Projects

Arboretum Tags and Invasive Species Removal at Cedarmere Preserve

The NCSWCD provided funding to the Friends of Cedarmere to label over 300 trees at the Cedarmere Preserve located in Roslyn, NY. Public engagement with the environment is becoming incresingly important as well as assisting people in identifying the native trees of our region. This project sets the goal of tagging approximatly 51 species of trees, identifying the common and scientific name as well as it's region of origin. These trees will be included as part of the outdoor tours and will also be seen by many visiting the property daily. A tree map will be created to indicate the location of trees, accompanied by existing educational signage outlining the importance of Native species and the extent to which invasives are a serious environmental issue.

The NCSWCD team was joined by Long Island Invasive Management staff on August 1st to survey the natural area for invasive plants and create a report on plant species in the area (pictured right). Thanks to the NYS DEC staff who assisted with the removal of overgrown plants from the center lake.

TOH Conservation & Waterways survey Hempstead Bay

Hempstead Bay is an important resource for marine life and the local economy. After a significant decline of the hard shell clam population following the opening of harvesting in 1978, The Town of Hempstead Department of Conservation and Waterways has been running a successful shellfish restoration program for over 40 years. This recovery was shown in a 2022 shellfish population inventory showing an abundant variety of flora and fauna.

The project's long-term monitoring will help ensure sustainable management and inform future conservation strategies. This benefits not only commercial shellfisheries but also the entire ecosystem of Hempstead Bay.

To accomplish this goal, Town conservation staff equipped a vessel with sampling and diving gear. For each surveying event, 300 samples will be collected from 100 stations throughout Hempstead Bay. Data collection will be repeated every three years as part of a long-term monitoring program.

This project aims to continually monitor the population of shellfish and seagrass as long-term environmental changes are expected to result from the planned 2025 completion of the Bay Park Sewage Conveyance and unknown changes resulting from climate change and ocean acidification.

NCSWCD Rain Gardens Project

The Nassau County Soil and Water Conservation District continued its goal of restoring and protecting Rain Garden sites across the county. This year's project was spread across every township in Nassau County with sites at Town of Hempstead's Hempstead Plains Preserve and Town of Oyster Bay's Waterfront center. These rain gardens are equiped with signs describing the native plants that inhabit them, giving the public more opportunities to connect with the green spaces. Additionally, District technician Sean Rooney has provided educational presentations to libraries and garden clubs in the Town of Hempstead and North Hempstead, teaching homeowners about how to build rain gardens and the value they add to a landscape. 

Town of Oyster Bay Dune Day

Town of Oyster Bay , Department of Environmental Resources (DER) The Department of Environmental Resources serves our 300,000 residents and our 169 square miles of natural resources including waterways, wetlands, forests, wildlife, animal rescue, air quality, soil quality, and waste disposal. The Department is devoted to environmental outreach, collaboration with, and education of the public, to enhance environmental restoration efforts and work towards the universal goal of environmental stewardship.

The NCSWCD helped fund part of the replacement of dune grass that were lost during recent heavy storms, and to host a Dune Day event. With the District funding the Town would purchase approximately 464 bundles of dune grass. The second Dune Day will be held in October as dune grass is most effectively planyed in the spring or fall seasons. On March 30th 2024 the Town of Oyster Bay hosted its annual dune grass planting event at TOBAY Beach, drawing over 150 volunteers who planted four pallets of native dune grass stalks across 2.7 acres of Atlantic Ocean sand dunes. The Town has planted 1,000 bundles (containing 100 grass plugs each) equating to 100,000 individual plugs of American Beach Grass. This will help stabilize the shoreline sand against heavy winds and assist with the absorbtion of water.

The Long-term benefits of replanting dune grass extend beyond immediate erosion control, providing sustainable advantages for the coastal environment and community. By stabilizing the dunes, dune grass supports biodiversity, creating habitat for shorebirds that depend on these beach habitats for nesting and foraging. Healthy dune ecosystems contribute to climate change resilience by acting as natural storm surge buffers and rising sea levels. By absorbing wave energy and reducing impact of future storms, dune grass helps protect nearby infrastructure such as Ocean Parkway and ensures the long-term viability of the coastline. The Town of Oyster Bay is committed to promoting environmental stewardship and raising community awareness though environmental news letters, social media and press releases. 

Town of North Hempstead - Native Plant Rebate Program

The Town of North Hempstead is a densely developed suburban community located in the western portion of Long Island. The TONH Environmental Resources Department was funded by NCSWCD to reimburse town residents who purchased native plants to create gardens. Native plants provide food, shelter, and nesting resources for pollinators, as well as birds, small mammals, and a variety of other wildlife species. They also have a multitude of environmental benefits like extensive root systems that absorb polluted stormwater (especially when used in rain gardens), the ability to take in carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, lower maintenance requirements, and less need for inputs like fertilizer use, mowing, and irrigation. 

