By Chris Neill — Sandplain grassland managers from New York and New England met September 25 and 26 on Long Island share knowledge, expertise, and experiences about coastal grasslands to help advance conservation and adaptive management. Sandplain grasslands of the Northeast are one of the region’s most ecologically and culturally iconic, rare, and unique ecosystems. But pressures such as climate change, urbanization, regrowth of woody vegetation, invasive species, and sea level rise all create challenges for maintaining grasslands and their biodiversity.
The group met at the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center in Shirley, NY. Polly Weigand, Stewardship Manager for the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission, spearheaded the meeting organization.
Northeastern Grasslands Network. Grassland managers from New England and New York met September 25 and 26 at the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. This group photo was taken at a filed trip to the Sayville NWR. Photo by Chris Neill.
Growing through the cracks. The Sayville NWR sits on the site of former telegraph communications facilities that included large areas of pavement. Management challenges include controlling non-native species that now occupy the highly-disturbed site, and the regrowth of woody vegetation. Photo by Chris Neill.
Sayville NWR. Polly Weigand (left) and Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex Director Monica Williams explain the history of the Sayville NWRe and its grasslands. This refuge is a sub-unit of the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge in West Sayville, NY. It consists primarily of oak-pitch pine forests interspersed with historic grassland. Photo by Chris Neill.
Sayville NWR. A view of the botanically diverse grasslands at the Sayville NWR. Note the incursion of woody vegetation that includes oaks (Quercus spp.), black cherry (Prunus serotina) and sumacs (Rhus spp). The refuge contains the largest population of sandplain agalinis (Agalinis decemloba), a federally endangered plant, in the state of New York. Photo by Chris Neill.
The meeting included field trips to grassland fragments at the Sayville National Wildlife Refuge, the Long Island Native Plant Initiative’s propagation facilities and restored prairie at the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, NY, the remnant Hempstead Plains Grassland and the Friends of Hempstead Plains‘ visitor center, and grassland restoration efforts at the Greentree Foundation’s former Whitney Estate in Manhasset, NY.