Be A Good Egg

Every summer our chapter helps educate beachgoers about the birds we share the shore with. We answer questions about our threatened and endangered shorebirds and ask beachgoers to take the “Be a Good Egg” pledge.

Arthur Kunz County Park

Arthur Kunz County Park is one of the smaller parks in the Suffolk County system. It’s located in Smithtown Township, along the western bank of the Nissequogue river and has hiking trails through a rolling deciduous forest, tidal creek and hidden ponds. Four Harbors does a birding walk here every year to see which warblers are thrushes are migrating through.

When it was brought to our attention that a homeowner abutting Arthur Kunz had encroached into the Park, fencing it off the land for personal use, we began advocating for the return of the land to the County Park, the replanting of the land (as it had been cleared and turned into a putting green) and for appropriate measures to be taken with the homeowner for his illegal actions.

Four Harbors sent the following comment to Suffolk County. 

Calverton Grasslands (EPCAL)

Community groups petition to save the protected 1050 Acre Calverton Grassland, included in the sale and re-development of the 2,900 acre EPCAL property. 

Due to development, Grassland is the most rapidly disappearing ecosystem in New York State.  Because of this, grassland species of plants and animals are also in steep decline. One example, the Grasshopper Sparrow, has lost so much habitat in New York State in the last 50 years that its numbers have declined by more than 95%.  It’s a grassland endemic species which basically means it spends most of its life in a grassland like Calverton.

Prior to industrialization, forest, pine barrens, and grassland covered much of Long Island. Suburban sprawl and over-development have reduced these areas to highly fragmented patches, to the detriment of our local ecosystems, our groundwater and aquifer, and the wildlife these areas used to support. The Calverton grassland is the last contiguous large parcel (1050 acres) of grassland left on Long Island. 

The Calverton Grassland is ecologically significant.  It is home to a number of NYS endangered, threatened and species of special concern, both plants and animals.  The animals either breed, winter, or forage on the property. Animal species include the Short-eared owl, Northern Harrier, Tiger salamander, Eastern Spadefoot Toad, Eastern Hog-nose Snake, Common Nighthawk, Grasshopper Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Whip-poor-will, Marbled Salamander, Spotted Turtle, and Eastern Box Turtle. Many of these plants and animals are habitat-specific.  This means, they can only live in a grassland.  

These 1050 protected and environmentally sensitive acres is being included in a sale and re-development plan by the Town of Riverhead.  Click "here" to read the letter submitted to the Town of Riverhead, concerning the development of the the Calverton grassland.

You can read the letter that our conservation and community groups submitted to the town of Riverhead concerning the inclusion of the protected acreage in the sale and development of the EPCAL site.

Gyrodyne

Gyrodyne is planning to sell 75-acres of their Flowerfield property in St. James, along Route 25A to a developer who plans to build a hotel, medical offices and an assisted living facility. St. James will get an upgraded sewer system to improve their downtown and Smithtown will reap the property taxes from the new businesses. The traffic in and out will be along Rte. 25A and Stony Brook Rd which are already near capacity. But from an environmental perspective please read the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) to learn more about the impact on the Stony Brook watershed and other environmental concerns.