Since 1972, Group for the East End has fought for the protection of the local environment through advocacy, conservation, and education. Their work has resulted in some of the most critical conservation victories for the East End. The Group will mark this milestone by hosting several nature outings and special events, including its 50th anniversary Swing into Summer benefit.
“Fifty years ago, Group for the East End’s founders understood that the protection of the area’s most significant natural resources would be the cornerstone of a sustainable future,” said Group for the East End president Bob DeLuca. “They also understood that unbridled development would destroy everything that made this place special to begin with, and that the work would not be easy.”
We caught up with DeLuca to learn more.
You’re celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Group for the East End. How does it feel?
When I think about the Group’s 50th anniversary, I feel deeply moved by the foresight of our founders, who understood both the natural wonder and inherent vulnerability of our precious East End.
Those early advocates for clean water, land preservation, and informed environmental decision-making, laid the groundwork for lasting and positive environmental change and their vision still drives virtually every conservation and community planning issue that defines our work today.
I also feel a sense of great personal obligation to keep the Group’s vision and mission on a steady and forward-leaning course, despite the rising tide of environmental challenges that face our future. I have always considered it an honor to represent the Group’s mission and the thousands of members who make our work possible, and even after 30 years at the helm, I remain humbled by every single person who stands with us and lends their support for a sustainable future.
The Group knew 50 years ago the importance of protecting the East End’s natural resources and encouraging land preservation. Talk more about the reasons for starting Group for the East End.
Fifty years ago, eastern Long Island was headed in very same direction as so many other communities that have since lost their history, identity, and environment to the impacts of suburban sprawl. Land use and zoning requirements were limited, highway expansion out to the East End was well underway, the region’s critical reliance on its natural environment for economic and public health was poorly understood, and the pressure for an unbridled development boom was unprecedented across the region.
Our founders saw what was coming, pressed hard for a different path for the region. In the face of expansive subdivision development and proposals for suburban shopping malls, the Group began to assemble a professional staff that was capable of both developing innovative land use and conservation solutions, as well as going toe-to-toe with developers whose projects could have easily reduced this very special place into to just anyplace. Pushing back effectively against determined development interests wasn’t easy or at times, very popular, but as the threats became more apparent, the public and many of our local elected leaders began to understand and embrace the concept of conservation planning, and things started to change. New requirements for lower density development, lot clearing restrictions, environmental review of development proposals, land preservation, wetlands protection, and improved water quality measures, all began to make progress. Today, these changes (and advancements made since) are some of the most important environmental achievements that have shaped the future of the East End for the better.
Talk about the start of the Community Preservation Fund in 1999. Did you expect it to have the impact it has, raising over $2 billion for land preservation?
Despite the environmental and community-planning progress that had been accomplished in the first 20 years of the Group’s existence, one of the most challenging issues facing the region was the continued loss of some of region’s most valuable undeveloped forests, shorelines, wetlands and farmlands. Even with improved development requirements, a number of the regions’ most fragile natural attributes remained at risk of overdevelopment simply because local governments could not raise money fast enough to participate competitively in the booming real estate market and secure critical parcels for needed preservation.
This simple and specific need became the driving force behind the development and authorization of the Community Preservation Fund (CPF) — a campaign which took the better part of a decade to achieve.
In my view, the success of the CPF lies largely in the broad-based community coalition that was assembled and sustained to advocate for all the layers of legislation and voter approval that were ultimately required to bring the program online, and to extend and expand the program through the years. With diverse representation from civic, environmental, business, local real estate and construction interests, this coalition was hard to beat and it ultimately made the work of elected officials that much easier as there was virtually no local opposition. Some outside development and real estate pushed back against the CPF, but could not overcome the unified support of local stakeholders, and ultimately the electorate that has overwhelmingly supported the program at the ballot box for years.
I don’t think any of us ever envisioned that the fund would raise as much as it has, however, we did recognize that escalating land values would need a substantial, stable and recurring source to compete with private interests for the region’s most valuable undeveloped lands. That has certainly proven to be the case, but the good news is that not only has the CPF been successful at preserving thousands of acres of undeveloped land and farmland, it has also been expanded to provide support for critically needed water quality protection projects as well. I don’t think there is any doubt that the CPF stands as one of the region’s greatest environmental success stories and we are so proud to have been engaged with so many community advocates in this transformative effort from the beginning.
