Central Pine Barrens Preserve
In July, 1995, NYS passed the historic Central Pine Barrens Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The regional land use plan covers 100,000 acres of the ecologically sensitive Central Pine Barrens in the Towns of Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton and the Villages of Quogue and Westhampton Beach. The Pine Barrens lies above a section of the aquifer that supplies water for millions of Long Islanders. The Land Use Plan includes a long-range goal for acquiring land in the 52,500-acre Core Preservation Area of the Pine Barrens and promoting compatible economic development within the 47,500-acre Compatible Growth Area. In July, 2000, Governor Pataki announced that the State has agreed to purchase the 165-acre Roselin tract in the Town of Brookhaven, for $13.1 million in EPF resources, which will protect one of the last remaining large parcels still privately owned in the core of the Central Pine Barrens Preserve.