The Town is committed to helping wildlife regain lost habitat using native plants and has planted many native plant gardens in its landscapes. Read more about these plantings here.   Town of North Hempstead Native Plants

The Reintroduction of Fire at the Hempstead Plains: An Opportunity for Change

The NCSWCD provided funding to the Friends of Hempstead Plains for their project to preserve, restore and manage the Hempstead Plains prarie habitat on the campus of Nassau Community College. The Hempstead Plains Preserve is the last, best remaining Long Island Tallgrass Prairie including over 200 plant species, 14 rare species. Funding from the NC Conservation District will help suppliment outreach and educational programs. 

Restoration via mowing, tree cutting, herbaceous plant cutting, herbicide treatment etc., is already happening, however prescribed fire, a necessary control component, has not been used at the Hempstead Plains since the 1990’s. This Part C funding would allow the Friends to study the prairie’s response to prescribed fire this coming April. The area scheduled to be burned in 2023 is a 4-5 acre section of Hempstead Plains Grassland community dominated by little blue stem and goldenrods, with pockets of successional scrubland habitat, and general overgrowth. It also includes the 1 acre plot in which the globally endangered Sandplain Gerardia grows, and is a fire dependent species. The surveys will allow the Friends to select a 2024 burn location, and create an invasive species removal plan for the 2023 burn area.

Cedarmere Preserve: Removal of invasive species and hydroseeding with mix of grasses and wildflower species. 

In 2014 the Friends of Cedarmere began a program aimed at removal and control of invasive species of plants and trees and planting of native species. This work was supported in part by funding from NCSWCD. Many hundreds of native trees and shrubs have been planted and established over the years, but excessive growth of invasives threatens these plantings every growing season. Hundreds of invasive trees of all sizes in natural areas, such as Norway maple, tree of heaven and Japanese maple have been removed.

This projects plan is to make a more ambitious effort to remove invasives in certain upland areas, where we will also add hydroseeding with native grasses and flowers to help control invasive ground cover plants such as English ivy. For all of this work  the services of Spadefoot Design and Construction were utilized. Their specialized knowledge and equipment used for this work is expected to give us the best results. We used the services of Spadefoot for invasive plant removal in selected areas over the past two years. This year they will be employing some additional mechanized equipment, where feasible, plus the addition of hydroseeding. Overall the project areas covered a total of 20,000 ft sq. 

The seed mix used: 20% Virginia Wildrye, 19.8% Big Bluestem, (18.9% Little Bluestem, Indiangrass), 13% Switchgrass, 2.8% Partridge Pea, 2.5% Blackeyed Susan, (1.4% Oxeye Sunflower, Showy Ticktrefoil), (>.2%Common Milkweed, Wild Bergamont), (>.1% Heath Aster, Roundhead Lespedeza, Narrowleaf Mountainmint, Canadian Goldenrod) 

Garvies Point Museum and Preserve Meadow Restoration

The Garvies Point Museum and Preserve are operated by the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation and Museums.  The preserve consists of 62 acres of glacial moraine covered by forests, thickets, and meadows. There are approximately five miles of marked nature trails including those for the visually impaired. Wooded areas, which exhibit various stages of succession, contain over 60 species of trees as well as numerous shrubs, vines and wildflowers. High cliffs along the shoreline display erosional features such as alluvial fans, talus slopes, and slumping caused by ancient multicolored clays oozing from the bluff.  The woods and meadows, with their varied plant life, attract more than 140 species of birds, notably, scarlet tanagers and many varieties of warblers. Woodchucks, opossums and raccoons can occasionally be seen in the woods or along a meadow's edge. The preserve supports woodland communities of differing ages and composition. Their development is related to prior land use which included cattle grazing, hay harvesting, and timber cutting for lumber, firewood and fence stock.  In the early 1900s most of the preserve and surrounding land was meadow and pasture. As less open land was needed for cattle and agriculture, the area reverted, through natural succession, to woodlands, resulting in forest communities of varying ages. The land was acquired by Nassau County in 1963, with the museum opening on July 4, 1967.  The museum specializes in New York State and Long Island geology and Native American culture and archaeology with an interactive "woodland village" with activities depicting Native American life-ways, while also providing an extensive outdoor classroom where the public can learn about the natural systems and communities which existed prior to settlement. 

This project aimed to enhance and restore soils by removing invasive species such as porcelain berry, mile-a-minute, and mugwort, then planting approximately 750 native grassland plugs consisting of 5 native grassland species. Planting native species establishes a diverse root system that provides erosion control, improved stormwater infiltration, and increased nutrient uptake, resulting in healthier soils for insects and small mammals.

Community Outreach and Eduation

The NCSWCD participated in local and regional forums to assist with conservation education and outreach and to better understand current environmental conditions as they relate to Nassau County.

