Mission Statement

The Conservation District of Nassau County is committed to the protection, preservation, restoration and enhancement of our natural resources by providing education, technical assistance and consensus for all land users.

Post-Sandy Tree & Shrub Seedling Sale

Pick-up April 19 & 20 @ Malcolm House, Jericho

There will be demonstrations and experts on-hand to ask questions about plants.

As a result of the destruction caused by Superstorm Sandy, the Conservation District of Nassau County organized a successful bulk tree and shrub buying program to help Nassau County homeowners, local governments and businesses economically purchase proper plant materials to replace those destroyed by the storm.

Click Here for INFO SHEET followed by ORDER FORM

Click Here for PLANT DESCRIPTIONS

Click Here for Plant Sale PRESS RELEASE

2nd Annual LI Green Infrastructure Conference & Expo

June 12, 2013 @ BNL

Focus: Protecting Our Water Resources

To learn more visit the conference website at < http://www.ligiconference.org/ >. The 2013 Conference at Brookhaven national Labs will facilitate the successful use of green technologies by municipalities, private developers and the general public to manage storm water. General and technical information on cost effective green infrastructure techniques that increase stormwater infiltration on and prevent adverse impacts to Long Island’s valuable water resources will be presented. Regional success stories will show how green infrastructure has been beneficially put into place and how these methods can be funded.

15th Annual L.I. Envirothon

April 30, 2013

@ Old Bethpage Village Restoration

Congratulations to the 2012 winning teams!

Wantagh High School in Nassau County

Sachem High School North Team in Suffolk County

If your school wants to participate please contact either the Nassau or Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation Districts or go to the LIRE website at: http://lienvirothon.org/

Thank you Nassau County for 2013 funding!

Thank you Ed Mangano and the Legislature for funding the District in 2013 and for realizing the tremendous economic and environmental value the Conservation District brings to the county. There was bipartisan support to funding the Conservation District. The County Executive and the legislators did the right thing to fund Conservation District programs that protect Nassau’s drinking water and work to conserve other natural resources. The Legislators who have done a lot to help are Norma Gonsalves, Rich Nicolello, Rose Walker, Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, Dave Denenberg, and Wayne Wink.

We are a public / private partnership that receives funding from Nassau County, NY State, grants, and other sources. Nassau County has steadily decreased our funding from $100,000 in 2008 to $12,600 in 2012. In 2013 we will receive $80,000. This money invested in the Conservation District will be used to leverage funding from the NY State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) that has been specifically dedicated for Conservation Districts as well as grants. Long Island will now receive a more equiatble share of funding from NY State that otherwise would have gone to other parts of the state resulting in the loss of many important programs to protect drinking water and other natural resources.

Volunteer Opportunities

If you want to help make Nassau County a more beautiful and healthy place to live we have opportunities for you to help out near where you live and work.

Help we need in the field: digging up and preparing gardens, amending soil, cleanups of downtowns and shorelines.

Help we need in the office: light office work to public relations (write press releases, create brochures, update website, build relationships with media, elected officials, partner agencies, and the public).

Donations we need: tools, heavy equipment, office equipment and materials, and even funding. Money can be donated on our website or directly to the Conservation District by check or money order. We prefer not to handle cash.

Can you think of other ways you could help that we didn’t list?

Contact us at 516-364-5860 or nassauSWCD@optonline.net

Beach and Preserve Cleanups

The Conservation District holds targeted beach and preserve cleanups throughout the year. Please contact with an area that you want to work with the Conservation District to cleanup.

Below are some pictures from one event the Conservation District organized as an International Beach Cleanup day around Wantagh County Park. Brownie Troop 491 from Bellmore New York was instrumental in cleaning the waterfront with parents and family members collecting over 160 pounds of garbage that would ordinarily pollute our waterways. Members of the Wantagh Junior Chamber of Commerce along with Operation Splash took to the water in one of Operation Splashes 7 boats to clean the bayside of West Jones Beach. There efforts were indispensable in helping us collect our total of 612 pounds of trash.

