Stewardship of Mashomack Spans Generations

Many young families hiking the miles of trails at Mashomack Preserve are probably unaware that the more than 2,000 acres of land spread out before them could have succumbed to a fate Joni Mitchell sang about in “Big Yellow Taxi.”

They took all the trees and put ’em in a tree museum

And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them

No, no, no

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Ooh, bop-bop-bop

Ooh, bop-bop-bop (na-na-na-na-na)

That was because back in the late 1970s there was a plan on the table to develop the land that is now the preserve — which comprises just under one-third of Shelter Island — with houses and even a small airport. The plan, not the first like it, didn’t gain traction and, finally, in 1980, The Nature Conservancy stepped in, purchased Mashomack’s 2,350 acres that it had been eyeing for years, ensuring its preservation and, for the last 45 years, overseeing conservation projects on the land.

Long before it purchased Mashomack, The Nature Conservancy had an interest in preserving it, especially because it was a home to the then-endangered osprey and many rare plants. An agreement was reached in 1979 with the Gerard family that owned the holding company purchasing it for $6 million, raised by a combination of grass roots donations — including from many Shelter Islanders — corporate donations, Conservancy members, and foundations — and taking title the next year.

Lifelong Shelter Island resident Sharon Gibbs was 12 years old in 1979 when the effort to raise money for the purchase started in earnest. She remembers stuffing envelopes to be mailed out with a fundraising message. Along with other students, she organized a bake sale and the $250 they raised was matched by another donor.

Having raised what seemed a huge amount of money to them, “we thought my class saved the forest,” she recalled. “It has been part of my almost-daily life ever since.”

In the beginning “we were constantly there. We volunteered to help rake leaves and pick up sticks and walk the beaches to pick up garbage, and be at this great magical place,” Gibbs said.

“It is really the true meaning of a community-based conservation. You get a big organization, an international organization coming into this community wanting to protect biodiversity, but the people who live here also wanted to protect the water and the land because there is this great history of fishing and hunting … and understanding that connection,” she said about her continued involvement.

As a science teacher at Shelter Island School for 21 years, Gibbs is an obvious proponent for environmental education and the preserve has provided an outdoor classroom throughout her teaching career. She was also part of a summer program called the Environmental Explorers since its inception in the late 1980s. “I volunteered every summer for over 25 years,” she said.

The preserve was also a source of comfort when dealing with a recent bout of a rare form of cancer, which forced her retirement. Throughout the nine-year ordeal, she remained connected with the preserve in any way she could.

A sustainable future for the Earth is a through line for all of The Nature Conservancy’s work. In pursuit of that goal, the organization seeks to protect and preserve as much land as possible and Mashomack was a prime contender given the size of it plus the diversity of habitat.

“We knew there were specific things it was being protected for,” said Cynthia Belt, Mashomack’s education program manager. “It’s a great site for nesting ospreys is one; they were the poster child.” In addition, several species of rare plants, wetlands, fresh water ponds and meadows, the sheer “diversity of habitats, intact,” made it worth protecting.

While preserving and protecting the property was at the forefront, The Nature Conservancy also added making public access a priority.

“People were curious about what was behind the ‘glass doors,’” said Belt. “Our first priority is protecting the habitat. But we wanted to allow people here, too. It’s big enough to absorb the impact.” In the early days, there were some trails already set up, and so The Nature Conservancy started marking the trails and producing a trail map. The public was allowed into the preserve within the first few years and guided hikes were among the initial programs to get off the ground.

Then there was the question as to what to do with the buildings on the property. “We protect nature,” said Belt, so the idea of spending precious dollars on restoring them had to have some return on the investment. In the end, the conservancy, with advice from an advisory committee, restored any buildings that were not beyond salvaging and found an appropriate use for them.

One of those buildings is now the visitors center, near the entrance to the preserve. The education center was a former kennel used by the hunt club that leased the property back in the day. The Manor House, so-named by the hunt club that once leased the property, but historically known as Bass Creek Cottage and which boasts 10 bedrooms, became a conference center hosting scientists and other groups that make use of the natural setting or for scientific inquiry.

“One of the awesome things about having the manor house here … it makes us very visible. There’s a great connection across conservancy folks and partners who have been to Mashomack. It’s an opportunity to connect with people, whether it’s people in New York or other people from all around the world,” said Cody-Marie Miller, Mashomack’s conservation and stewardship manager.

It is Miller’s job to set the direction of the preserve’s work and align the conservation goals for the preserve with those of The Nature Conservancy as a whole. Currently, The Nature Conservancy is working with a target of 2030, estimating that is the best chance of making a positive impact on climate change.

“My job here is to make sure that the things from the large organization filter down through our work and out to people and that our work also filters back up and contributes to the goals of The Nature Conservancy. Very big picture speaking,” said Miller.

Broadly, the goals look at the amount of land and waters The Nature Conservancy needs to protect and manage, the amount of ocean that must be protected, and finally, the number of people the organization must engage to make all that happen.

“Obviously, Mashomack is one small piece of that very large puzzle. So what we look at is we have 2,350 acres [at Mashomack] and how what we do on our land can impact and contribute to those numbers that we’re trying to achieve,” said Miller. Achieving those numbers comes through things like adaptive land management (think proscribed fires), monitoring for invasive species, species monitoring (piping plovers, bald eagles are two examples), and things as simple as ensuring that trails are accessible to everyone, which gets more people exposed to nature.

“Once people are on the landscape and they experience nature, they start to care about nature, right? So that’s an important component,” Miller said.

Miller also oversees an aggressive deer management program. That includes inviting hunters to the preserve in January (and mostly closing it off to the public). It is a cooperative effort with the Town of Shelter Island with very specific rules for participation. About 60 hunters come through each season.

Mashomack Preserve was the site of the very first proscribed burn in New York State. And recently, Miller was the force behind a burn that came, entirely coincidentally, on the heels of the fire in the Westhampton Beach pine barrens, in 1988. Although she started with the conservancy in 2022, she noted that the preserve had formerly done burns with some frequency but then started to shift away from it, simply because of the complications that a cooperative effort with various levels of government bring. She brought with her years of experience doing proscribed burns in Florida, and the legwork that goes with it, and has since reignited the program. The fire plan for the recent burn is 47 pages long.

Proscribed fires are used for forest regeneration, as well as to prevent unplanned fires that could easily get out of control.

Conservation work at the preserve also involves partnerships with other ecologically oriented organizations. Along the trails, walkers will find “chronologs,” which are posts with a camera stand on the top. Citizen scientists are encouraged to snap a photo, according to the instructions, and send it to the Peconic BayKeeper. The photos will document changes to the coastal environment over time.

Some of the conservation efforts begin with an identified conservation need and then The Nature Conservancy steps in to start a program. “We build up a successful program and then the whole point is that we don’t own it forever. We identify and we work with other partners and we help them establish and then they run the program,” said Miller.

A long-term study is currently underway by The Nature Conservancy using the salt marshes at Mashomack, among other places on Long Island, as a laboratory. The salt marshes at Mashomack, noted Miller, offer a “good example of light touch restoration … and we can use that as an example of how to build a restoration plan” for other marshes.

Most who have walked the miles of trails at Mashomack are probably unaware of the conservation efforts that are going on right before their eyes. Signs throughout the preserve offer clues and helpful information about the environment, but it’s just about impossible to illustrate how these programs, over 45 years, run by The Nature Conservancy have contributed to the overall health of the planet. Joining one of the dozens of programs offered, throughout the year will explain those connections and, as a bonus, allow one to spend a day in the great outdoors.