Looking back, were there any pivotal moments or milestones in the fund’s history when you realized what the scale of the preservation work would lead to?
As it happens, I do remember two specific milestones that still resonate with me when I think about the success of the CPF. The first was in 2015, when it was confirmed that the program had raised its first billion dollars — there was just something about the billion that made me pause and give thanks to all who had made this program possible and all those who have continued to vote for its extension and expansion through the years.
The second moment I remember was just a year ago or so, when it was confirmed that the Town of Southampton (which regularly generates the highest CPF proceeds of any East End Town) on its own, had raised $1 billion. Given that the Town of Southampton generally represents about 50 percent of the overall annual fund proceeds, this number also told me that the rest of the East End towns had likely raised another $1 billion since the program’s inception, which is just amazing. I also think that these two milestones offer us all a tangible sign of hope in what can often feel like some deeply troubling times, when it comes to confronting our shared environmental challenges.
What are some of the programs that you’re most proud of over the past 50 years.
Since its inception, I believe the Group has defined itself as a capable, professional public advocate for the region’s most vulnerable natural resources. Through our combined efforts of community education, civic advocacy and environmental stewardship, we have given a voice to so many people who care so deeply about the future of our natural world, created hundreds of hands-on opportunities to protect and restore our local environment, and helped to broadly inspire a conservation ethic through the work of our exceptional staff.
I am particularly proud of the success we have had in sharing the countless wonders of our East End environment with nearly 100,000 students through our integrated classroom and field education programs, which are designed to complement the curricula of our local teachers while helping to develop the next generation of local environmental leadership.
Can you talk a little about bringing the osprey population back from the brink of local extinction and the work the foundation did to make this happen?
For many people, the osprey has been a symbol of Eastern Long Island’s region’s rich coastal history and longtime reliance on the sea. As many people know, though once flourishing in our coastal waters, our native fish hawk nearly became extinct locally as a result of its accumulation of toxic compounds found in persistent pesticides that were widely used decades ago.
In the early 1980s the plight of the osprey caught our attention and we committed to taking a few small actions to try and help the osprey become reestablished after a long decline across the region. To that end, and now over three decades, the Group has installed and monitor dozens of nesting platforms that are designed to help the birds safely nest in a wide array of coastal wetlands, marshes, and beaches. For the better part of these past 30 years, the Group has also worked with staff and numerous volunteers to monitor the success of the nesting platforms that we installed, provide repairs as needed, identify new and natural nest locations, and expand our efforts to monitor the many nest platforms installed by others.
Our data has demonstrated a continuous and accelerating rise in our local population, due in substantial part to increased food supplies and the success of many years work to improve nesting opportunities and nesting success.
Today, the regional osprey population is fully recovered, and we now regularly monitor nearly 400 active nest sites (which annually produce some 600 chicks) across the region to determine annual occupancy, nest productivity, and to identify management needs for the future.
In the ‘80s members of the board of directors come up with an idea for providing bus service between New York City and local villages to ease traffic congestion. The late James Davidson, a member of that board, then created the Hampton Jitney. Tell us more about this.
From the earliest days of the Group’s founding, the issue of traffic congestion and improved transit has been a core community planning issue and it has also been an issue that is very difficult to address. Expanding development creates a steady rise in traffic generation not just from each individual home or business, but from all the attendant services that each new building or home requires over time.
During his time on the board, Jim Davidson was particularly interested in finding ways to improve the movement of people, first from village centers and train stations to the beaches, and later through the creation of the Hampton Jitney — as a way to keep cars off the street and provide ease of access back and forth from New York City. Jim clearly understood the region’s unique transportation needs, which were steadily outpacing the availability of sustainable transportation infrastructure. More roads were not the solution — but a more effective way to move people held great hope, and Jim accepted the challenge and launched the Hampton Jitney.
