New Manorville Pine Barrens Preserve to Be Named for Late Environmentalist Richard Amper

But now the Town of Brookhaven sewn the seeds of arguably the most fitting way to remember Amper: Purchasing one of the last pieces of undeveloped land up for grabs in Manorville, making it part of the Pine Barrens preserve, and naming the new addition after the late advocate.

“Anyone who knew Dick realized he was a force of nature; preserving this parcel would illustrate and recognize that he was also a force for nature,” Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico told Dan’s Papers in a statement.

Amper spent three decades communicating the value of the Pine Barrens as a natural recharging station for the region’s aquifer system, which provides drinking water to the 2.9 million residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties. He was known as one of the key architects of a 1989 lawsuit that halted development in the Pine Barrens and helped frame the Long Island Pine Barrens Act, which preserved 100,000 acres of the region’s forest, making him one of New York State’s most successful conservationists. The Pine Barrens are a collection of preserves stretching from the North Shore of Brookhaven Town to the South Fork.

His memory will be further enshrined in the name of a new preserve in Manorville, which Brookhaven Town is actively acquiring.

During the March 26 rezoning meeting for the former Dowling School of Aviation campus, Panico affirmed that contractor Hampshire Venture Partners LLC’s rezoning fees of $2 million would be deposited into the Joseph Macchia Environmental Preservation Capital Reserve Fund. Once the zoning is approved, the $2 million would be used to help acquire some of the 800 acres of the Pine Ridge property on the north side of Moriches Middle Island Road in Manorville. Further detailing his vision for the preserve, Panico stated he will propose naming the park after Amper.

This property, owned by Rose-Breslin-Properties, has been identified as one of 15 unprotected sites prioritized for protection as part of Long Island Pine Barrens Society’s “Best of the Rest” campaign.

Panico announced Brookhaven’s intention to expand the current 165 acres of the Pine Ridge Preserve to its full 800 acres, following his letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul on March 25. It was not immediately clear if the state would back the effort.

“I am writing to you today to seek your support and partnership in preserving a large Pine Barrens property situated within the Compatible Growth Area of the Central Pine Barrens within the Town of Brookhaven,” Panico wrote in the letter that he shared with Dan’s Papers. “This heavily forested parcel is bound by North Street on its western and northern boundaries, low-density residential development located along Weeks Avenue on its eastern boundary, and Moriches-Middle Island Road to the south. Referred to as the “Pine Ridge Preserve” in the most recent iteration of the New York State Open Space Conservation Plan, the property narrative in the Plan states: Pine Ridge Preserve: Brookhaven: An 800-acre parcel of highly intact pine barrens forest containing significant habitat for rare Lepidoptera (Coastal buckmoth) and several New York State Natural Heritage ranked species. Remarkably free of invasive plant species.”

Additional benefits of preservation, as explained in the letter, included:

“The property also has significant watershed value, recharging large volumes of clean drinking water to the underlying aquifers. It is estimated that approximately 365 million gallons of water recharge the aquifers through the property annually, enough to meet the daily water supply needs of about 8,300 residents.”

In closing, the town explained:

“The town has permanently protected 164 acres in the southeastern portion of the subject property and is currently negotiating to acquire another 10-acre parcel. However, this still leaves hundreds of acres of unprotected Pine Barrens land available for public acquisition. Due to the significant amount of acreage that remains unprotected, the Town of Brookhaven does not have the fiscal means to acquire it on its own. It is my hope and request that the State of New York work in partnership with the Town to acquire the remaining acreage of this important open space property.”

Brookhaven Town’s Pine Ridge preservation efforts will be among the largest land conservation projects in the past 20 years. The last large land conservation effort Brookhaven Town completed was the 450-acre Overton Preserve in Coram and the 330-acre pine forest that expanded Cathedral Pines County Park. Both transactions were in partnership with Suffolk County.

“The preservation of this large property, encompassing several hundred acres, would represent a major advance in the preservation of the Long Island Pine Barrens, an ecosystem that Dick Amper, as Executive Director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, spent much of his professional life fighting to protect,” Panico added. “Naming this public preserve in Dick’s honor would be highly fitting since the significant goals this preservation effort would achieve — safeguarding the drinking water aquifers located beneath the site, safeguarding habitat for countless pine barrens plants and animals, and providing outdoor recreational opportunities for Long Islanders — would bring focus to and highlight his tireless, many decades-long commitment to the cause of Pine Barrens preservation.”