Environment DEC
From the February 2007 issue
A Key Acquisition in the Long Island Pine Barrens is Announced
The state will acquire a significant 49.2-acre parcel in the Dwarf Pine Plains region of the Central Long Island Pine Barrens Core Preservation Area, helping to preserve this unique and environmentally-sensitive area for residents, visitors and future generations.
The parcel being acquired by the state is situated along the Sunrise Highway between County Routes 31 and 104 in the Town of Southampton, Suffolk County. The acquisition includes 36.7 acres on the north side of the Sunrise Highway in Flanders that will become part of DEC's David A. Sarnoff Pine Barrens Preserve. In addition, 12.5 acres on the south side of Sunrise Highway in East Quogue, adjacent to the 308-acre WJF property purchased by DEC and Suffolk County in 2005, will become part of DEC's Westhampton Management Area. The property will be acquired for $2,806,000, using the state Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).
Part of the Core Preservation Area
The parcel is located within the Core Preservation Area of the Central Long Island Pine Barrens, which was established by New York's Long Island Pine Barrens Protection Act of 1993. Pine barren properties are a top acquisition priority in the 2006 State Open Space Plan. The acquisition is consistent with the intent of the pine barrens legislation by protecting the resource while ensuring that willing landowners can sell their undeveloped properties in the core at fair-market value to the state.
The area includes a rare and imperiled forest community of dwarf pitch pine and scrub oak
This acquisition protects a globally rare and imperiled forest community of dwarf pitch pine and scrub oak. Dwarf pine barrens are characterized by a canopy that is generally less than six feet in height, soils that are sandy, excessively well-drained and nutrient poor, and a shrub layer dominated by huckleberry, bearberry, blueberry, wintergreen, with some hudsonia and little bluestem. This natural community exists in only two other places in the world: the Shawangunk Ridge in New York's Hudson Valley, and the New Jersey Pinelands.
Harbors Rare Plants and Animals
Long Island's dwarf pine forests harbor several rare plant and animal species including tick-trefoil, low sand-cherry, and Houghton's umbrella sedge, as well as the largest population of coastal barrens buck moth in New York. A breeding population of at least three pairs of northern harriers has been observed in the area; important because breeding populations of this ground-nesting raptor are declining elsewhere in the region. The property is also habitat for pine and prairie warblers, and several declining bird species, such as whip-poor-will. Large populations of deer, fox, rabbit and other small mammals also reside in this location.
