History

THE 1970s

• In 1972, Group for America’s South Fork is founded to protect the local environment and recognize the area’s nationally significant attributes.

• The Group secures a grant of $150,000 from the Whitehall Foundation to conduct a study that becomes one of the first environmental planning tools on the South Fork—an inventory and the mapping of its natural resources.

• In a lawsuit to compel the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to protect tidal wetlands in East Hampton, the Group receives legal “standing” by the court, a first for a public interest group in the state.

• To ease traffic congestion, members of the Group’s board of directors come up with an idea for providing bus service between New York City and local villages. The late James Davidson, a member of that board, takes that idea to create one of the East End’s most successful businesses, the Hampton Jitney.

• At the Group’s insistence, Suffolk County purchases critical land surrounding Poxabogue Pond for preservation. This becomes one of a series of purchases that today, covers the Long Pond Greenbelt.

• The Group’s water quality laboratory receives FDA accreditation. Staff members collect data that county and state officials use to determine which local waterbodies are appropriate for shell fishing.

THE 1980s

• At the Group’s urging, New York State grants East Hampton and Southampton towns the right to require that new development projects be clustered away from natural resources.

• As a result of the Group’s legal efforts and community outreach campaign, Union Carbide is required to provide filters for 1,600 homeowners whose wells are contaminated by the pesticide Temik.

• Thanks to the Group’s extensive lobbying efforts, the proposal for the construction of two nuclear reactors on the North Fork is officially rejected.

• At the Group’s urging, East Hampton and Southampton towns implement new limits on the development of lands critically important for drinking water.

• At the invitation of more than 200 Shelter Island families, the Group expands its environmental protection efforts to include the island.

• The Group orchestrates New York State’s first land preservation effort supported by three levels of government. New York State, Suffolk County, and East Hampton Town purchase 560 acres of land in Hither Woods. Preservation of this parcel is vital to the protection of drinking water.

• The Group helps East Hampton Town embark on a revolutionary pilot program for residential recycling. The unprecedented study shows more than 80% of household waste can be recycled.

• At the Group’s urging, New York State restricts the sale and use of boat-bottom paints containing Tributyltin (TBT), which is proven harmful to marine life.

• The Group researches and publishes the Healthy Households handbook, the first-ever guide to green living on the East End.

• After partnering with fishermen, civic groups, and conservation advocates for a decade, the Group is instrumental in preserving 460 acres at Barcelona Neck in East Hampton Town.

THE 1990s

• All five East End towns reject plans to incinerate garbage—at the urging of the Group—and instead, opt for environmentally sound recycling programs.

• The Group works with residents of Shelter Island to persuade the town board to create the first-ever comprehensive plan to protect the island’s natural resources.

• The Group partners with the Springs School in East Hampton to develop a South Fork-based environmental education curriculum for local schools.

• East Hampton voters respond to the Group’s conservation outreach campaign by passing a $5 million bond act to protect open space.

• The Group goes to court to prevent the irresponsible development of a key 1,500-acre land parcel in the Suffolk County Pine Barrens. The county negotiates the purchase of the Hampton Hills property, which becomes the cornerstone of the Pine Barrens preservation campaign.

• The Group plays a pivotal role in framing and negotiating the landmark Pine Barrens Preservation Act, ending a five-year legal battle over development in the Central Suffolk Pine Barrens. The act preserves more than 50,000 acres of forest and drinking water protection land.

• The Group works with residents of Southampton Town to secure passage of a law that calls for additional protection for wetlands.

• The Group campaigns successfully for the creation of a harbor protection overlay district in East Hampton Town. Group supporters turn out in large numbers to support the new legislation that will provide increased protection of the town’s bays and harbors.

• The Group leads a successful campaign to urge the Southampton Town Board to purchase the 40-acre Tuckahoe Woods property to prevent development of 16 residential lots. Tuckahoe Woods contains forests and woodland swamps that are significant for drinking water protection and wildlife habitat preservation.

