“They’re not able to withstand storm surges much, erosion as much,” Betts said. “And they don’t offer that filtration benefit that a lot of our deep-rooted species have.”<\/p>\n
The Roslyn park, which was built in 1930, has become overrun with the flowering plants in the upper pond and wetland areas, Betts said. Other invasive plants that could be removed as part of the effort include multiflora rose, common ivy, Japanese knotweed, Japanese honeysuckle, tree of heaven\u00a0and bittersweet nightshade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The district will then plant native wetland trees and shrubs, Betts said, such as red maple and\u00a0silver maple trees and\u00a0arrowwood viburnum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Muttontown, Hempstead projects<\/p>\n
A\u00a0project at Muttontown Preserve will see the removal of burning bush, with potential collateral invasives including\u00a0Oriental bittersweet, multiflora rose,\u00a0Norway maple and border privet.<\/p>\n
The agency will plant an array of ground cover, forest trees and shrubs to “revegetate the understory and outcompete invasive species,”\u00a0Betts said.<\/p>\n
In the Town of Hempstead,\u00a0Asiatic sand sedge, which formed after Superstorm Sandy, will be removed from Lido West Town Park. “Deep-rooted vegetation,” such as little bluestem, seaside goldenrod\u00a0and American beachgrass\u00a0will be installed in its place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Invasives such as\u00a0multiflora rose\u00a0and autumn olive will also be removed from\u00a0Hempstead Plains Preserve. A pilot re-seeding project using\u00a0ecotypic Long Island seed will “further strengthen seed bank resilience,” Betts said.<\/p>\n
Boat inspections\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state also awarded more than $600,000 to efforts in Suffolk, such as a\u00a0$224,869 award to the Southampton Township Wildfowl Association to “correct ecological damage\u00a0caused by the invasive southern pine beetle at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge,” according to a DEC news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The nonprofit Save the Great South Bay received a\u00a0$65,750 DEC grant.<\/p>\n
Robyn Silvestri, executive director of Save the Great South Bay, said the money will help fund free inspections of boats for invasive species like red seaweed, feather weed, green crabs and devil\u2019s tongue weed.<\/p>\n
The invasive species have been found to spread throughout the\u00a0Great South Bay by latching onto watercraft and then drifting onto beaches, Silvestri said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n
She added that one species of red seaweed \u201cstinks to high heaven.”\u00a0The algae have become \u201ca big problem the last couple of years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking to see if boats are spreading invasive species from water body to water body,\u201d Silvestri said.<\/p>\n
The grant will fund two workers who will staff public boat launches on the South Shore between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Silvestri said. The nonprofit hopes to start the program in May, she said.<\/p>\n
Newsday’s Carl MacGowan contributed to this story.<\/p>\n
The fight against invasivesThe Nassau County Soil and Water District received\u00a0$248,372 to remove invasive species and restore native habitats at three locations.A project at Lido West Town Park will see the removal of\u00a0Asiatic sand sedge, which largely formed after Superstorm Sandy destabilized the dunes.Save the Great South Bay received $65,750 to help fund free inspections of boats for invasive species.\u00a0![\"Joshua](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775074148_70_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gerry Pond Park, a quiet oasis in a historic part of Roslyn where geese like to swim, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,34965,3729,3475,79,5478],"class_list":{"0":"post-558837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-environment-and-nature","10":"tag-local","11":"tag-nassau","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-suffolk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}