The year is winding down, and so it only makes sense to look back and review the highlights of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society’s work in 2025. It was an eventful year, with progress made on our The Best of the Rest initiative, some extensions to our middle school program, and one of our biggest virtual galas in the six years we’ve held them!
For many years past, the Society’s work begins with our middle school program, “Middle School Kids Go To College.” This program encourages students to learn about issues relating to Long Island’s water quality, and then becoming scientists in their own right, developing interesting solutions to timeless problems. The students showcase their work at Stony Brook University, where they also are treated to a lecture by Dr. Christopher Gobler, a leading water quality expert. The program also included a hike through Fish Thicket Preserve, which sits within the Patchogue-Medford school district.
In addition to the “Middle School Kids Go To College” program, the Pine Barrens Society launched a new pilot program, “Inspiring Youth to Protect Their Environment.” This program is focused on students as advocates. With a focus on issues of waste management, and a particular focus on the Brookhaven Landfill, this program strives to feel more personal, as the issues can quite literally be found in the students’ backyard. In partnering with the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, we were able to prove the students with a thorough perspective on an ongoing struggle. The closure of the landfill is shaping up to be one of the most significant local environmental issues of the decade, and in educating students about it we can create a society prepared to meet these challenges and similar ones that will inevitably occur in the future.
The latter half of the year was dedicated to the many preparations for our annual gala. “Preserving the People’s Park” was an interesting theme; the public invested in the acquisition of pine barrens land and now people can take joy in and experience all the life within the park. Thus, we also launched a new social media feature, “Life in the Pine Barrens,” to showcase some of these species. Anything from a blueberry bush to a migratory songbird is fair game for this series, and as it continues we hope that it will be a great source of information, as well as a source of inspiration for people to go out into the Pine Barrens, and continue to support their preservation.
The Society’s 48th anniversary gala premiered on YouTube and Facebook on Thursday, October 23rd. In addition to brief coverage of a portion of our middle school programs, the gala provided a sweeping showcase of Pine Barrens flora and fauna. From the diverse plant species of the Westhampton forests to the numerous critters found across the Cranberry Bog Nature Preserve, we aimed to show the beauty and the natural history of some emblematic habitats. It would be a titanic task to demonstrate the full breadth and scope of life in the Pine Barrens in a single half-hour video, but we achieved a great demonstration of the region’s diversity despite that time constraint. We continue to use the footage captured on these excursions in YouTube shorts, including some footage that didn’t make the cut for the gala. There is always more to explore within the Pine Barrens, and we’re thankful that so many of our fellow Long Islanders enjoy exploring with us.
This year, as in the last three years, we made great progress on The Best of the Rest initiative this past year. Most notably, a 65-acre parcel in Calverton has been completely preserved by Suffolk County, and the County is also making progress in acquiring 100 acres on the other side of the road from that parcel, which will complete a very significant assemblage of Pine Barrens land in that area. The DEC, Suffolk County, the Town of Brookhaven, and the Town of Southampton have all made further progress on acquiring several other parcels as well, and we look forward to seeing these efforts come to fruition.
The year 2025 was an interesting, satisfying time for the Pine Barrens Society. Our new frontiers in our work with Long Island’s students proved effective and inspirational. Much-anticipated progress on our “The Best of the Rest Program” rewarded hours of hard work. And we’ve showcased some great new footage of some of our favorite locales which, hopefully, will continue to demonstrate the beauty and value of the People’s Park for years to come.
By Travis Cutter, Long Island Pine Barrens Society
