By George Cork Maul & Beth Young
Over the past two years, volunteers from an array of Southold community groups and local students have been gradually transforming a six-acre preserve in need of much love into a haven for pollinators.
Pictured Above: Members of the Southold Town Board cut the ribbon at the monarch waystation. |. George Cork Maul photo
On June 13, the groups celebrated with a ceremonial ribbon cutting of the Custer Preserve Monarch Waystation at the town-owned Custer Preserve, adjacent to the Custer Observatory on Main Bayview Road.
The waystation is funded through the youth-led Monarchs Matter, a Long Island-based non-profit founded by student Cynthia Zhang, through its Monarch Waystation Program.
Monarchs Matter has also established monarch waystations at Downs Farm Preserve and the Peconic Community School in Cutchogue, River & Roots Community Garden in downtown Riverhead and the Unitarian Universalists of Southold meetinghouse.
“I believe monarch waystation signage and certification is an effective method to raise awareness of the monarch butterfly decline,” said Ms. Zhang, who serves as the non-profit’s President. “By putting up signage, it shows the public that the garden is contributing to monarch conservation — creating a ‘butterfly effect’ that inspires others to join the cause. Monarch waystations are more than gardens —they are community beacons for biodiversity and stewardship.”
Representatives from ReWild Long Island’s North Fork chapter, Group for the East End, the Southold-Peconic Civic Association and the Southold Town Board gathered on the beautiful morning of June 13, just a little before the milkweed bloomed, to dedicate the garden.
The town-owned park was adopted two years ago by the Southold-Peconic Civic Association and the Suffolk Alliance for Pollinators, receiving a grant from ReWild Long Island for native plants and drip irrigation, and pledging to put in a steady stream of volunteer hours to care for the garden.
“They talk about the insect apocalypse, and how insects are so much in decline, and we talk about pollinators and how important it is for wildlife, and through our combined organizations, we decided to do something about it,” said Nancy DePas Reinertsen, who helped spearhead the North Fork ReWild chapter with her husband, Ralph.
Ms. Reinertsen recently made a connection with Ms. Zhang, who started Monarchs Matter as a freshman at Great Neck High School, writing a grant proposal to launch the effort.
“She’s all about monarchs,” said Ms. Reinertsen.
“We’re losing our native insects, in particular,” said Group for the East End Outreach Director Taralynn Reynolds, who has helped to spearhead community involvement with the project. “It’s a culmination of factors like pesticides, the loss of habitat is a huge one, and invasive species.”
“Monarchs in particular have been hard hit by this,” she added. “Think about a world where there isn’t a monarch butterfly. That’s a less bright world, a less colorful world.”
“They’re what we call an umbrella species. By protecting them, we’re actually protecting the cascade of other species,” she added. “Without insects, and particularly caterpillars, we don’t have our birds. Without birds, we don’t have birds of prey or higher level mammals. We need those for a healthy ecosystem.”
Ms. Reynolds said monarchs only use milkweed as a habitat, which supports every part of its life cycle — they lay their eggs on it and get nectar from it.
There are quite a few species of native milkweed on Long Island, but common milkweed, which makes up much of the plantings in the garden, is “beautifully fragrant,” and something anyone can plant in their own backyard to sustain monarchs, she said.
“This underscores why we preserve land. This was preserved a long time ago and a lot of the focus was on Custer, because of light pollution, and the Dark Skies Initiative,” said Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski. “It was farmed, but it was certainly not protected land. It gave everyone an opportunity, over time to do different things like this with it, otherwise, it would have been houses…. This could happen because of dedicated community members.”
“As a farmer, I really understand the importance of pollinators, and there are more than honey bees — all the native pollinators are extremely important,” he added.
“It’s just a pleasure living in a community where everybody doesn’t just say what should happen, you roll up your sleeves and you make it happen,” said Town Councilwoman Jill Doherty. “Growing up out here, my grandma had woods, and there was all these native plants. This is the beginning of the work to bring them back.”
“I’m proud that we’re on the right track,” agreed Councilman Brian Mealy. “We’re doing the right thing, we’re paying attention, we’re being thoughtful and we’re educating others in our community.”
“Whether it’s the Suffolk County water pipeline, or whether it’s the zoning update, you guys are the most engaged community members that we have,” he added. “I’m just proud to know you. Thank you for what you do. Al always talks about what the volunteers do — the lion’s share of the town’s work could not be done without the volunteers.”
“Do not retire to Southold and then start going to meetings, because then you’re on too many boards and you have not enough time for your own garden,” cautioned Ms. Reinertsen.
Mr. Reinertsen urged the crowd to take a walk through the full six-acre property, which has a mowed path through what the town had hoped at one point would be an arboretum. It was choked with weeds for years before it was adopted by the community.
“There is a gorgeous arboretum throughout this property,” he said. “There’s about 30 trees here, and it’s all mowed, so that there’s no poison ivy. It’s gorgeous to walk through here, and it’s even more gorgeous if you know what the tree names are.”
For more information about Monarchs Matter and how to start a waystation in your community, visit monarchsmatter.net.
The preserve is open to the public at 1080 Main Bayview Road in Southold.
Email Ralph@ReWildLongIsland.org or nancydr@rewildlongisland.org for information about how you can volunteer.
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