ve made some progress on The Best of the Rest, we’ve tried new and exciting things with our Middle School Kids program, and we attended several fairs at Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Hatchery, Brookhaven National Lab, and more, spreading the good word about the Pine Barrens. There’s always more work to do, though, and come 2025 we’ll be ready to face all the challenges that come with fighting for a healthier, happier, more naturally beautiful Long Island.
By Travis Cutter, Long Island Pine Barrens Society
