Two October Sundays at Two!!

In Person: Scott Chaskey at the Long Pond Greenbelt

Sunday, October 6th, 2:00 pm

Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Center

Scott Chaskey is a poet, farmer, and educator. For 30 years he cultivated soil and community for the Peconic Land Trust at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, NY, one of the original CSA’s in the country. Past president of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, he was honored as Farmer of the Year in 2013. He has served as a founding Board member for the Center for Whole Communities, in Vermont, Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, Shelter Island, NY, and for the Peter Matthiessen Center, Sagaponack, NY. He is the author of This Common Ground, (Viking, 2005), Seedtime, On the History, Husbandry, Politics, and Promise of Seeds (Rodale, 2014), Stars are Suns (Stoneman, 1995), and most recently, Soil and Spirit (Milkweed Editions, 2023). He lives in Sag Harbor with his wife Megan Chaskey, poet and musician, in the home in which they raised three children. 

Join FLPG and Scott Chaskey at the Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Center for a reading and conversation about Soil and Spirit.

Dr. Anna Thonis on Long Island's Eastern Box Turtles

Sunday, October 20th, 2:00 pm

Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Center

Long Island's Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) are becoming increasingly threatened by the rate of urbanization and habitat fragmentation occurring in the area. Over the course of our 2-year study, we captured a total of 189 unique individual eastern box turtles across 20 sites on Long Island to examine possible drivers of differences in Eastern box turtle shell damage and health in an urban landscape, as well as possible differences in sex and stage ratios. Come to my talk to learn what we found!

About Dr. Anna Thonis

Dr. Anna Thonis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at New York University (NYU) working on how urbanization impacts the spatial distribution of tropical lizards. Anna graduated with her PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in May 2024. While much of her PhD work focused on Puerto Rico's anole lizards, she was also involved in work on Long Island's Eastern box turtles. As a herpetologist and ecologist, Anna's work largely aims to understand how anthropogenic change impacts reptiles and amphibians, both in the tropics and on Long Island. 

Sundays at Two events are held at the Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Center, 1061 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike.

They are free and open to the public.

All are welcome.

We are thrilled to share that after years of hard work, Suffolk County voters now have the opportunity to secure a clean water future by approving the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act or Proposition 2 on your general election ballot.

Restoring clean, healthy water requires drastically reducing nitrogen pollution from its main source: outdated wastewater systems. Prop 2 will restore clean water by modernizing wastewater infrastructure; it would expand sewers and provide tax-free grants to homeowners to replace polluting septic systems with clean water technology. These clean water projects will protect public health, create thousands of good jobs, revitalize business districts, and restore our local bays and harbors.

The SCWQRA would create a dedicated fund, financed by an 1/8 penny increase to the county sales tax. The funding could only be used to improve water quality in Suffolk County. This local fund would unlock federal and state clean water funding to help with projects right here in Suffolk County.

You can make a clean water future happen here. FLPG urges you to VOTE YES on Proposition 2 in this year’s general election on November 5. Vote by mail, vote early, or vote in person at your local polling place.

SQUIRREL!

The Long Pond Greenbelt is home to many animals, including the Eastern Grey Squirrel, a species so plentiful that most of us barely react to seeing a squirrel. But ask your dog and your dog will tell you that squirrels are under- appreciated, even fascinating.

Squirrels are a species of rodent with small paws, sharp nails for climbing, and bushy tails. Their tails help them balance on long branches. Flicking and twitching tails in

different ways help the squirrel to communicate with other nearby squirrels, especially to warn of danger. They eat nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables and bury the nuts and seeds for winter eating. Scientists estimate 70-80% of the nuts are forgotten and those buried nuts eventually grow into trees. Squirrels are a vital link to keeping Long Island green, to the survival of nut-bearing trees, and to biodiversity. Squirrels have two litters per year, one in the Spring, one in late summer. Try to avoid tree trimming from March to November to avoid the destruction of squirrel nests.