WHAT YOU CAN DO
Homeowners can be reimbursed up to $500 to offset the costs of installing green infrastructure on their property, including rain barrels, rain gardens, and native plant gardens.
Applications for 2026 are now closed. Check back in spring 2027!
Funds are limited and are awarded on a first come, first served basis, so start planning your project now using the steps below.
The Peconic Estuary Partnership (PEP) Homeowner Rewards Program provides financial rewards to homeowners who replace turf grass and pavement with green alternatives that benefit the environment. While improving your property, you help keep stormwater pollution out of our bays and support pollinators and wildlife.
Residents of Brookhaven, East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton, and Southold townships who live within the Peconic Estuary watershed are eligible.
Every plant you list must be an approved native. The database is the best way to build a plant list that will be approved.
Once your plant list and project details are ready, apply online in just a few minutes.
Prefer paper? Print the application and email it to Rewards@peconicestuary.org or mail it to the address in Step 4 below.
The $500 maximum is the total for each property, even if you install both plants and a rain barrel.
Replace pavement, turf grass, or lawn with native plant species only.
Minimum garden size: 50 square feet.
Minimum size: 50 gallons
Up to $100 per barrel, or the actual cost if less.
Install based on the manufacturer’s guidelines or follow these DIY instructions.
I started replacing lawn with natives in 2023. I use sheet-mulching to cover the existing lawn. I fence in certain plants that the deer may eat. I’ve planted perennials, trees, ferns, and seeds. The black-eyed susans and yarrow are from seed. Other native volunteers have been coming up, such as oak, cherry, bayberry, horseweed, burnweed, pokeweed, black walnut, goldenrod, rushes, sedges, grasses, and others.
My goal is to transform my entire .65 acre yard into a wildlife habitat by replacing existing lawn and keeping up with invasives. I also put in a small wildlife pond, keep a bird bath on the ground full of fresh water, and have created dead hedges to keep organic material on the property.
I love seeing the land transform so quickly from monoculture lawn and invasives, to a thriving habitat for insects, birds and small mammals, and yes, deer. My yard is very biodiverse and continues to grow in that direction. The practice of planting, weeding, and watering is a wonderful exercise and very healthy mentally and physically.
I thank Homeowner Rewards for making this possible and inspiring me and so many others to take their first steps into creating native habitat.
Sharon, Cutchogue
