Conservation Areas
Kassidy Robinson
After a packed summer, LIISMA’s projects to protect conservation areas began cooling down in September.
For this season’s second visit to Sears Bellows County Park, Libby of the DEC joined the LIISMA team for follow-up phragmites (Phragmites australis) management at Bellows Pond. Upon initially arriving, the phragmites was barely visible, growing at a stunted height after management in June. The team was thrilled to find and spade only 138 phragmites stems, the lowest amount at Bellows Pond since management began! This may be indicative of management success, be a result of drought stress, or a combination of both factors. Alongside the minimal phragmites, native biodiversity seemed to be thriving. Plentiful slender golden tops (Euthamia caroliniana) were in bloom and a chorus of American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) hopped along the shoreline. The team is looking forward to continued management at Sears Bellows County Park and hopeful that the phragmites stand will continue to shrink.
The following week, the team headed back to Sears Bellows County Park with New York Natural Heritage Program staff. This time, NYNHP Chief Botanist, Rich Ring, and field biologist, Tomás Todisco, guided LIISMA staff through the park to point out notable plants and instruct us on identifying features. Rain jackets zipped up and lenses in hand, the team enjoyed learning from an expert botanist and even identified a new potential management project on site – a small phragmites stand at Grass Pond.
Early Dedication Rapid Response
Melody Penny Cerniglia
The LIISMA team kicked off autumn with an eventful September filled with high-priority EDRR management projects!!
After following up on an iNaturalist report of plume poppy (Macleaya cordata) by Juliana Quant with the Southampton Community Preservation Fund, Melody worked
with Juliana and Jacqueline Fenlon to convey the urgency of managing this population before it went to seed. The Town was eager to assist us in getting this small population managed as soon as possible, and assisted us with obtaining permission from Mayor William Manger Jr. of the Village of Southampton to manage the small population.
The plume poppy was located in a vacant lot adjacent to Agawam Park, which had become very disturbed and overgrown as a result of an earlier house that was removed from the lot. This proved to be the perfect environment for plume poppy to thrive, where no one could see it taking over! First, Juliana and her crew went out to the site and cut back all of the seed heads before they dropped- just in time! LIISMA then met up with Juliana and her crew and removed 13 bags (approximately 130-150 stems in total) that were scattered throughout the site in clumps. The Village aims to work with the Town to monitor and manage the site annually going forward. This was a true “rapid response” success story, and we would like to thank the Village of Southampton and the Town of Southampton for working with us so quickly and effectively in managing this high-priority invasive species!
In 2024, Kassidy had detected a few scattered water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes, tier 2) plants in the ponds adjacent to Argyle Lake. Melody met with Scott Glenn with the Village of Babylon to assess the population and found that a new population had formed on the northern edge of Argyle Lake. Scott granted permission to manage this population and was more than happy to work together, even providing a crew of six people, a skid loader, and a garbage truck to assist us with management, to which we were so grateful! Our combined efforts resulted in 33 bags of water lettuce removed from the lake- a great success, and another excellent example of rapid response and the importance of the valuable relationships we have with our partners. The Village aims to collaborate with LIISMA to continue monitoring and managing the lake going forward. LIISMA thanks the Village of Babylon for their hard work and for working with us so quickly and diligently to remove water lettuce in Argyle Lake! We could not have done it without them.
LIISMA has been hard at work monitoring and managing kudzu across Long Island. So far this month we have monitored eight sites, with three of them being controlled manually via root crown removal. With seven more sites left to survey and potentially manage the rest of this month, we are hopeful that kudzu will continue to present itself less and less on Long Island.
Lastly, we have made plans with the Village of Valley Stream to allow LIISMA to manage a small population of floating primrose willow (Ludwidia peploides) at Arthur J. Hendrickson Park at the end of the month. We thank the Village for their commitment to managing high priority invasive species in their parks, especially David Sabatino, Tom McAleer , and Jay Hunter for working with us directly to make this happen.
Stay tuned next month for more information on the great EDRR projects that are underway in LIISMA!
