By Polly Weigand –

The Sandplain Grassland Network will host a meeting and field trips on Long Island on September 24 and 25. The meeting will bring together sandplain grassland managers from New York and New England and will feature visits to featured Long Island Grasslands.

Long Island and Sandplain Grassland Network Managers Meeting and Field Tours

September 24, 2019 – 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Meeting and Presentations -Wertheim Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center and Sayville Grassland Tour).

September 25, 2019 – 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (Long Island Native Plant Initiative Plant Material Production, Hempstead Plains and Greentree Foundation Grassland Tours)

Sandplain grasslands of the Northeast are collectively one of the most ecologically and culturally iconic, rare and unique ecosystems. However, new pressures such as climate change, urbanization, and sea level rise are adding to the preexisting challenges faced in managing these valuable ecosystems. This two-day event provides an important and unique opportunity to bring together sandplain grassland managers from New York and New England to network and share knowledge, expertise, and resources related to grassland management in order to help adavance progressive and adaptive management of the region’s grasslands from a local to landscape level.

Topics to be covered through presentations and tours include management considerations to address woody succession, non-native species encroachment, habitat fragmentation, connectivity, climate change, conversion from lawn or forest, and plant material production and selection. Monitoring techniques and regional resource networks including the Sandplain Grassland Network and the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange will provide resources to advance a scientifically based adaptive management program including the use of prescribed fire. A Grassland Management Slam (a 3-5 minute presentation) followed by working lunches, tours and group dinner will further networking and collaborative opportunities throughout the program.