At a time when mass transit was suffering from America’s love affair with the automobile, Jim took a chance, and met what has become an ever-expanding need. Like the CPF, the Hampton Jitney provided a very specific solution to a very specific regional need, and it is this kind of focus that has been a cornerstone of our local environmental work for five decades.
In the ‘90s you partnered with Springs School in East Hampton to develop a South Fork-based environmental education curriculum for local schools. Since then, you’ve been involved in a variety of educational initiatives. Can you talk about the importance of this?
For those of us who engage in the daily discussions and decisions that shape the future of our environment, quality of life, and sustainability of our limited natural resources, we know the importance of informed leadership.
We also know that the vast majority of our local leaders and decision makers come from our community and often attend our local schools.
With this in mind, when we began our formal environmental education programs, we had two basic goals.
First, we wanted to instill a love and respect for the region’s incredibly diverse and fragile natural environment. Those of us in the conservation business, know that a love of nature often begins with a single outdoor experience or even that taps into our innate curiosity and sets the stage for a lifetime of environmental awareness. Such awareness helps to develop a lasting environmental ethic, and such ethics can be critical to community decision-making over time. Thus, the hope was to increase and broaden all people’s exposure to the wonders of the world around them and hope that such experiences would translate in a more informed community and better environmental decisions as a result.
Second, we believe strongly that education is critical to developing a sound scientific understanding of the world around us, and that understanding scientific concepts can often be taught more enjoyably and memorably when done in an outdoor “place-based” setting.
In our work with Springs School, we were very thankful to work with the school’s committed faculty to integrate environmental lessons within the context of the school’s broader math and science learning objectives. This process has allowed us to add educational value without overloading already full teaching schedules.
We are thankful for the model that this program provides and have developed similar educational school programs across the region. In my view, the success of our school-based programs coupled with our regular outreach and educational opportunities for adults offers the best chance at a future for this region, where conservation and environmental stewardship are always a top of mind issue for both the community and its decision-makers.
Talk a little about the preservation of farmland on the East End with the Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program, which is responsible for protecting thousands of acres of farmland and sustaining the agricultural industry.
Agriculture has been a dominant economic force and a deeply valued cultural icon of life on the East End for centuries. Despite that long-standing importance to the region, the future of farming remains uncertain as the pressure for development and the higher costs of agriculture on Long Island continue to challenge the industry.
Decades ago, Suffolk County was an early leader in the effort to preserve its exceptional farmland through the creation of the Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program, which has protected thousands of acres of critical farmland across the East End and throughout Suffolk County for decades. The Suffolk County program also functions as a critical source of funds to help support local preservation efforts through partnerships with local communities that maximize the value of their CPF funds and increase farmland preservation.
One of the most valuable tools that is currently used to preserve farmland involves the acquisition of development rights from agricultural lands.
This strategy pays the farmer for the development value of the land, eliminates the potential for new development, and leaves the farm intact and in the ownership of the farm family to continue farming.
Today, this conservation strategy is regularly used as a vital land protection tool, but at one time, just like the CPF and Hampton Jitney, it was simply a good idea that needed further development and advocacy to gain acceptance and widespread use.
Also, just like the CPF, some of the earliest legal work and advocacy in support of the development rights acquisition legislation was conducted in the Group’s office by its young general counsel back in the early 1970’s. As with so many environmental policy and program initiatives in our region, we have often been blessed with the talent and passion of a dedicated staff that is focused on creative and strategic problem solving, and measurable outcomes in support of our local environment. I consider myself very fortunate to be in such good company for the last 30 years of my career at the Group.
What’s next for Group for the East End?
In short, when I began my career on the East End in the 1980s, we were focused on how the largely undeveloped natural resources of this region could best be protected from the consequences of overdevelopment. Now, as we approach the end of the undeveloped land era, we must redouble our efforts to focus on how we can live most sustainably on the lands we have committed to development and preserve our unique quality of life in the face of rising sea levels and a substantial increase in our local population.
The challenges that lie ahead can only be met with a strong and unified public voice for environmental conservation, and we seek to magnify that voice on behalf of all those who care about the future of our region and on behalf of all those natural and living resources, which lack a physical voice to speak for themselves.
