Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine announced the $1.3 million Phase I Coastal Resiliency Program’s implementation at three county owned sites alongside Deputy Presiding Officer Steve Flotteron, Legislator Bergin, county officials and environmental activists at Scully Marsh.
“This project could not come soon enough,” said Romaine. “This project serves to harden our coast by restoring the area to its natural conditions, protecting neighboring communities and safeguarding the area from erosion.”
The County received a grant totaling $1.29 million for Phase I through a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant administered by the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Phase II funding from the federal government will amount to $2.75 million for a total of $3.9 million from the federal government. The entire project will cost $4.3 million.
Scully Marsh (25-acres), East Islip Preserve (35-acres) and Cupsogue Beach Marsh (80-acres) are each listed as high priority wetland sites in the County’s recently finalized Coastal Resiliency Plan. Past human interventions and weather have disrupted the area’s natural hydrology, decreasing the marsh’s natural ability to act as a buffer from flooding. The program aims to restore the areas’ natural hydrology through the usage of coir logs and sediment redistribution.
Recreating the areas’ natural hydrology also favors indigenous plants and wildlife over invasive species, such as Phragmites.
The Coastal Resiliency Plan, which studied Suffolk County’s nearly 1,000 miles of coastline, lists other potential sites where this method of integrated marsh management could be replicated.
"I thank and congratulate County Executive Romaine on his leadership, on working with all the different environmental groups on these coastal resiliency projects. The marshlands are critical to our ecosystem, and we have to keep things balanced as we work on many related topics. We must bring back the health of the Great South Bay. This effort to save marshlands is a first step, but an important step, for our whole ecosystem. I thank the administration for putting this together,” said Flotteron.
"County Executive Romaine has been a friend to the environment since he was elected to office. I’m happy to join him today to continue to try to save our environment and our marshland. We must recognize that we live on an island and a lot of our economic engine is driven by that fact -- heavy on tourism, the boating industry, restaurants – and we need clean water. Restoring these marshlands is so important to achieving our goals to add oxygen to the water, to help restore the shellfish which eat up the nitrogen. This is just such a valuable project," said Bergin.
"Thank you to County Executive Romaine for his leadership on this important initiative. Living on an Island, our water quality and our coastal resiliency is of the upmost importance. By working to restore tidal marshland we are not only protecting our delicate ecosystem, we are also protecting our residents, especially those in the low-lying coastal communities which I represent. The restoration of marshlands will help to create natural buffers and protect properties from flooding as a result of storm surge. I look forward to continuing to work on this important issue for the benefit of both our environment and our constituents," said Legislator Jim Mazzarella.