Peconic Baykeeper Seeks Tranquility In Hampton Bays

Nestled in the woods on Upper Red Creek Road in Hampton Bays, just a stone’s throw from Red Creek Pond and Wehrmann Pond, is the quaint hunting lodge once known as “Tranquility.”

That home, which belonged to the Wehrmann family for almost a century, was bequeathed to the Peconic Baykeeper organization, a not-for-profit water quality advocacy group that focuses its efforts on protecting and improving the aquatic ecosystems and estuaries of the Peconic Bay and South Shore of Long Island.

Haris “Harry” Wehrmann was born in Latvia in 1939 and immigrated to New York in 1949, where he was adopted by Wilhelm and Otillie Wehrmann, who summered in Hampton Bays. Mr. Wehrmann worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a tree climber and pruner until his retirement in 1992, when he moved to Hampton Bays full time. He died in April 2013 and entrusted the property to the not-for-profit.

Now, the organization is proposing to change the home, which sits on a 2.3-acre property in a residential zone, into the Peconic Baykeeper office, but will not do any major construction to the home, according to Brady Wilkins, who took the position of Baykeeper in October 2014. Mr. Wilkins said Mr. Wehrmann built out the southern portion of the home and added a concrete foundation in the 1990s, and the group is not looking to change anything about the structure.

A public hearing on the proposal, which is before the Planning Board, is scheduled for today, April 9, at 7 p.m. at Southampton Town Hall.

The Peconic Baykeeper is hoping to move into the home once approval from the Planning Board is granted, which could happen in May or June. The plan, Mr. Wilkins said, is to move in mid to late summer. The organization currently rents space on Old County Road in Quogue, among light industrial businesses, including auto body shops and pool companies.

“The Wehrmann property is much more in tune with our mission,” Mr. Wilkins said. “Mr. Wehrmann’s mother supposedly told him to preserve the land so that locals could reconnect with nature. And that’s what he did.”

Once the Baykeeper moves in, Mr. Wilkins said he might reconsider docking the organization’s boat in Red Creek Pond, which flows into the Peconic Bay.

Since he started working in October, Mr. Wilkins has kept busy visiting more than a dozen school districts across Suffolk County to teach students why it is important to keep Long Island waters clean.

“Many are not directly connected to the water, so they forget that they’re part of a marine environment,” Mr. Wilkins said, noting that he has been using horseshoe crabs, which have a bacteria-detecting byproduct used in hospitals, to demonstrate the importance of our aquatic ecosystems. The horseshoe crab, he explained, is mostly found in New England, Long Island and Japan, so it is critical that their environment stay healthy.

He has also been working with many advocacy groups on both the North Fork and South Fork to increase the number of volunteers who help clean up the beaches each spring.