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Emma Clark library honors Helen Stein Shack Picture Book Award winners

by Press Release - April 28, 2022

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Helen-Stein-Shack-2022-award — The winners, sitting, take a photo with elected and school officials who attended the April 12 event. Photo from Emma S. Clark Memorial Library

Emma S. Clark Memorial Library board members and staff, the family of the late Helen Stein Shack, local elected officials, representatives from the Three Village Central School District, and guests from the community gathered on April 12 to honor the winners of the eighth annual Helen Stein Shack Picture Book Award:

First Prize (Grades 7 – 9 category): “Pete the Penguin Goes to the Library” by Matthew Blumenthal (9th grader at Murphy Junior High School)

First Prize (Grades 10 – 12 category): “The Raccoon Jug-Band” written by Amelia Grant and illustrated by Anna Grant (homeschooled 10th and 11th graders)

Second Prize (Grades 7 – 9 category): “The Big Carrot” by Julia Hou (8th grader at Gelinas Junior High School)

Second Prize (Grades 10 – 12 category): “Mareld” by Ammella Een (homeschooled 12th grader)

Library Director Ted Gutmann, along with the family of the late Helen Stein Shack, presented all of the winners’ books — bound and added to the library’s Local Focus Collection — along with $400 checks to first prize winners Matthew Blumenthal and Amelia Grant and Anna Grant and $100 checks for second prize winners Julia Hou and Ammella Een.

State Sen. Mario Mattera, state Assemblyman Steve Englebright, county Legislator Kara Hahn, Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine and Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich were all in attendance to present certificates to the winners from New York State, Suffolk County and Brookhaven Town, respectively.

Many of the speakers discussed the wonderful talent and bright futures of these winners. Englebright said, “We get a preview here, actually, of the future. And because young people who dare to dream, and in this case, put those dreams to paper and make it into art and literature, that is the future and it is reassuring.”

Romaine said, “We have some authors here this evening who are young in age, but wise in experience.”

Library Board President Deborah Blair, Vice President Christopher Fletcher, Treasurer Carol Leister, Secretary Dave Douglas, and trustees Orlando Maione and Suzanne Shane were there to congratulate the winners. Three Village Central School District Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Kevin Scanlon, Murphy Junior High Principal Brian Biscari, Murphy Junior High English Chair Jessica Metrio, and Murphy Junior High School Librarian Betsy Knox, and Ward Melville High School Librarian April Hatcher were all in attendance.

Treats were donated by The Bite Size Bake Shop, a local Three Village-owned business. Ward Melville High School teen volunteer Raymond Lang photographed the event.

The Helen Stein Shack Book Contest called for teens in grades 7 through 12 who live in the Three Village Central School District to create a children’s picture book. Each entry could be the work of a single author/illustrator or a collaborative effort between an author and an illustrator.

“You accomplished something so incredible, and I just want to say congratulations to all the winners,” Mattera said.

The children of the late Shack established a substantial endowment with the library to cover the cost of the awards as a tribute to their mother and her commitment to passing along the importance and joy of reading for generations to come. Kornreich said that Shack not only created a legacy of her family members, but also the legacy of the books that come out of this contest.

Shack’s son, Ed Taylor, spoke about a milestone in their family this past year — the birth of the first great grandchild of the late Helen Stein Shack.

“She’s going to be sitting on our laps, and we’ll be reading her the books that were inspired by this competition that’s in the name of this little girl’s great grandmother, who she didn’t get a chance to meet, but who she’ll have that connection through these books … we thought we were giving a gift to the library, but the library really gave us a gift.”

Setauket Elementary School hosts Founders Day for fourth grade students

by Beverly C. Tyler - April 28, 2022

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“It is so cool that [Setauket] school has so much history around it and that it looks like it’s just a regular school.” (Mount Elementary School fourth grade student during this year’s Founders Day Original Settlement guided tours)

On April 11 and 12, Three Village fourth grade students in 19 classes came to the Setauket Elementary School auditorium in celebration of Brookhaven Town Founders Day to learn about the history of Setauket/Brookhaven through the murals of artist Vance Locke. Most of the students from the other four Three Village elementary schools raised their hands when asked, “Is this the first time you have seen these murals in the auditorium?”

