Recent Articles
May 3, 2021
“‘These plants are adapted to our region and all of the active species in our region are also adapted to using these plants in some way to get nutrients. It really is a great habitat for all of our native wildlife,’ – Sarah Schaefer, Program Coordinator for PEP.”
April 13, 2021
“The Peconic Estuary Partnership was awarded more than double the funding under the final budget, according to Assemblyman Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor). The package includes $450,000 for the partnership, which received $200,000 in state funding last year… ‘We’re absolutely grateful for the support,’ PEP executive director Joyce Novak said Friday, noting that state funding has remained stagnant for the last decade. The increase, she said, stems from years of advocacy work by the organization’s members.”
November 9, 2020
“To help protect the 250 square miles that comprise the Peconic watershed, the Peconic Estuary Partnership recently unveiled its 2020 Comprehensive Conservation and Management plan, which will serve as its roadmap for the next decade. The 88-page document identifies clean water, abundant wildlife habitats, a thriving coastal economy and climate change preparedness as top goals and outlines a series of 35 objectives to aid in its implementation.”
November 7, 2020
“Joyce Novak of the Peconic Estuary Partnership has established a technical advisory committee to try to find solutions including a more resilient scallop…’To see it be so decimated for two years in a row is a giant wakeup call for climate change and how we deal with putting nutrients in the waters,’ she said.”
November 6, 2020
“…the issue goes beyond water quality. Ecosystems are rapidly changing as a result of climate change, according to the Peconic Estuary Partnership. Warmer ocean temperatures are more susceptible to the harmful effects of nutrient pollution, the excessive input of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in bodies of water, another concern for scientists and baymen.”
October 31, 2020
“At a recent meeting of the Bay Scallop Technical Review committee, attendees, including Tettelbach, concurred 2020’s scallop season would be “equally bad if not worse” than 2019.”
October 3, 2020
“This coming Peconic Bay scallop season could prove a repeat of last year’s devastating die-off, says Dr. Stephen Tettelbach, a Long Island University ecology professor who heads Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Peconic Bay Scallop Restoration Program. In addition to the recurring warm water temperatures that thwarted last year’s scallops, the shellfish faced two additional threats this year, says Dr. Tettelbach.”
July 1, 2020
PEP funded project – “The gardens can handle up to 1.2 inches of rainfall in any 24-hour period. That’s important, Ms. Castano said, because the first inch of rain carries about 80 percent of the contaminants — things like lawn fertilizer, fecal matter, traces of oil that leaks from cars — that would otherwise be washed into the bay.”
February 18, 2020
“The marine mammal was seen swimming in the water on the west side of Grangebel Park last Wednesday.”
February 9, 2020
“Researchers have discovered what they believe is a contributing cause of the “near-unprecedented” Peconic Bay scallop die-off of 2019: a parasite found in a sample of adult bay scallops..”
November 20, 2019
“A wetlands restoration project proposed for Orient could turn Narrow River Road into a recreational path for residents. It’s one of four recommendations outlined in a conceptual design plan funded by the Peconic Estuary Program in a partnership with Ducks Unlimited and Southold Town.”
November 18, 2019
“Ms. Schaefer said the Peconic Estuary Program will be convening a scallop technical review committee in the coming weeks. Mr. Tettelbach added that Cornell Cooperative is working to protect the remaining scallop population.”
August 12, 2019
“Joyce Novak, executive director of the Peconic Estuary Program, described the plan as a “giant leap” toward a healthier ecosystem and cleaner waters in the Peconics.”
July 14, 2019
“We also work with other East End villages and towns, through the Peconic Estuary Program, to develop regional solutions to protecting our bays, creeks and estuaries. Water quality is a regional challenge that requires regional solutions.”
June 24, 2019
“The Peconic Estuary Program has funded the salt marsh restoration work being carried out by Peconic Land Trust with technical assistance from Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program.” The latest phase in the restoration has been completed.
