Pollinator Pathway
Southold
Welcome to Southold Pollinator Pathway! The Town of Southold is at the northeastern end of Long Island, New York on the beautiful peninsula that is the North Fork. Southold is way more than beaches, trails, restaurants, and wineries, though extends from Riverhead to Orient Point and is nestled between the Peconic Bay and the Sound.
Our main goal is to help all our community members educate, understand, and adopt eco-friendly landscaping practices that support birds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators. The proposal for the native plant enhancement and revitalization of the meadow at Custer Preserve in Southold Town has been accepted by the Southold Town Board. This joint project (Southold Peconic Civic Association and Group for the East End) will show what a motivated ecologically-minded community can accomplish. We hope to jump start the ripple effect throughout our communities one successful pollinating planter, yard, garden, farm, and town to move away from the sterile monoculture of lawns that pollute our waters and don't feed the pollinators. .
The Native Songscape, Inlet Pond County Park
65275 North Road, Greenport, NY 11944
A Project to Restore Native Habitat at Inlet Pond County Park
In December 2020, Suffolk County cleared this quarter-acre of woods after mile-a-minute weed had overwhelmed it. North Fork Audubon Society (NFAS) is now restoring this open land with help from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County. Our goal is to create a native-plant habitat for birds, turtles, butterflies, insects, and other wildlife living in the park.
In 2021, NFAS volunteers repeatedly cleared the area of such invasive species as mile-a-minute weed, mugwort, oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose, locust trees, privet, and bitter dock; that autumn, we planted it with winter oats to prevent weed growth. In May 2022, we seeded it with a mix of 24 grasses and perennials native to Long Island. It will take several years for this grassland to mature into a “Native Songscape” that you’ll be able to walk through on mowed paths, past drifts of native grasses and blooming wildflowers.
Once established, this grassland will be sustained by rainfall, occasional mowing, and selective weeding to keep woodland succession at bay. Little Bluestem and Purple Love Grasses, goldenrods and bee balms are among the 24 native species we planted to support hummingbirds, orioles, thrushes, cardinals, woodpeckers, nuthatches, waxwings, wood warblers, among other birds.