• The Group leads more than 40 civic, business, and environmental groups in support of local bond proposals to protect open space and farmland across the East End. The proposals pass by overwhelming margins and represent the largest preservation commitment ever made by local voters.

• The Group takes on the Riverhead Sewage Treatment Plant and successfully challenges New York State to curtail the plant’s release of nitrogen, which has been polluting Peconic Bay. It is the first time the plant must reduce the amount of nitrogen it releases.

• The Group leads an effort to pass the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund (CPF), a New York State law that would give East End towns a new tool to raise urgently needed funds to protect open space. A coalition of 150 civic, environmental, real estate, banking, and farming interests convinces the New York State Legislature to approve the bill. To date, the CPF has raised more than $2 billion for land protection and, most recently, water protection.

• The Group recruits volunteers to plant thousands of beachgrass plugs to prevent beach erosion and enhance natural habitat. This effort helps the sand dunes accelerate their own natural rebuilding process.

• The South Fork Groundwater Task Force, an alliance of individuals and local environmental groups, is formed under the direction of the Group. The task force identifies critical watershed land—where we get our drinking water—to be protected from contamination.

THE 2000s

• To address the interconnection of environmental issues across the East End, Group for the South Fork expands its territory to include Southold, Riverhead, and Shelter Island and changes the organization’s name to Group for the East End. The Group adds an office in Southold.

• With the support of elected officials, the Group partners with civic organizations to oppose Broadwater Energy's proposal that would place a liquified natural gas terminal in Long Island Sound. After five years, the federal Commerce Department rules against the project, stating that protecting the aesthetic and scenic value of Long Island Sound outweighs the national interest in locating liquified natural gas facilities in coastal areas.

• The Group co-sponsors several programs to educate residents, landscaping professionals, groundskeepers, and community groups on how to maintain properties without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The programs are part of the Group's comprehensive groundwater protection initiative to improve water quality and empower individuals to take direct action to protect their local environment.

• Thanks to a Group-initiated proposal, East Hampton Town issues 200 rebate checks to homeowners who removed their buried fuel tanks. This amounts to approximately 60,000 gallons of home heating fuel that will not make its way into the groundwater or the ground.

• As a member of Suffolk County’s Wetlands Stewardship Committee, Wetlands Management Group, and Vector Control Committee, the Group successfully petitions the Suffolk County Legislature to limit the use of methroprene for mosquito control and on fertilizer and pesticides for lawncare.

• The Group launches a public awareness campaign in support of a $4 million bond initiative in Southold Town to pay for the preservation of farmland. This new funding stream proposal is passed by 71% of the voters.

• The Group rallies public support and advocates successfully for an amendment to East Hampton Town's Open Space Law that restricts lot clearing, depending on the size of a homeowner's property.

THE 2010s

• The Group co-founds the Long Island Clean Water Partnership to protect the region’s bays, harbors, and drinking water.

• The Group adds afterschool lessons to its environmental education programming and begins a long-term partnership with Project MOST and the Springs School in East Hampton. The students especially enjoy spray-painting stenciled signs next to storm drains around town that read, “No dumping. Drains to bay.”

• The Group partners with Southold Town to facilitate a donation of American Elm trees and native plants for a newly expanded dog park on the North Fork. The shade is a welcome addition for the dogs, and native plants installed by volunteers provide value to wildlife and require little maintenance as they do not require pesticides and use less water.

• The Group recruits volunteers to install new osprey poles on the North Fork to provide safer alternative to utility poles.

• The Group partners with the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, Long Island Pine Barrens Society, and Wading River Civic Association to successfully petition the Riverhead Town Board to change the zoning of dozens of acres of commercially-zoned land. The Save Wading River Campaign helps to preserve the small town’s community character and prevent suburban retail sprawl. To date, many of these parcels have been preserved as active agricultural land.

• The Group’s staff are named The Suffolk Times’ Civic People of the Year in recognition of conservation work on the North Fork since relocating from Bridgehampton to Southold.

