Giving thanks for Long Island’s conservation legacy
On Long Island, we are thankful for many important species and dedicated stewards.
The area’s earliest environmental stewards were Native Americans. The Mattinicock and Merrick tribes cultivated habitats like the present-day Hempstead Plains. Today, the Plains are the only true prairie habitat east of the Allegheny mountains and home to species like sandplain gerardia. The Shinnecock Nation continues this tradition and critical function by protecting the environment, animals and plants on the eastern end of Long Island.
In the mid-to-late 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century, ornithologists started to collect and record bird observations throughout Long Island, providing some of the earliest insight into population trends and habitat use of bird species. At the turn of the twentieth century, Cornell University initiated the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center and the Cooperative Extensions in Nassau and Suffolk Counties to provide training and resources to Long Island’s agricultural communities. They remain active today and have achieved major impacts, including the restoration of Peconic Bay Scallops in the early 2000s.
The early twentieth century was also a time when efforts coalesced to protect the area we now know as the Fire Island National Seashore. As early as 1908, Long Island’s first state park was formed on the Western end of Fire Island, known today as Robert Moses State Park. This achievement was followed by the protection of the Sunken Forest in 1938, the eventual establishment of the Fire Island National Seashore in 1964, and the creation of the Otis Pike Wilderness Area in 1980. Today the island supports fish and wildlife species of local, regional, and national importance.
In 1923, another important habitat was protected with the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Oyster Bay. The twelve-acre property was the first sanctuary in the country that the Audubon Society established to protect songbirds, whose population was dwindling due to habitat loss. The Sanctuary continues the fight against habitat loss today and involves approximately 100,000 yearly visitors in education, volunteer programs, animal care and other initiatives.
Throughout the mid-twentieth century, important ecosystems all across Long Island received protection from individual community members and local parties, leading to the eventual formation of the Long Island National Refuge Complex. Today, this Complex includes seven national wildlife refuges, two refuge sub-units and one wildlife management unit. For decades, these protected areas have been important sites for wildlife, research and recreation.
Long Island’s environmentalists formed the Environmental Defense Fund in the late 1960s. The fight to ban DDT, which was devastating fish and wildlife, including our national symbol the bald eagle, led to the formation of the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967. One of the original members included Dennis Puleston, who worked actively on conservation efforts on the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge where our Long Island Field Office is now stationed.
Local conservation efforts have continued to flourish on Long Island in more recent years. The Seatuck Environmental Association was founded in 1989 with the express purpose of conserving the wildlife and environment on Long Island. Seatuck was born out of a ten-year collaborative research project between the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Peters-Webster family, and the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology that investigated suburban wildlife issues such as salt marsh management, nesting waterbirds, local deer populations, and Lyme disease.
Then, in 1996, a community revitalization effort created the Garden City Bird Sanctuary. Participants from scout troops, the surrounding community, the local government and Hofstra University transformed the polluted stormwater basin into a seven-acre nature preserve. Since the 1995 cleanup, over 10,000 people have been involved with the preserve, which offers protected habitat to native species and learning opportunities about invasive species and other conservation issues to local groups.
It’s clear that when our Long Island Field Office was established in the 1960s, we entered into a rich tradition of stewardship and cooperation on behalf of the important species and habitats found here. We could not be more grateful for this conservation legacy and the ongoing efforts of our biologists and diverse partners.