June 15, 2019
“Five years in the making, Peconic Estuary Program’s first living shoreline is coming to fruition as Greenport Elementary School students gathered Monday with representatives of community organizations to complete the project’s final planting phase.”
May 7, 2019
PEP Program Director, Dr. Joyce Novak, discusses the program’s priorities, projects, and updates for the Peconic Estuary at the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association meeting.
May 5, 2019
PEP Program Coordinator, Sarah Schaefer, along with retired NYSDEC biologist, Byron Young, and PEP interns showcase Alewife monitoring at Woodhull Dam in Riverhead, and discuss the installation of a fish passage at the dam to help allow 50,000-80,000 Alewife reach 95 acres of freshwater habitat! Take a look at this Newsday article and video!
April 23, 2019
Peconic Estuary Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program and Peconic Land Trust are hosting a Beach Grass Planting event in Greenport on April 24th. Volunteers will be a part of a Living Shoreline restoration project.
April 4, 2019
Shelter Island’s STOP program is held on the first Saturday of every month, making it easy for residents to drop off their hazardous waste. This benefits both our community and our environment.
September 7, 2018
Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) announced $480,000 in federal funding for the Cedar Beach Creek Habitat Restoration Demonstration Project, working with the Army Corps of Engineers, which will restore local essential ecosystem functions in the degraded marsh system.
The Project grantee, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, will implement this project with New York District of the Army Corps, in coordination with Suffolk County Parks and the Peconic Estuary Program to improve this 65 acre marsh, beach, and open water mosaic.
August 29, 2018
Southampton Town Board members are looking into the possibility of combining with other East End towns in giving a portion of the 20 percent of Community Preservation Fund revenues earmarked for water quality projects to the Peconic Bay National Estuary Program—a government-funded organization focused on protecting and restoring bodies of water and wetlands surrounding Peconic Bay.
August 01, 2018
Ms. Novak, newly appointed director of the Peconic Estuary Program, is especially interested in studying how the estuary has evolved.
Learn more about the program’s new Director!
April 23rd, 2018
The Peconic Estuary Program is seeking the public’s input on its Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan, which hasn’t seen updates since it was approved in 2001.
The CCMP is the blueprint for how the program focuses its resources to protect and restore the estuary, which stretches east from the headwaters of the Peconic River and includes several bays, ending at Block Island Sound.
March 9th, 2018
It’s not easy to tell the difference between a blue back river herring and an alewife herring. The sliver of blue scales along the dorsal fin of the blue back herring is just about the only difference between the two.
But telling them apart won’t be a problem much longer—because there won’t be any left.
August 23rd, 2017
Rust tide, a type of algae that can kill finfish and shellfish, is blooming in parts of Shinnecock and Quantuck bays as well as portions of the Peconic Estuary on the East End.
July 13th, 2017
2017 year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the National Estuary Program – which occurred when Section 320 was added to the Clean Water Act in a series of amendments in 1987.
2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the Peconic Estuary Program’s addition to the National Estuary Program. When Riverhead News-Review reporter, Kelly Zegers, came across the 25 year old article written about the occasion, she shared this.
May 31st, 2017
For all you East Enders doing some landscaping this spring, read this first! Consider planting native or “native compatible” plants or installing a rain garden, or rain barrels, and you may be able to get some of your costs reimbursed.
May 27th, 2017
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget takes aim at a number of environmental programs across several agencies, reducing money used to enforce air and water rules and eliminating funding for Long Island Sound and coastal research programs.
February 15th ,2017
After years of petitioning, the Peconic Estuary Program—a government-funded organization focused on protecting and restoring bodies of water and wetlands surrounding Peconic Bay—anticipates more revenue for its work.
This month, $200,000 was included for the program in the state’s executive budget by Governor Andrew Cuomo—when typically it takes protracted petitioning from other state officials to have any funds included in the program’s budget.