Town of Brookhaven historian Barbara Russell and local historian Bev Tyler discussed each of the murals and the students heard from local artist Katherine Downs-Reuter. She described how the murals, the polychrome statues and the New York State Coat of Arms, which they now see in their original brilliant colors, were restored. Students were also treated to stories of Long Island’s indigenous people by Helen Sells, a Setalcott Native American descendant who, like both Russell and Tyler, attended Setauket school and viewed the murals as a student. Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, who also served this year as a guide, showed students a map of Brookhaven and how the town grew from 1655 in Setauket to encompass 323 square miles and stretch from Long Island Sound to the Great South Bay.

For the next two hours, each class, led by guides from the Three Village Historical Society, explored the Original Settlement area that surrounds the Setauket Village Green. The tour began with the polychrome statues of Setauket’s early leaders Richard Woodhull and General Washington’s intelligence chief Benjamin Tallmadge on the gables of the auditorium and gymnasium. On the front pediment of the school is the New York State Coat of Arms. Students learned about each restored artifact and about the U.S. Postal Service’s mile marker, encased in brick, that has stood along the road in front of the school since the first half of the 19th century.

Walking into the Setauket Presbyterian Church cemetery, students identified the gravestones of three ship captains who moved commerce around the Atlantic coast and voyaged as far as China and Japan. They were also introduced to genre artist William Sidney Mount, one of the first artists to portray African Americans, both enslaved and free, as everyday people doing everyday activities. The last stop in the cemetery was at the grave and memorial to Setauket’s farmer and Culper spy ring leader Abraham Woodhull.

At the Caroline Church cemetery, students learned about the 1751 gravestone of Elizabeth Moore, an inscription-carved rock, which was found during the 1937 restoration of the church. “Was she an indentured servant? Was she an enslaved person? We may never know.” The fourth graders were also introduced to philanthropist Thomas Hodgkins, his niece Emma Clark and the Melville family — Frank, Jennie, Ward and Dorothy — philanthropists all.

At the Setauket Village Green, students learned about the long history of Long Island’s indigenous people and the Setalcott Native Americans who signed land deed agreements with Brookhaven’s original English settlers on April 14, 1655. At the veterans memorial, they saw and discussed the diversity of immigrants who lived and worked here, as well as the world-wide ancestry of the Three Village soldiers whose war-time deaths are memorialized here.

In the Frank Melville Memorial Park, our fourth grade boys and girls learned about the importance of gristmills, millers, blacksmiths, post offices and the story of one of the Original Settlement’s 17th century homes.

The next stop was at the location of the Tyler Bros. General Store, which offered people the opportunity to purchase needed supplies, pick up mail, visit to hear about the news of the day, or buy penny candy. Lucy Hart, when she was six or seven, used to stop at the general store on her way home from school. There was a glass case in the store which contained a number of selections of sweets. Lucy remembered, “You would get four of five round things for a penny. Jaw Breakers, three or four for a penny; and stick candy was a penny a stick.”

At the Amos Smith House, students saw how the house changed and grew over more than 200 years. They discussed the seven generations that lived in the house with as many as nine children in two of the families. They heard that the house and property were donated to the Three Village Community Trust in 2017 and will be environmentally and historically preserved forever.

At the Setauket Neighborhood House, students learned about travel and transportation from the era of the indigenous people on Long Island to colonial travel with overnight stops at inns and ordinaries, which provided essential services. They saw how railroad lines were established on Long Island in the 19th century, significantly increasing travel and tourism from New York City to Long Island. The railroads also helped bring the industrial revolution to the area with Setauket factories hiring European immigrants who flooded into New York City; the new workers producing pianos and rubber goods. The fourth graders saw, heard and discussed how the Elderkin Hotel progressed from a hotel, with stage coach service from the Lakeland Railroad Station, to a tourist home, called the Lake House, with station wagon service from the Long Island Railroad’s Stony Brook station, and finally to its present name and its use as a meeting place for the entire community.

Patriot’s Rock, a remnant of the last glacier and a Native American meeting place, provided an opportunity for students to learn about the Revolutionary War Battle of Setauket and Caleb Brewster, an artillery officer who directed the cannon fire. Also, how Brewster was an important member of the Setauket-based Culper Spy Ring. “I thought that it was so cool that we got to stand on the battlefield of the American Revolutionary War.” (Mount fourth grade student)

“Founders Day is more than learning about our local history,” said Brookhaven Town Historian and Founder’s Day Committee Member Barbara Russell, “It is an historical experience for our Three Village fourth grade students … Learning that the Emma S. Clark library is not just the place to find books or attend a program, but is an architecturally interesting structure that was built by a local resident [Thomas Hodgkins] as a gift to the community; and there really was a person named Emma S. Clark is enlightening to fourth graders. Then they walk toward the Caroline Church and see the Hodgkins and Clark headstones — it all comes together in this fascinating look on a student’s face that they have just put it all together.”

At the end of the tour, each student receives a copy of the Founders Day Companion (walking tour) Book prepared by the Three Village Historical Society, courtesy of the Three Village Central School District. Students, who can now be considered knowledgeable guides to the area’s local history, are encouraged to take their family members on the walking tour.

Setauket school fourth grade students were so inspired by the 2018 Founders Day tour that they decided to produce a video story of each of the Vance Locke murals in the Setauket School auditorium. The students were led by Three Village Schools District Lead Teacher for Instructional Technology, Andy Weik, and fourth-grade teacher Eric Gustafson. The students recorded the videos and they were produced with a QR code added at the base of each mural. All but two were completed in time for Culper Day, a community-wide celebration of the Setauket-based Culper Spy Ring with a wide range of community organizations and businesses taking part. For the first time, due to the student videos, the Setauket School auditorium was opened on a Saturday to take part in the celebration. A number of the students who worked on the video stories were present in the auditorium, in colonial costumes, to answer questions and talk to some of the 800 people who bought tickets for the Culper Day celebration as well as a few who wandered in to see what was happening. Setauket School principal Karen Mizell noted that this year the Setauket school auditorium will once again be open to the public on Culper Day, Saturday, Sept. 10.

This year marked the 17th year that Three Village fourth grade students have come to the Setauket school auditorium to learn about the murals of the history of Setauket/Brookhaven and the eighth year the Founders Day Program has included the Original Settlement Walking Tour. The Founders Day program is updated every year, bringing new concepts and ideas needed within a changing curriculum. We hope that every fourth grade student will continue to experience the wonder of our local history and be excited to learn more of the stories of the people who lived here and what they contributed to our history.

Beverly C. Tyler is a Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730. or visit www.tvhs.org.

Stony Brook Village launches new audio experience

by Press Release - April 28, 2022

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Sean Mills Sunrise PO — The Stony Brook Post Office is one of the stops on the Stony Brook Village Audio Experience. Photo courtesy of Sean Mills

Stony Brook Village has announced that the Stony Brook Village Audio Experience is now available and can be enjoyed on your own time and at your own pace! The experience is free to the public and will allow all visitors of Stony Brook Village to immerse themselves in the quirky history and stories of the lifestyle center and some of its surrounding properties. The audio experience is obtained by scanning QR codes throughout the village and is also available at audio.stonybrookvillage.com.

Currently, the experience has ten stops, and covers the history and the stories from the Three Village Inn’s original residents to the entire development of Stony Brook Village Center. It is recommended that participants of the experience begin at the Three Village Inn. Additional stories about the Country House (c.1710), the Stony Brook Grist Mill (c.1751) — including the first vineyard on Long Island, and T. Bayles Minuse Mill Pond Park will be added soon.

To learn more about events and activities in Stony Brook Village Center, visit stonybrookvillage.com.

D. None of the Above: The ‘Piano Man’ brings unity and welcome normalcy

by Daniel Dunaief - April 28, 2022

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By Daniel Dunaief

Finally, two years later, we were going to see Billy Joel. We had bought tickets to a concert in April of 2020, which was canceled because of the pandemic. The rescheduled event last year was also delayed.

An anticipation had been building that reminded me of the seemingly endless three years between the end of the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.”

Within a few blocks of the stadium, we ran into the heaviest traffic we’d experienced in Charlotte, North Carolina since we arrived four years ago. My wife asked if I wanted her to park the car so I could make sure I was in our seats on time. I declined, knowing I didn’t want to experience any part of the evening without her.

While we sat in our car, waiting for the slow line to move, we watched as many of the people heading to the stadium were our age or older. We were either being nostalgic or hoping Billy Joel’s music could be our musical time machine.

We arrived at the stadium well before the 8 pm start time, where every seat gradually filled. When Joel started the concert at 8:30 with “My Life,” the packed crowd roared its heartfelt approval.

The weight of time — the two years anticipating this concert and the decades that passed since I first enjoyed the song’s lyrics and melody — quickly slipped off my shoulders.

Flashing lights from the stage and enlarged images of Billy Joel’s 72-year old fingers dancing across the piano keys created a visual spectacle. Accompanied by saxophone and trumpet players who would have blown the roof off the building if there were one, Joel thanked the crowd for coming after a long delay.

With songs from several albums through the 70s and 80s, Joel shared some of his biggest hits. People in the crowd played their own version of the show “Name that tune,” shouting out the song’s title as quickly as possible.

Thanks to Linda Ronstadt, who Joel said encouraged him to play “Just the Way You Are,” he included that love song. Joel said he and his wife, for whom he wrote that song, got divorced, so people shouldn’t listen to him.

But listen to him and his music we did. When the lights were off, the packed crowd swayed back and forth, holding up cell phones with lit camera lights, the way previous generations of concertgoers held up their lighters.

As he’s done at other concerts I attended, Joel stopped singing and the band stopped playing during “Piano Man” while the audience sang the chorus, “Sing us a song you’re the piano man. Sing us a song tonight. Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody and you’ve got us feeling alright.” I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with a smirk and goosebumps.

Swaying and singing in our seats, we were active participants in this long-awaited evening out, allowing ourselves to enjoy moments of unity.

Not as spry as he’d been decades ago, Joel moved more gingerly. He still shared his storytelling and lyrical voice, captivating an appreciative crowd. In between tunes, he noodled at the piano, as if he weren’t in an enormous football stadium in North Carolina below the image of a ferocious panther but was, rather, in a piano bar somewhere in New York City. He said the “key” to his longevity was “not dying.”

When the nighttime air got too hot for us, a light wind, which is uncharacteristic for Charlotte, washed over our skin. Leaning in, my wife smiled and whispered, “cue the breeze.”

The music itself reached much deeper than the wind, refreshing our souls and allowing us to revisit people like Sergeant O’Leary, the old man making love to his tonic and gin, and the “Big Shot.”

Between You and Me: I imagine this is exactly what Olmsted envisioned for his park

by Leah Dunaief - April 28, 2022

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central-park-g5166c34d5_1920 — Central Park. Pixabay photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

A man I never met had a profound effect on my early life. Indeed, I could not have met him since his 200th birthday was this past Tuesday.

There are millions of others whose lives he has touched and continue to touch all over the country. His name is Frederick Law Olmsted, and along with a colleague, Calvert Vaux, he designed Central Park in the late 1850s. He went on to design many other parks and public spaces, but Central Park was his first.

Olmsted was more than a landscape architect, and his philosophy and appreciation of community and human nature were built into his designs. Proving that I am not the only one who feels his importance, I was pleased to notice a special section about Olmsted published in Tuesday’s New York Times. All subsequent quotes are from that section, written by Audra D.S. Burch, with sayings from essays of Frederick Law Olmsted.

“In plots of earth and green, Olmsted saw something more: freedom, human connection, public health…Olmsted’s vision is as essential today as it was more than a century ago. His parks helped sustain Americans’ mental and physical health and social connections during the darkest days of the pandemic. As COVID-19 lockdowns unlaced nearly every familiar aspect of life, parks were reaffirmed as respite, an escape from quarantine.”

Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park. Pixabay photo

And this from Olmsted: “The park should, as far as possible, complement the town. Openness is the one thing you cannot get in buildings… The enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it, tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it; and thus through the influence of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system… We want a ground to which people may easily go after their day’s work is done, and where they may stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets, where they shall, in effect, find the city put far away from them.”

When people ask me where I grew up, I answer, “New York City,” but I should answer “Central Park.”

Almost every Sunday without inclement weather, my dad would take us to the park for the day, giving my mom time for herself. It worked out splendidly for him because he grew up on a farm and never liked the urban surroundings in which we lived. It also gave him some uninterrupted time with us since we didn’t see much of him during the work week. And of course it was welcomed by my mother, who then had a chance to sleep in and tend to her own needs.

Dad would awaken early, make us a creative breakfast that always involved eggs and braised onions plus whatever other ingredients happened to be in the fridge. Never were two Sunday breakfasts the same. Then we would go off, my younger sister and I with him, to “The Park.”

There were many different destinations once we left the street and stepped into the greenery. We roamed along countless paved paths, over charming bridges and through tunnels (always yodeling for the echo effect), climbed rocks, crossed meadows, watched baseball games on several ballfields, played “21” on the basketball courts (if we had remembered to bring a basketball), watched older men competitively play quoits (pitching horseshoes) and munched on crackerjacks — my dad limiting the three of us to one box. I usually got the prize since my sister wasn’t interested.

On beautiful days, when longer walks beckoned, we would visit the merry-go-round and ride until we were dizzy. Or we would spend the afternoon at the small zoo. My dad taught me to row on the Central Park lake. And always the air was fresh, the seasons would debut around us, the birds would sing and the squirrels would play tag through the trees.

By pre-arrangement, my mom would appear with a pot of supper, some paper plates, forks and a blanket, and we would eat in a copse or a thicket of brush. Then, as the sun was setting, we would walk home together.

SBU celebrates Earth Day all week long

by Rita J. Egan - April 26, 2022

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The Stony Brook University community had Planet Earth on their minds all last week.

Earthstock 2022 took place on campus and virtually from April 18 to April 22. The student-focused event included lectures, panels, demonstrations, educational events and more.

The mission was to focus on the need to understand issues such as climate change and rising seas as well as the need to develop clean, renewable and energy and to comprehend how humans affect earth from damaging practices to ways to nurture the environment.

Speakers included Erica Cirino, author of “Thicker than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis” and Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket).

“Earthstock is a week-long, campus-wide tradition that celebrates Earth Day and raises awareness about climate change and sustainability,” said Richard Gatteau, vice president for student affairs. “On Friday, April 22, the Stony Brook campus was full of excitement as environmental organizations and clubs, student groups, and members of the community participated in the Earthstock Festival. It was great to see students, faculty and staff together once again celebrating this annual campus tradition with an earth-friendly inspirational message.”

In addition to educational displays and exhibits, Friday’s activities included live music, rubber duck races and a Green Pledge, where students promise to make a commitment to improve and sustain the natural world and resources around me.

To end the week-long celebration, the SBU police department partnered with Student Engagement and Activities to host the sixth annual Spring Fest. The afternoon activities provided an opportunity for students and campus police to enjoy field games, snacks and music together.

SBU’s police officer Joseph Bica said it was a great day for the police department.

“It was a great day for our police department,” he said. “Our officers conversed, played games and got to know our students while everyone enjoyed themselves.”

Suozzi announces more than $33M for LI Sound

by Rita J. Egan - April 26, 2022

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Photo Apr 21, 11 51 43 AM — Suozzi announced $300,000 will be used for shellfish seeding of Hempstead Harbor, Oyster Bay and Huntington Harbor. Photo from Suozzi's office

On April 21, representatives from local environmental groups joined U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) at Sea Cliff Municipal Beach for an announcement affecting the Long Island Sound.

Suozzi said he helped deliver more than $33 million of federal funds that will be allocated for the Sound and environmental cleanup projects across the Island and Northeast Queens.

Out of this allocation, $300,000 will be used for shellfish seeding of Hempstead Harbor, Oyster Bay and Huntington Harbor to purchase approximately 10 million seed clams to be placed in the three harbors. The clams will be strategically placed in areas where they will not only filter the water, but also produce sufficient larvae to greatly expand those populations well into the future.

“Community Project Funding allows members of Congress to request funding to support specific community projects that will have the most real-life impacts in their districts,” Suozzi said. “Of the eight projects that I secured in the federal budget, five of them are environmental cleanup and restoration projects. I have devoted a significant part of my past 25 years in public service to cleaning up the pollution, dramatically reducing nitrogen, modernizing sewage treatment plants, and restoring shellfishing in our local waters. Since coming to Congress in 2017, I have fought for and successfully helped increase federal funding by 900% to clean up and restore the Long Island Sound. This $33 million, one of the largest single federal investments in environmental cleanup and restoration across Long Island and Northeast Queens, will go a long way in restoring and improving the Long Island Sound for generations to come.”

The funding is part of the federal budget signed into law last month. It represents one of the largest single federal investments in environmental cleanup and restoration across Long Island and Northeast Queens.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, at the press conference, called the funding a reason to celebrate.

“Long Island Sound is a natural treasure that offers all segments of society the opportunity to enjoy fishing, swimming, beach-filled days, and water-based family activities,” she said. “Restoration efforts are working and the Sound is getting cleaner. Increased funding will help us continue progress on reducing nitrogen pollution, filtering stormwater runoff and restoring wetlands. It will also help us address new challenges to the Sound including impacts from climate change, invasive species and plastic pollution.”

Ward Melville Patriots host Brentwood in Childhood Cancer Awareness game

by Bill Landon - April 25, 2022

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Seven-year-old Jase Rossi from Lake Ronkonkoma has been battling cancer for the last 813 days, according to Ward Melville head coach Joseph Burger, whose team hosted Brentwood in a Childhood Cancer Awareness softball game Saturday morning.

Jase along with his parents made their way to the field through an arch of balloons and a canopy of raised bats to take the field.

Over the last two plus years, Jase has had to endure countless blood platelet transfusions, weekly chemo and steroid treatments, multiple trips to the ER and extended hospital stays yet stood strong and threw out the first pitch to Ward Melville’s Maddie Kiely.

All the girls wore yellow jerseys commemorating the event that help raise over $3,795 in online donations the money will go to the Friends of Karen an organization that helps families with children stricken with life threatening illnesses.

A gift was presented to Jase a Nintendo switch video game console just before both teams took the field where the Patriots put on a perfect 12-0 shutout performance. Ward Melville sophomore Victoria Killigrew threw her first career no-hitter in the victory.

Warmer temperatures mean even more rain during hurricanes

by Daniel Dunaief - April 22, 2022

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*Kevin Reed — Kevin Reed. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Rain, rain go away, come again some other day.

The days of wishing rain away have long since passed, amid the reality of a wetter world, particularly during hurricanes in the North Atlantic.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, Kevin Reed, Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Research at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, compared how wet the hurricanes that tore through the North Atlantic in 2020 would have been prior to the Industrial Revolution and global warming.

Reed determined that these storms had 10 percent more rain than they would have if they occurred in 1850, before the release of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases that have increased the average temperature on the planet by one degree Celsius.

The study is a “wake up call to the fact that hurricane seasons have changed and will continue to change,” said Reed. More warming means more rainfall. That, he added, is important when planners consider making improvements to infrastructure and providing natural barriers to flooding.

While 10 percent may not seem like an enormous amount of rain on a day of light drizzle and small puddles, it represents significant rain amid torrential downpours. That much additional rain can be half an inch or more of rain, said Reed. Much of the year, Long Island may not get half an inch a day, on top of an already extreme event, he added.

“It could be the difference between certain infrastructure failing, a basement flooding” and other water-generated problems, he said. The range of increased rain during hurricanes in 2020 due to global warming were as low as 5 percent and as high as 15 percent.

While policy makers have been urging countries to reach the Paris Climate Accord’s goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above the temperature from 1850, the pre-Industrial Revolution, studies like this suggest that the world such as it is today has already experienced the effects of warming.

“This is another data point for understanding that climate change is a not only a challenge for the future,” Reed said. It’s not this “end of the century problem that we have time to figure out. The Earth has already warmed by over 1 degrees” which is changing the hurricane season and is also impacting other severe weather events, like the heatwave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021. That heatwave killed over 100 people in the state of Washington.

Even being successful in limiting the increase to 2 degrees will create further increases in rainfall from hurricanes, Reed added. As with any global warming research, this study may also get pushback from groups skeptical of the impact of fossil fuel use and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Reed contends that this research is one of numerous studies that have come to similar conclusions about the impact of climate change on weather patterns, including hurricanes.

“Researchers from around the world are finding similar signals,” Reed said. “This is one example that is consistent with dozens of other work that has found similar results.”

Amid more warming, hurricane seasons have already changed, which is a trend that will continue, he predicted.

Even on a shorter-term scale, Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the Northeast with heavy rain, wind and flooding, would likely have had more rainfall if the same conditions existed just eight years later, Reed added.

Reed was pleased that Nature Communications shared the paper with its diverse scientific and public policy audience.

“The general community feels like this type of research is important enough to a broad set of [society]” to appear in a high-profile journal, he said. “This shows, to some extent, the fact that the community and society at large [appreciates] that trying to understand the impact of climate change on our weather is important well beyond the domain of scientists like myself, who focus on hurricanes.”

Indeed, this kind of analysis and modeling could and should inform public policy that affects planning for the growth and resilience of infrastructure.

Study origins

The researchers involved in this study decided to compare how the 2020 season would have looked during cooler temperatures fairly quickly after the season ended.

The 2020 season was the most active on record, with 30 named storms generating heavy rains, storm surges and winds. The total damage from those storms was estimated at about $40 billion.

While the global surface temperature has increased 1 degree Celsius since 1850, sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic basin have risen 0.4 to 0.9 degrees Celsius during the 2020 season.

Reed and his co-authors took some time to discuss the best analysis to use. It took them about four months to put the data together and run over 2,500 model simulations.

“This is a much more computationally intensive project than previous work,” Reed said. The most important variables that the scientists altered were temperature and moisture.

As for the next steps, Reed said he would continue to refine the methodology to explore other impacts of climate change on the intensity of storms, their trajectory, and their speed.

Reed suggested considering the 10 percent increase in rain caused by global warming during hurricanes through another perspective. “If you walked into your boss’s office tomorrow and your boss said, ‘I want to give you a 10 percent raise,’ you’d be ecstatic,” he said. “That’s a significant amount.”

Ecstatic, however, isn’t how commuters, homeowners, and business leaders feel when more even more rain comes amid a soaking storm.

Environmentalists discuss state of Port Jeff Harbor

by Raymond Janis - April 22, 2022

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Harborfront-Park-PJ01_Glowatz — A view of Port Jefferson Harbor from Harborfront Park. File photo by Elana Glowatz

On Wednesday, April 13, two guest speakers presented to the Port Jefferson Harbor Commission on the state of Port Jeff Harbor and its future.

George Hoffman, co-founder of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, shared the history of the harbor commission over the last two decades.

“Up until 2000, the commission hadn’t been created and every village kind of did its own thing and the [Town of Brookhaven] did its own thing,” he said. “You had overlapping regulations in terms of boat speeds and where you could clam and where you could moor.”

This changed after the 2000 Port Jefferson Harbor Management Plan, which directed the various coastal municipalities in the area on how to best manage the harbor. Today, the villages and the town coordinate their efforts through the harbor commission, which harmonizes laws to monitor boating safety, establish mooring fields and regulate maritime traffic. While the villages have succeeded in these areas, Hoffman suggests the commission now has the experience and know-how to devote greater attention to water quality.

“Now that you have all of the other issues kind of resolved, I think now it’s time to consider how this commission can start to help manage the harbor itself as an environmental entity,” Hoffman said.

MS4 regulations

During the first hour of a storm event, rain often carries harmful contaminants from lawns, roads and sidewalks, discharging oils, bacteria and particulate metals into nearby surface waters. This phenomenon poses a hazard to marine life.

In an effort to reduce contamination of surface waters during storm events, new state regulations will require coastal municipalities to develop a more comprehensive stormwater management program. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released guidelines regulating small municipal stormwater sewer systems, known as MS4s.

“I actually think that the Port Jeff Harbor Commission could be a great vehicle to help all the municipalities comply.”

— George Hoffman

Under the existing policy, local governments are given wide latitude over the maintenance of their MS4s. “In the ’50s and ’60s, we never really gave a thought about stormwater — we just figured if it goes into the harbor, then it will dilute and everything will be fine,” Hoffman said. “We found out that that’s just not the way to go. This really has significant impacts.”

With stricter directives and harsher penalties under these new regulations, Hoffman noted the need for personnel: “That’s never a good thing for municipalities because you have to fund those positions and budgets are always tough no matter where you are.” He added that the Port Jefferson Harbor Commission — which includes officials from the town as well as the villages of Port Jefferson, Belle Terre, Poquott and Old Field — already have the infrastructure in place through the commission to coordinate their efforts in complying with these directives.

“I actually think that the Port Jeff Harbor Commission could be a great vehicle to help all the municipalities comply,” Hoffman said. “If every village has to go out and hire its own computer programmer to do the mapping of the stormwater, and has to hire somebody to run the public meetings and has to identify all the groups that are interested — it seems to me that it would be better if we all pulled together through this commission and handle all of our MS4 responsibilities together.”

