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		The Nature Conservancy in New York New York Home Contact Us Places We Protect   Adirondacks   Central & Western   Eastern   Long Island   New York City News Room Field Trips and Events Young Professionals Internship Program Science Volunteer Ways of Giving

Help Protect New York! Your donation will help us protect areas on Long Island and throughout New York. Donating online is fast, easy, and safe. Dig Deeper Bringing Back the Clam The Nature Conservancy and its partners are working throughout Long Island to make our waters thrive once again. The Nature Conservancy on Long Island On Long Island, we use a variety of approaches and work with many different partners to protect large landscapes, seascapes, and whole functioning ecosystems. Long Island's Last Stand A ten-year action plan to save the most significant remaining open spaces and farmland and to restore and protect our harbors, bays and public parklands. More than one-third of the United States' threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands, and nearly half use wetlands at some point in their lives.

Both people and wildlife depend on coastal wetlands. Before 1974, 10,000 acres of salt marshes on Long Island were destroyed. Now, laws exist to protect them from draining and filling.

But the remaining marshes are slowly being degraded and destroyed by other, more insidious forces: invasive species, bulkheads, cleared vegetation, and polluted groundwater or runoff.

The importance of tidal wetlands to people and wildlive cannot be overstated. Wetlands help us by:

• Capturing pollutants before they enter our beaches and bays;

• Preventing shoreline erosion and flooding;

• Buffering the force of storms;

• Providing nursery and nesting habitat and feeding areas for fish, birds, crabs and turtles; and

• Providing a critical link in the food chain of bay and ocean wildlife.

It's a Muddy Job, But Someone's Got to Do It

The Nature Conservancy recognizes the importance of Long Island's wetlands to the health and success of humans and wildlife alike. That's why we're working with other organizations and agencies to restore tidal wetlands by:

• Helping the State and local townships strengthen and enforce wetland protection laws;

• Developing strategies to create wetland buffers;

• Restoring wetlands and control invasive plants; and

• Helping Suffolk County update mosquito control practices. 

Get Your Feet Wet

You can help us keep Long Island's wetlands healthy by:

• Keeping existing native vegetation along the shoreline;

• Planting native trees and shrubs;

• Limiting the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides; and

• Supporting public policy that restores wetlands.

Find out more about how we're working to restore the Great South Bay.

 

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Mark Godfrey (wetland); Photo © Pat Lynch/USGS (roseate tern); Photo © Mark Godfrey (Great egret).