05/15/2025
- 05/17/2025
Time: 7 PM / 9 AM
440 Montauk Highway, Great River
The Community Science Long Island series is back for its fifth year, and this time it’s all about invasive species — the ones crowding out native plants and animals in our own backyards.
The series officially kicks off Wednesday, May 15, with a 7 p.m. webinar on phragmites, a fast-spreading aquatic grass also known as common reed. Then, on Saturday, May 17, volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at West Brook in Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River to help pull the stuff out by hand.
Click here for more info or to sign up for events.
Organizers say it’s all part of a broader push to teach people how to spot invasive species and stop them from spreading. The programs will run through August with both online webinars and in-person events, including nature walks and invasive species cleanups.
The series wraps up with a summer bioblitz — a kind of outdoor scavenger hunt — where people will be encouraged to photograph as many living things as they can find along Long Island’s coasts.
Community Science Long Island is a collaboration between Seatuck Environmental Association, Peconic Estuary Partnership, South Shore Estuary Reserve, New York Sea Grant, the Long Island Sound Study and the Long Island Invasive Species Management Area.
Photo: Phragmites/Michigan State University/MSU Extension/Michigan Sea Grant
