Featured Story

Shelter Island ecosystems in peril

AMBROSE CLANCY PHOTO | A stream leading from Gardiners Bay to a salt marsh in Hay Beach.
AMBROSE CLANCY PHOTO | A stream leading from Gardiners Bay to a salt marsh in Hay Beach.

On bright spring days tiny bait fish drift with the current in the stream.They shift as one when breezes ruffle the surface or when clouds crossing the sun turn the water dark with shadows. The stream snakes out from a wide saltwater marsh, running past short sand dunes and scrub — clean, clear, riding the tides, back and forth every 12 hours.

But follow the stream farther inland as it curves up the beach and you find a situation becoming a crisis because of a lack of funding, or, some would say, a lack of caring. Fragile but essential ecosystems like this one below Point Lane in Hay Beach and one at Dickerson’s Creek are being sentenced to live only in memories.

‘A tragedy for the Island’
Farther up the Point Lane salt marsh from the bay, your nose tells you something is wrong. Recent dredging brought up rotting elements and the smell of fish gone bad overpowers the soft breeze.

This previously thriving salt marsh, even though it moves, doesn’t have the flow of running water that it had in the past. Parts of the marsh have been silted over to form a mud flat higher than the tide in Gardiners Bay.

The water now reaching the salt marsh becomes stagnant and once- protected fish, crustaceans and plants are dying. Residents along Point Lane know what’s next — a loss of a natural resource providing a habitat for wading birds, marsh birds and fish hawks.

“It’s really a tragedy for the Island,” said Point Lane resident Barbara Olton.

Her house overlooks the marsh and all winter she watched as it filled with water and then emptied, as clean water flushed out stagnant water. Then suddenly that stopped.

At first she thought it was the result of a particularly low tide, but when it lasted for a week or more, she walked to the foot of Hiberry Lane and observed that dredging had taken place. The result: The bay bottom was lower than the marsh bottom and for water to flow through the marsh, it would have had to climb uphill.

Neighbor Greg Toner offered a thought about using sandbags to test whether the bay bottom could be raised so its water flowed into the salt marsh, refreshing it. If that worked, then a more permanent solution could be put in place restoring the water flow.

He spoke with Commissioner  of Public Works Jay Card Jr. who said he would explore possibilities with officials of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. But Mr. Card doubted the DEC would approve a sandbag trial.

Mr. Toner gives Mr. Card high marks for being “responsive” to Island needs. Both he and Mr. Toner have speculated that as the boating season picks up, silt could move in toward the shore and build up the bay bottom enough to resolve the problem, but Mr. Card continues to explore remedies if that doesn’t happen.

In the course of examining the situation at Hay Beach, Mr. Card met with officials from the DEC, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Suffolk County Department of Health Services Vector Control Division to explore remedies and deal with potential issues.

‘I hope it holds’
While Hay Beach residents wait, those along Midway Road saw a different scenario, but with a similar result. A culvert collapsed and saltwater that had flowed from Dickerson Creek to fresh water marshes on the north side of the road created mud flats threatening to extinguish wild- life that has flourished for years. Ducks, egrets and blue herons feed in the drainways and with the resulting blockage, their food supply would wane, warned Colin Hoye, who wrote a letter to the Reporter about the situation, saying it has been ignored for more than two decades.

“The deer use it for a salt lick. Hawks and owls hunt its borders and the fish spawn there,” Mr. Hoye wrote.

Island environmentalist Herb Stelljes followed with a Prose & Comments column, warning that without a plan “this small, but symbolic Island ecosystem” would go unprotected and be lost.

“In a community where the environment plays such an integral role in our overall well-being, can’t more be done to protect this resource?” he asked.

Not without public money and the town’s willingness to spend it, said Mr. Card, at the site as a highway crew temporarily repaired the Dickerson culvert.

“I hope it holds,” Mr. Card said, with an unspoken attitude of don’t hold your breath.

The crew discovered that drainage was blocked so water from Dickerson Creek couldn’t get through to the salt marsh. They were able to jettison a clump of mud blocking drainage and then flush out the pipe. The next step would have been to put a sleeve into the pipe to keep it from getting blocked again, but the DEC had rejected that plan.

“Some people call those band-aids,” he said about the temporary solution.

Town Engineer John Cronin had been working on a permanent fix, but it would cost  $7,500 that he had originally budgeted for work on the culvert. That money got sliced from his budget. At this point, it will cost more than that original figure.

To proceed will depend on receipt of grant money, Mr. Card said.

“When you’re elected highway superintendent, you don’t get magical powers to print money,” he added.