Operation SPLASH boat provided to help the cleanup

Brownie Troop 491 from Bellmore

New Rain Garden at Tackapausha Preserve, Seaford

Late summer time yielded many projects for the Conservation District including a 300 square foot rain garden, at Tackapausha Preserve’s Museum front entrance. The newest rain garden to Nassau County is 300 square ft with a depth of 2 ft. Inside there are warm season grasses, forbs, vibernum shrubs, creeping raspberry and cranberry bushes. Timing was perfect for this garden as it was installed right before Hurricane Irene brought in a lot of rainfall. The garden proved itself immediately following its completion! Take a look at the gallery that shows our progess and the final result:

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Long Island Fair

On September 21st – 23rd, Nassau SWCD will have a booth at the Long Island Fair held at Old Bethpage Village Restoration. This table will be educational, providing information about stormwater pollution and practices that can be implemented locally to help curb this issue. We will have brochures and information packets, along with a demonstration rain barrel. Also we will be publicizing a rain barrel sale we are doing with New England Rain Barrel in October. Please take a look at the fair’s website and hope to see you there!

http://www.lifair.org/

Conservation Districts Work for You!

Check out this publication on more ways that we can work to assist you:

NYS district article (852.5 KiB, 212 hits)

Conservation District promotes Green Infrastructure and Green Roofs

Having spent time at various training sessions around New York, NCSWCD and its employees have broadened their knowledge in the area of green infrastructure and its practices and benefits. One interesting green infrastructure component is that of Green Roofs as we become more and more urbanized. We built the first Green Roof in Nassau County at SUNY Old Westbury in the fall of 2012 to show educate the public abouth them Some positive attributes associated with them are:

Retain up to 90% of the summer precipitation that falls on them and up to 40% in winter
Reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and delays the time in which runoff occurs, resulting in decreased sewer system stress during peak flow
Provide additional insulation which creates a reduction of 25% in cooling needs
Reduce sound reflection and transmission by up to 40%
Increases the life of the roof by at least two times
Creates a wildlife habitat – increases bird and insect habitat
Increases regional water quality

Here are some links with more information:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/67714.html

http://www.epa.gov/heatisld/resources/pdf/GreenRoofsCompendium.pdf

http://www.conservationtechnology.com/greenroof.html

http://www.greenroofs.com/index.html

http://realestate.msn.com/residential-gardens-reach-new-heights

Please contact us if you need any more information!

UPDATE

“The Lower Hudson – Long Island Resource Conservation and Development Council Inc. (LHLIRC&D) is still active and functioning”.

Congress has zeroed out the funding for RC&D program from the Federal budget for this year and next but the LHLIRC&D Council Inc. is an independent not for profit corporation and will remain viable. We will continue to work for and serve our 13 counties and New York City boroughs. Our focus on the natural resources, economic viability and people of our region will not waver. There are two signature projects that we have been working on. They are the Hudson Valley Grass Energy Project and the Foodway Corridor Project. Take a look at the attached document for more information.

Here are some letters written about the status of the LH-LI RC&D and projects underway:

RC&D Letter (179.5 KiB, 321 hits)

RC&D Foodway (187.0 KiB, 214 hits)

http://lhlircd.net/ RC&D factsheet.pdf Foodway factsheet.pdf

Conservation District of Nassau County on the air!

The Conservation District Manager was on the Lou Telano show, “Streetwise” on March 15,2011 discussing the Conservation Districts function and how it can help the people of Nassau County. Brian Zimmerman and Donna Martini, a health and wellness advocate and Nassau County Planning Board Commissioner discussed the need to utilize open spaces, such as school yards, to produce good nutritious locally grown food for the health and vitality of the students. Brian spoke on the idea and how the Conservation District can help in this effort.

District Manager Brian Zimmerman in the studio with WGBB 1240

FAIRS, FESTIVALS and HOLIDAYS – 2012!

We will be attending many different educational events this winter to demonstrate our conservation practices to the public. Here are a few upcoming events:

2/13/2012 – Lincolns Birthday – Closed
2/14/2012 – Valentines Day
2/20/2012 – Presidents Day – Closed
3/7/2012 – Oceanside Ecology Fair
3/12/2012 – Cradle of Aviation Conservation Education Day

2011 Grants:

The grants that we received for 2011 are very exciting. The first one is to create an educational DVD that will focus on non-point sources of pollution. It will focus on adults and landscapers and companies that disturb the soil and there will be a short version for grade school students. We are very excited to begin work on this project and to distribute it to other agencies. The other grant is to revise the Nassau County Water Quality Coordinating Committee. This group is made up of officials from the local towns, county, and interested people to coordinate the needs of the natural resources of the county. We hope to coordinate all of the efforts that are being performed to address pollution and water quality.

A few last updates: