Adopt-a-Patch Returns for 2024

Vineyard Field, Bridgehampton

We are very excited for our fourth year of our Adopt-A-Patch program for the Vineyard Field restoration. Through a great suggestion by FLPG Member Greg Bellafiore, Adopt-a-Patch was initiated in 2021 as a way to eradicate the remaining invasive autumn olive shrubs that continue to grow in Vineyard Field. Each volunteer is allotted a section of the field (their “patch”) where they will cut back any new sprouts at least once a month during the growing season. We have learned after years of mowing trails that repetitive cutting eradicates this noxious plant.

Interested in adopting a patch? All ages and skills are welcome! Adopt-a-Patch Work Sessions continue on the first Saturday of every month through November. Feel free to join at any time! For more information or to confirm attendance, contact Greg Bellafiore at 631-283-1200.

Important: For anyone who has helped us in the past and received tools but can no longer work on a patch, please coordinate with Dai Dayton (631-745-0689) to return your tools so we may redistribute to newcomers. Thank you!

Photo Above: Greg Bellafiore, Doreen Johnston & Peg Conklin Photo Below: Peg Conklin & Greg Bellafiore.

Both photos were taken during the May Adopt a Patch kickoff.

Greg & Peg have been tirelessly working on their patches for the past 3 years and have been doing an amazing job.

Thank you both for your dedication to Vineyard Field!

Congratulations Community Preservation Fund

We at Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt send hearty congratulations to Southampton’s Community Preservation Fund. It deserves the highest accolades for its quarter century of protecting our area’s land, waterways, and sites of historical interest. Here in the Greenbelt the CPF has preserved nearly 20 acres since its inception in 1999, spending close to $6 million on behalf of the Greenbelt’s unique coastal plain ponds ecosystem.  Taking into account water protection purchases in the Greenbelt’s broader hydrologic contributing area in the Bridgehampton moraine, such as the Mulvihill Preserve and Great Swamp target area, CPF has preserved hundreds more acres and expended tens of millions more dollars that directly benefit the Greenbelt by assuring a continuing supply of clean fresh water for the Greenbelt’s fragile ecosystem. 

We take this moment to reflect that the Greenbelt, a nature preserve 1,100 acres in size, shines as an outstanding example of the long pre-CPF history of land preservation on the East End, one that was implemented and carried forward by local governments, environmental groups, and civic and community leaders starting in the late 1960s. The great majority of the Greenbelt’s protected woodlands and wetlands were, in fact, purchased across the 1980s and 1990s by Southampton Town, Suffolk County, and the Nature Conservancy, with Suffolk County beginning the preservation momentum when it created Poxabogue Park in the mid 1970s.

To these past preservationists and those of the present, we send best wishes and profound thanks.

Sundays at Two Continues in May

Lois Pelz & Jerry Brown

on Bicycling the Hamptons

Sunday, May 19, 2:00 p.m.

Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Center

Cyclists Jerry Browne and Lois Peltz have over 30 years of experience leading group bike rides on the East End — with routes spanning from the South Fork to the North Fork and even Shelter Island. While bicycles are prohibited in the Long Pond Greenbelt, Jerry and Lois will join FLPG for a special Sundays at Two on May 19 to share their favorite routes in the surrounding area.

Jerry Browne is a dentist in Manhattan and an adjunct professor of dentistry at New York University. Lois Peltz is the owner of Peltz International, Inc., an information provider to the alternative investment community, primarily hedge funds and family offices.

The Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Center is located at 1061 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike, Bridgehampton. Look for the open flag and follow the driveway to the parking areas just before the center.

Photos from Great East End Clean-Up 2024

Photos Courtesy of East Hampton Star

Volunteers spent the morning helping to preserve the health and beauty of a treasured ecosystem. Thank you all!

Thank You to Our

Inaugural Sundays at Two Lecturer

Nature Photographer Marianne Barnett

Photographer Marianne Barnett's mission is to share the lives of animals through visual art. "I want to share their movement and emotions in their habitats and celebrate their lives through my art. It's my goal to inspire others to become interested in caring for the delicate balance of animal life and enjoy the visual journey." See some of Marianne's work at mariannebarnettphotos.com.

Photos from Solar Eclipse

Viewing in Vineyard Field

Photos Courtesy of Meghan Moore, FLPG Board Member