Additional events and meetings include:

NYS Open Space Planning, Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan, Conservation District Employees Association, Re-Leaf, DEC Water Chesnut Pull, Long Island Native Plant Initiative Grasslands Symposium, National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association Conference.

NYS ISA Certified Arborist Olivia Cunningham (Pictured Left) teaching Merrick residents proper tree care and identification. A second educational walk was also hosted in Freeport. These two events were in collaboration with Wild Ones - a nonprofit focused on promoting environmental education and conservation programs on Long Island.

A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life is a program organized by the South Shore Estuary Reserve focused on environmental education, community engagement and water-quality monitoring. Students will get the opportunity to collect water quality samples, learn about ecosystem services and engage with local flora & fauna.

After the field trip event, the data collected by student groups is processed and shared for analysis—an activity in which students are encouraged to participate in.  This can range from tracking water & soil health throughout Nassau County to GIS analysis of the collected data.

Nassau County SWCD Rain Garden Revitalization Project

The purpose of a Rain Garden is to capture excess stormwater runoff and filter it of pollutants as it enters the groundwater system. Rain Gardens are a type of green infrastructure, using native plants with extensive root systems that capture and clean as water passes down their roots.  

The NCSWCD has built numerous gardens over the years, five gardens were. The locations include Nassau Hall in Muttontown Preserve, Bayville Community Center, Bayville West Harbor Beach, Bayville Eastern Waterfront Center and the Hempstead Plains Nature Preserve on the NCC Campus. 

Initial Characterization of Management of Pathogens Affecting Sanitary Condition of Shellfish Lands in the Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor Complex

The NCSWCD provided funding to Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) to collect water quality data that will then be used to identify problem areas and manage fecal coliform contamination in the watershed. 

The project was broken into four parts with the main goal to use data collected to guide efforts to identify problem areas and manage fecal coliform contaminiation.

• Existing data from shellfish land areas and available NYS DEC Shellfish sanitation data was compiled and analyzed according to U.S. FDA National Shellfish Sanitary Program reccomendations.
• Training of Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor Protection Committee Members and Volunteers in illicit discharge detection and elimination (IDDE): This training will ensure continuation of IDDE after the project is complete
• Project Profiles for Future Study and Management Strategies addressing the Most Contaminated Sites Identified in the Cold Spring Harbor Watershed
• Storm Sewer Mapping and Identification of Major Drainage Areas in the Mill Neck Creek Watershed and Planning for Future Fecal Coliform Assessments

Habitat Restoration at Leeds Pond

The Invasive Plant Removal and Native Plant Revegetation of Leeds Pond Preserve was made possible with funding from the Nassau County Soil & Water Conservation District. The Science Museum of Long Island worked with Spadefoot Design and Construction to complete the project with the goal of clearing 2 acres of Invasive plants like Japanese Knotweed, English Ivy and Norway Maple and replanting with resilient native species. 

Town of North Hempstead - Native Plant Rebate Program

The NCSWCD provided funding to reimburse Town of North Hempstead Residents who purchased native plants to create native plant gardens and rain gardens. Native plants provide food, shelter and nesting resources for birds, pollinators, small mammals and a variety of wildlife species.

Native plants have a multitude of environmental benefits like extensive root systems that absorb polluted stormwater, sequestering carbon, lower maintenance requirements and less need for fertilizer, mowing and irrigation.

Providing rebates for installation of these plants would lead to more native plants being put into the ground, which will support the Town's effort to increase native plants and wildlife habitat throughout the Town of North Hempstead. 

Town of North Hempstead Native Plants

Shorescaping at Baxters Pond 

Repairing and replacing the riparian buffer along the shores of Baxter's Pond.

Bordered by a densely suburban community and 2 highly trafficked roads, Baxter's Pond is the catch basin for debris, runoff, litter and chemical waste from lawns and road care. Baxters pond is spring-fed and flows directly into Manhasset Bay eventually feeding into the Long Island Sound

The "Shorescaping" Project will address the need to abate nonpoint pollution sources reaching Manhasset Bay, increase and improve the natural resources with native plantings and the removal of invasive plants.

The project, funded by the NCSWCD began in 2019 and has supported a multi-year design and planting program. The Baxter's Pond Foundation has engaged volunteers to assist in the planting process and educate about native plant choices. 

Participating in the 2022 TICK BLITZ
 

The NYS Tick Blitz is a yearly event created by the Northeast Regional Vector Control Center NEVBD. With help from Cornell Cooperative Extension CCE and NYS Integrated Pest Management NYIPM. Read about the NYS Tick Blitz here

The purpose of the study is to study all NY regions simultaneously to understand where different tick species are present and track their northward expansion. District Technician Sean Rooney surveyed a collective 1,500 meters of Muttontown Preserve.