Holding Back the Sea at Montauk

May 14, 2015

Sea level rise is accelerating, according to recent scientific reports, threatening coastal regions around the world. One of the places where sea level is rising the fastest is on the East Coast of the US. Traditional beach communities on the East End are already seeing battles heat up on how to deal with it. 

Waterfront property owners want to hold back the sea by building hard structures like sea walls and revetments. But ocean scientists point to abundant evidence that those structures cause significant erosion along the shoreline, affecting both public beaches and adjacent homes. 

Despite this, The Army Corp of Engineers is scheduled to install 14,000 giant sand-filled geotubes on a 3100 foot stretch of Montauk beach in the fall. 

The Corps claims the geotubes are not hard structures, but a recently filed lawsuit begs to differ. 

Sustainable East End talked with Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O about the lawsuit and efforts to stop this project.

Listen here

More about coastal erosion - our interview with Doug Hardy here

Holding Back the Sea at Montauk

May 14, 2015

Sea level rise is accelerating, according to recent scientific reports, threatening coastal regions around the world. One of the places where sea level is rising the fastest is on the East Coast of the US. Traditional beach communities on the East End are already seeing battles heat up on how to deal with it. 

Waterfront property owners want to hold back the sea by building hard structures like sea walls and revetments. But ocean scientists point to abundant evidence that those structures cause significant erosion along the shoreline, affecting both public beaches and adjacent homes. 

Despite this, The Army Corp of Engineers is scheduled to install 14,000 giant sand-filled geotubes on a 3100 foot stretch of Montauk beach in the fall. 

The Corps claims the geotubes are not hard structures, but a recently filed lawsuit begs to differ. 

Sustainable East End talked with Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O about the lawsuit and efforts to stop this project.

Listen here

More about coastal erosion - our interview with Doug Hardy here

John Halsey of Peconic Land Trust - Updated 2015

Are we running out of farmland?

In a land where potatoes once covered the landscape, traditional farming on the east end has given way to luxury housing over the last decades.

The Peconic Land Trust was started in 1983 to ensure the protection of Long Island’s working farms, natural lands, and heritage.

John v. H. Halsey, President and founder of the Trust was brought up on a traditional farm in Southampton Town. 

                                                                                                      

Francesca Rheannon spoke with Halsey in 2013 about land preservation efforts of the Peconic LandTrust, the demise of traditional farms, how community supported agriculture was developed by the Land Trust and what can be done to keep protected land in farming. 

Here is an update: 

Last summer (2014) the Southampton Town Board preserved its first two farmland parcels with the proviso that the land, 33 acres in Water Mill, must be in the hands of working food farmers.  The land was sold to a local farmer at considerably below market value after purchase by the Town and transfer to the Peconic Land Trust. 

More information about the trust is at peconiclandtrust.org.

Listen here 

John Halsey of Peconic Land Trust - Updated 2015

Are we running out of farmland?

In a land where potatoes once covered the landscape, traditional farming on the east end has given way to luxury housing over the last decades.

The Peconic Land Trust was started in 1983 to ensure the protection of Long Island’s working farms, natural lands, and heritage.

John v. H. Halsey, President and founder of the Trust was brought up on a traditional farm in Southampton Town. 

                                                                                                      

Francesca Rheannon spoke with Halsey in 2013 about land preservation efforts of the Peconic LandTrust, the demise of traditional farms, how community supported agriculture was developed by the Land Trust and what can be done to keep protected land in farming. 

Here is an update: 

Last summer (2014) the Southampton Town Board preserved its first two farmland parcels with the proviso that the land, 33 acres in Water Mill, must be in the hands of working food farmers.  The land was sold to a local farmer at considerably below market value after purchase by the Town and transfer to the Peconic Land Trust. 

More information about the trust is at peconiclandtrust.org.

Listen here