Acknowledging the limitations of an all-volunteer commission, Hoffman’s plan would have the various villages appropriate funds to hire part-time personnel to oversee MS4 regulatory compliance: “This can actually save your villages money because if everybody pools their resources together, you can probably just get one person in here — and it wouldn’t even have to be a full-time position — to help manage the MS4 regulations.”

Public outreach is also a major component of these new guidelines. Hoffman said that under the current policy, public hearings are not mandated. Now, municipalities must hold public hearings to identify the stakeholders in their areas and report on the quality of their surface waters. Again, Hoffman said the commission can make it easier to satisfy this condition.

With greater emphasis on water quality, he said the commission can also tap into the Long Island Sound Study, a program that offers grants to protect and restore the Sound.

“The Long Island Sound Study has been in existence now for 20 years,” Hoffman said. “It’s a pact between Connecticut and New York and all of the federal monies for the Long Island Sound go through it.” Referring to the Setauket Harbor Task Force, he added, “Our group is part of the Citizens Advisory Committee and we’re very active members of that group — that’s the one that gives out the grants for $10 million.”

Planting oysters and clams

Alan Duckworth, environmental analyst with the Town of Brookhaven, also addressed the commission during the meeting. His presentation highlighted a recent undertaking by the town to improve water quality of its harbors through the planting of large numbers of oysters and clams.

In recent years, the town has attempted to strengthen its understanding of the quality of its harbors and bays, and also the pathogens and contaminants that pollute them. While traditional testing indicates that the quality of Port Jeff Harbor has improved, Duckworth notes some notable deficiencies in these testing schemes.

“There are so many pathogens in Port Jeff Harbor and elsewhere,” he said. “Some of them are from humans, but a lot of them are from water fowl. DEC does checks for pathogens and uses E. coli as a marker.” However, acknowledging the limitations of these tests, he added, “They don’t separate human E. coli from avian E. coli. Obviously some of the pathogens are coming from human waste, but a lot of it could be coming from birds.”

The town grows approximately 1.5 million oysters and another 1.5 million clams every year that it puts out into various harbors and bays. The addition of these shellfish populations aids the local fishing industry as well as recreational shellfishing.

The oyster and clam populations serve as “filter feeders,” flushing harmful contaminants from the waters and spitting out filtered water. These shellfish have a beneficial impact on water quality, according to Duckworth.

The town’s planting activities also attempt to restore the natural populations that once flourished along the Island coastline. “What we see today is only a fragment of what used to occur around Long Island in the bays and harbors,” Duckworth said, adding, “Through disease and through overfishing, in some areas the natural populations are 1% of what they used to be. We put out oysters and clams to hopefully kickstart the next generation.”

“About 100,000 oysters are removing about 50% of the microalgae, which is a fantastic result.”

— Alan Duckworth

With funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund, the town has been able to track the effects of these shellfish populations on the quality of its surface waters. Measuring water quality with an instrument called a sonde, researchers performed two experiments — one within an area of 100,000 oysters in Port Jeff Harbor and another approximately 60 feet away from the oysters, which served as the control. Measuring the removal of microalgae by the oysters, the researchers found “about 100,000 oysters are removing about 50% of the microalgae, which is a fantastic result,” Duckworth said.

In a separate test for turbidity, a measure of the number of sediments floating around in the water, he said, “They also remove about 50% of these sediments, which improves water clarity. That’s really important for photosynthetic organisms and things that require sunlight.” Duckworth added, “If you have 10 feet of dirty water, all of the things that live on the bottom and require sunlight can’t photosynthesize. When you clean that water, it’s really important for the animals and plants that live there.”

A final experiment tested whether these plantings have any effect on restoring the natural populations of shellfish in the harbor. The researchers put out bags of empty oysters shells and found that baby oysters began to move into those shells, an indicator that the planted oysters are adapting to their new environment.

“The oysters that we put out are now adults, they’re now producing larvae, and those larvae are actually finding places to settle, in this case the oyster shells,” Hoffman said. “They‘re actually reseeding Port Jeff Harbor.”

Reflecting upon these studies, Hoffman concluded that the work being done is having a positive effect on water quality and points to an optimistic future of the harbor. “This is a good story,” he said. “We’re showing that, yes, the oysters that we put out are cleaning the water, but they’re also helping to reseed and restock the natural populations that we all want to bring back.”

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