The only way to get to Young’s Island - by kayak!
Nature Initiative volunteers with their black bags
Young’s Island Clean-up
Every year, Four Harbors Audubon and Avalon Preserve's teen group, Nature Initiative (formally Students Taking Action for Tomorrow's Environment, aka STATE) paddle across Porpoise Channel to Youngs Island, a dredge Island which has become a rookery for numerous shorebirds, and waders, including Great and Snowy Egrets, Black-and Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Least and Common Terns, Oystercatchers, and two species of gulls.
The volunteers spread out to cover both the shoreline and the interior, collecting many types of wrack and trash which has washed up on the island. Broken bottles, bits of plastic, plastic bags, fishing line, shotgun casings and other small debris are placed in black plastic bags, while much larger items, like railroad ties, construction debris, pieces of dock, large Styrofoam floats, and even occasionally even a large piece of electronic equipment, are collected and placed in strategic piles just above the high-tide line for the Harbormaster to pick up. The most interesting piece of trash found to date was the triangle from a Magic 8-ball!
After a few hours of collecting, the group has lunch and then a paddle around the island to explore the estuary of Stony Brook Harbor and Smithtown Boat Launch. The day finishes with a paddle back to the initial launch site by the Stony Brook Yacht Club and boat launch.
Making sure kayaks are above tideline
Piling the trash above the tideline
Young Island's east shore with Smithtown Boat basin in background
all photos:Joy Cirigliano