ReWilding, the process of repairing the damage human presence has done to the continuity of ecosystems, is on a roll across Long Island, and chapters of the organization on the North and South forks had a busy year.
The North Fork Chapter, launched in January, worked to plant native gardens at the Peconic Community School in Cutchogue, River & Roots Community Garden in Riverhead, North Fork Audubon’s headquarters at Inlet Pond County Park in Greenport and Johanna’s Hope’s Jo’s Farm in Aquebogue this spring. The group continued its work this November with the planting of native gardens at two Southold churches — United Methodist Church’s Vine Church and Unitarian Universalists of Southold.
Pictured Above: Volunteers from The Vine Church in Southold and ReWild Long Island planted a native garden on Nov. 19
On the South Fork, ReWild members organized a successful high school summer student internship program, the ReWild/South Fork Summer Program to Fight Hunger & Climate Change. In partnership with a wide array of environmental organizations, “students from East Hampton High School, Ross School and Pearson have contributed more than 1,000 hours to the restoration and protection of our soils and shores, pollinators and people.”
The South Fork chapter has also launched a new Social Media & Web Internship for high school students, and worked to create a new garden at the Third House Nature Center in Montauk and at the Bridgehampton School.
Chase Chmielewski works to plant a ReWild garden at the Bridgehampton School. |. photo courtesy Bridgehampton School
On both forks, ReWild has been actively working to encourage community composting with pilot programs collecting household food scraps at local farms and farmers markets.
Both chapters are new outgrowths of ReWild Long Island, a Port-Washington-based non-profit that provides grants for native and food gardens and support for summer high school internship programs, as well as holding native plant sales, seed swaps and informational lectures.
If you are part of a group that oversees a swath of land that is open to the public and have volunteers willing to commit to taking care of a a new native plant garden, or a vegetable garden with native companion plantings, now is the time to apply for ReWild grants for 2025 — the application deadline is Dec. 16, 2024.
Applicants must provide a source of water and volunteers willing to prepare and weed the site, and ReWild will provide expert guidance from its Garden and Project Managers, Maggie Muzante and Samantha Jo; a garden design; and plugs of native plants that are expected to thrive at the sites selected. The application is available online at rewildlongisland.org/gardens.
Nancy DePas Reinertsen and her husband, Ralph Reinertsen, have spearheaded the North Fork Chapter’s work. We caught up with them as they worked with parishioners at The Vine Church in Southold on Nov. 18, planting a colorful garden with little bluestem grass and flowers ranging from black-eyed Susans to pink tickseed, yellow wild indigo and calico asters, designed by Ms. Muzante.
“It has a lot of colors — mostly yellow, pink, purple and white,” said Ms. Muzante as volunteers from the church made quick work of planting the plugs in a swale on the corner of Route 48 and Hortons Lane. She said ReWild designs gardens that are deer-resistant and behave like meadow ecosystems, without shrubs.
Ms. Jo, ReWild’s Projects Manager and Master Composter, said ReWild plans this winter to open up its virtual garden design workshop series, beginning in January, to high school students looking to design their own gardens through the grant program.
“We really want to empower youth,” said Ms. Depas Reinertsen, who added that she’d like to see the North Fork chapter put together a summer high school student internship program.
“The South Fork program met once a week, with lectures on environmental science, the effects of pesticides, homework and a garden design competition,” she added. “We would love to have this here, but the time commitment is incredible.”
The Vine Church’s ReWilding project is an outgrowth of the church’s need to quickly plant grass after it built its new sanctuary three years ago in order to get its Certificate of Occupancy from Southold Town.
“After three years, we realized the cost of maintaining a lawn was not economically or environmentally sustainable,” said the church’s former pastor, Tom McCloud, who, with his wife, Bobbie, spearheaded the ReWilding project. At first, he said, they just let the grass grow, but “initially people thought we were closed,” he said.
The church then put banners along the perimeter of the property letting the community know they were ReWilding. Ms. McCloud then suggested they put the wildflower garden at a visible location at the corner of the property, which will be extended to a flowering meadow surrounding the property and buffering it from the highway.
“We’re letting it become more of a natural habitat,” said Mr. McCloud. “We represent farm fields, meadows and pastures. Part of the United Methodist Church Book of Resolutions is that we are to be good stewards of the land. That’s our responsibility. It falls in line with our social principles.”
Keep Independent News on the East End
The Beacon is able to provide all of our content online free of charge thanks to support from our readers. Be a vital part of keeping our community informed!