• Working with New York State (NYS) Assemblyman Fred Thiele, the Group convinces the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to add the Speonk plume to its public database of toxic sites. As a result, residents are made aware that their individual water wells and indoor air quality are at risk of contamination by volatile organic compounds found in the groundwater. The Group co-founds the Speonk Solvent Plume Advisory Committee to red-flag the area for future development and to ensure the appropriate monitoring of the plume.

• The Group urges Southold Town to adopt new, restrictive zoning laws for Plum Island that would limit future potential development if full preservation is not achieved.

• The Group collaborates with the Noyac Civic Council to support an investigation into the operations at a Bridgehampton sand mine. A subsequent investigation by the Suffolk County Health Department reveals significant contamination of the site’s underlying drinking water reserves.

• The Group petitions Suffolk County to have a ballot referendum that would replace the $33 million raided from the county’s Drinking Water Protection Program to balance the county’s budget. The referendum is passed overwhelmingly by voters.

• The Group argues successfully to require advanced-treatment wastewater disposal systems for new construction and large renovation projects across Suffolk County. These new systems are critical in reducing nitrogen and restoring the health of our bays, harbors and drinking water from the effects of poorly-treated wastewater.

• The Group provides a $4,000 grant to the Town of Shelter Island to pay for an intern to create a septic system database and map. This effort is crucially important to developing informed recommendations and solutions for important water quality issues facing the island and the entire East End.

• The Group secures a contract with Southold Town to offer environmental education programs at the town-owned Downs Farm Preserve. The 51-acre parcel, a designated National Historic Landmark, boasts a Native American fort site, scenic woodlands, and tidal wetlands. For years the Group has offered hundreds of free programs at the preserve, including nature crafts for children, full moon family hikes, birding, and much more.

• The Group announces that in its first year, the East End Medication Disposal Program has collected 2,000 pounds of medications that could have ended up in local waters.

• The Group partners with Audubon New York to educate North Fork students about shorebirds and take the pledge to “Be A Good Egg.” Now in its sixth year, hundreds of children have learned about Long Island shorebirds, the various threats they face, and how they can help. The kids create colorful signs that encourage beachgoers to provide ample space for nesting shorebirds.

• The Group receives a grant from the Long Island Community Foundation to develop and implement three native planting projects in low-income communities on the East End to facilitate awareness about the local natural environment. As part of the Building Stronger Neighborhoods Program, the Group recruits more than 150 participants to plant beach grass to help prevent sand dune erosion, install a school pollinator garden, and to restore a native plant border around a school vegetable garden.

• To combat pollution and address quality-of-life issues for East End residents, the Group hosts beach cleanups, supports government proposals to ban balloons, plastic bags, and plastic straws, and advocates for restrictions on noisy, gas-powered leaf blowers.

• The Group unveils a new website, nyswap.org, to educate people about the plight of wildlife on the East End. Funded by the Long Island Community Foundation, the Group creates the website in response to the publishing of New York State’s Wildlife Action Plan, which lists 366 “species of greatest conservation need.” Of those, 166 are deemed “high priority,” including many local species on the East End.

• The Group partners with the Town of Southold in creating a public trail system that extends from Peconic Bay to Long Island Sound. The Group clears paths, creates and installs educational signage, removes invasive species, plants native species, and participates in citizen science projects like the Long Island River Otter Project and breeding bird surveys.

• The Group partners with the Kenney’s-McCabe’s Beach Civic Association to remove Phragmites and other invasive species that were choking Southold’s 33-acre Great Pond for years. Volunteers plant native species that bring back native wildlife, above and below the water’s surface. The project is made possible through a grant by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

• From May to late June, Group staff and volunteers head out in the middle of the night to a beach in Southold where horseshoe crabs spawn during high tide on the new and full moons. We collect and record valuable data to help determine the management and conservation of this important species.

• To raise awareness about light pollution and the wonders of our awe-inspiring night sky—and the importance of protecting it—the Group joins forces with civic, environmental, astronomical, business, and environmental organizations to form the North Fork Dark Sky Coalition whose efforts have value for the entire East End.