Coalition plans for Nissequogue preservation Call for 110 environmental actions; funding yet to be secured
By Joe Darrow	write the author
November 26, 2008 | 10:44 AM On a grassy knoll at Sunken Meadow State Park, overlooking the river they hope to revitalize, a coalition of government officials, environmental groups and residents released Monday a long-in-the-works plan for Nissequogue watershed preservation efforts. The plan was developed over three years under the leadership of the nonprofit, nongovernmental Regional Plan Association, funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the state Department of Environmental Conservation. It enumerates 110 actions that can be taken by public agencies and private volunteers to regrow natural habitats in the 40-square mile watershed, and preserve the runoff region's environmental quality. The watershed plan's recommendations applaud certain preservation efforts underway and call for their extension, as well as advocating new programs to be instituted. Nissequogue preservation steps include stepping up municipal land-use regulations and open-space preservation efforts, reconstructing barriers along the Nissequogue to allow fish passage, restoring native vegetation that has been driven out by invasive species and utilizing Smithtown-area high school students to monitor water quality as part of their science curriculum. "It's time for us to roll up our sleeves and implement these actions," said Mark Tedesco, director of the Long Island Sound Study. All steps in the preservation plan required consensus by the effort's steering committee, which included representatives from Smithtown, Nissequogue Village and Suffolk County governments, Kings Park Civic Association, Environmental Defense Fund, Trout Unlimited, Long Island Sound Study and the League of Women Voters of Smithtown. The plan calls for restoring the dwindling native diadromous fish species, i.e. those that migrate between salt and fresh water, and increase regulation of fishing for these species once they repopulate the Nissequogue. The scheme also suggests nurturing other marine wildlife historically native to the area, such as shellfish and eel grass, while protecting endangered local bird species like the piping plover. To aid a revitalization of native habitats, the plan's developers recommend, for example: tightening boating and fishing regulations; investigating the cause of the rapid sedimentation of the river bottom that shrinks channels and reduces natural flushing the river ecosystem relies on; utilizing natural materials and native plant species to fight erosion instead of traditional bulkheads; conducting a pilot tidal wetlands restoration program at Sunken Meadow to serve as a model for larger scale marine vegetation; and replacing invasive plants with their native counterparts. "We have what has been lost in the past, and we have what's needed into the future," said steering committee member Mike Kaufman, a representative from the Nissequogue and Head of the Harbor Joint Coastal Management Commission. However, as the plan's backers consider the future, the question of funding remains largely unsettled. One recommended action, conducting a study on how to restore tidal flow to portions of the river in Sunken Meadow State Park critical for habitat redevelopment, will be paid for by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Long Island Sound Futures Fund, based on grants from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. But that leaves 109 steps still unfunded. RPA plan director Rob Freudenberg said the next step is forming an implementation committee "to prioritize actions and try to find ways we can get them funded." He acknowledged that the costs of some of the projects would be "tremendous," although no overall price estimate had been yet developed due to the far-ranging variables involved. In addition to federal EPA funding, one potential source of funding is New York State, but state Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-St. James) said generating state aid would "be a challenge" given a shrinking budget. However, both private and public sectors must rise to the challenge, he said; the Nissequogue "is worth protecting and we all have to work very hard to make sure we enact all of [the recommendations] as quickly as possible." Still, many of the preservation steps don't require a single dollar — just care and elbow grease from concerned inhabitants of the Nissequogue River watershed region. For example, one step calls for students and volunteer groups to monitor water-quality and wildlife along the Nissequogue, as well organizing litter cleanup efforts. An entire subsection of the plan focuses on outreach and public education efforts to notify and include as many residents as possible in environmental efforts. "One of the concepts of the plan is 'the Nissequogue River is your backyard,'" Freudenberg said. Teens from Kings Park and Hauppauge high schools had already begun separate habitat sampling and observation programs on the Nissequogue, RPA officials said. "You can't put a price on the passion of the people," Freudenberg said.