Suffolk Closeup: Wetlands A Vital Part Of Our Environment

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

What a difference several decades have made when it comes to wetlands.  

Photo credit Nissequogue River LI StudyAt long last, there’s been a change spurred by enlightened government leadership, action by environmental organizations and, amid the climate crisis, the realization of the importance of wetlands in providing coastal resiliency in the face of climate change.

Wetlands, where fish feed and breed—among other attributes—are a vital part of the environment. But for so long this was not recognized. Wetlands were dismissed as “marshes” to be filled and turned into property on which construction could take place. 

Studies have determined that half of the coastal wetlands in the United States, approximately 120 million acres, were filled in since 1900. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife study released in 2004 estimated that Suffolk County had lost 39% of its tidal wetlands and 51% of its freshwater wetlands.

This summer, Suffolk County received a $1.29 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant for the first phase of a program to restore wetlands at the 80-acre Cupsogue Beach Marsh in Westhampton, the 25-acre Scully Marsh in Islip and the 35-acre Islip Preserve in East Islip. The total cost of the project will be $4.3 million. Commenting on it, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said the undertaking would seek to restore the areas to their “natural conditions.”

What a difference decades make, indeed. In 1970, as an investigative reporter for the daily Long Island Press, I exposed how the Suffolk County Department of Public Works utilized a huge county dredge to suck up bay bottom and deposit it as fill on wetlands in Southampton Town to provide a base for housing developments. 

My article was headlined: “PUBLIC Vs. PRIVATE. Suffolk DPW Boss OKs Own Side Jobs” and covered the front page of The Press. It began: “Suffolk Public Works Commissioner Rudolph M. Kammerer, while a public official, has ‘moonlighted’ as a private engineer on at least eleven substantial housing developments, many of which benefitted from his or his ‘partner’s’ public and political positions….The man he described as his ‘partner’—C. Marvin Raynor—was…president of Southampton’s powerful town trustees—empowered with the supervision of the town’s…waterfront.”

The piece noted that Raynor, also at the time mayor of Quogue, laid out plans for bulkheading to make the filling possible, and as a trustee voted for the projects.

Kammerer, of Westhampton Beach, first denied his connection to the developments but then I found his sworn signature as a private engineer for them on statements on their waste plans in files of the county Health Department in Riverhead.  

Raynor’s defense was: “I voted for these projects because I thought they were right. Just because I worked on them doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have voted for them.” He resigned as president of the trustees before my piece ran. 

Kammerer said he saw “absolutely no conflict of interest” in his private and official positions. He said: “The cops moonlight.”

Suffolk County Executive John V.N. Klein would subsequently order the sale of the county dredge that did the work. 

Efforts to save the county wetlands also involve major damage done to them by the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission which for many decades dug ditches through wetlands to dry them up and so ostensibly to kill mosquitoes. This “misguided science” not only failed to decrease the mosquito population but damaged the health of the wetlands, says Enrico Nardone, executive director of the Islip-based Seatuck Environmental Association, among the environmental organizations active in striving to preserve and restore wetlands.

Part of the grant Suffolk County is receiving provides for using in the wetlands what FEMA calls its Integrated Marsh Management Method to eliminate these ditches. This is seen as improving tidal flow and improving growing conditions for grasses.

Here. in the current Peconic Estuary Partnership Habitat Restoration Plan, completed in 2020, and to which Nardone was a contributor, is a description of tidal wetlands:

“Tidal wetlands, also known as salt marshes, are vegetated areas around the edge of the estuary that are inundated by seawater brought in by the tides twice daily. The low marsh is dominated by salt marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), a plant that is specially adapted to living in this unique environment. The high marsh, which is only inundated by seawater during the highest spring tides or storm surges, is usually dominated by salt meadow grass (Spartina patens), but a variety of other plants may be found in this area too. Wetlands provide numerous ecosystem services and are some of the most productive habitats on Earth. They are ideal habitats for juvenile fish and shellfish to grow and reproduce. Three-fourths of the fish and shellfish we eat rely on the marsh environment at some point during their life. They are also important areas for waterfowl and shorebirds and the diamondback terrapin, an exclusively estuarine reptile. Beyond serving as important habitat for a number of species, wetlands help to slow shoreline erosion and provide a critical buffer between estuarine waters and the terrestrial environment. These habitats are capable of filtering a large amount of surface runoff from land, buffering estuarine waters from excess nutrients and contaminants that might be contained in surf ace runoff. Conversely, wetlands can absorb a large amount of floodwater from the estuary, providing protection to coastal communities during large storms.”

What a statement: wetlands “are some of the most productive habitats on Earth.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY at Old Westbury and the author of six books.