MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Friends of Flax Pond is to educate for the protection of those estuarine ecosystems of which Flax Pond is representative on the North Shore of Long Island.

We seek to accomplish this goal through citizen scientist habitat monitoring in Flax Pond and other salt marshes under the guidance of academic scientists with whom we work and in collaboration with other environmental stakeholders. Additionally, we offer research-based lectures and workshops to the public to raise consciousness about the value of estuarine ecosystems.

Our History

The Friends of Flax Pond began in 2004 as a grass roots volunteer effort by neighbors of Flax Pond to raise public consciousness about the loss of habitat and species in Flax Pond. We began by offering a series of four Winter Lectures on estuarine marine science at the Childs Mansion on Flax Pond. These lectures are now an established tradition as are our three additional Citizen Science programs.

Following the Winter Lectures, the Friends of Flax Pond began an ongoing collaboration with Stony Brook University Marine and Mineral Physics Scientists and the NY State DEC to provide a five day Summer Institute of Habitat Monitoring in Flax Pond. The Flax Pond Summer Institute, established in 2004, each year conducts a Marsh Cover Study mapping marsh vegetation, a blue and ribbed mussel population study, and a juvenile horseshoe crab tide pool study, the latter which is directed by Cornell University extension faculty.

In 2005, the Friends began a collaborating with the DEC and Cornell University to support the DEC's ongoing Horseshoe Crab Spawning Survey, conducted each spawning season at Flax Pond and West Meadow beach.

In 2006, the Friends inaugurated a Diamondback Terrapin Nesting Survey with the help of CW Post Biology and subsequently with Hofstra College Biology. This survey is also conducted each year at West Meadow Beach and Flax Pond during the turtle nesting season.

All of these Citizen Science programs are directed by academic scientists with whom we work. Volunteers are then recruited from the community and trained by our collaborating scientists to gather data on our target species. All of the data we collect is available to research scientists and, most importantly, provides us with an ongoing data base to mark population trends in the salt marshes of North Shore Long Island and identify special needs for the health of the ecosystem.

Meet The Friends