Several East Hampton Town Trustees have questioned the expansion of an oyster restoration effort and an accompanying reef in Georgica Pond, as requested by Stony Brook University scientists. “I don’t want to be a board that drastically changed that entire closed ecosystem,” the presiding officer said.

In the wake of the March 8 and 9 brush fires in the Pine Barrens around Westhampton Beach, Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine has announced the county’s first southern pine beetle symposium, which happens on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon at Suffolk Community College’s Riverhead campus.

A plan to replace a large asphalt parking area, remove invasive species, and create bio-retention areas that could help filter and capture stormwater runoff before it reaches Lake Montauk moved ahead at the April 8 meeting of the East Hampton Town Board. The West Lake boat ramp, the project target, is large, denuded of vegetation, and its asphalt and hard-packed soil is on a pitch that sends it directly into the lake.

A balloon, three feet in diameter, hovering exactly 150 feet above the location of a proposed communications tower behind the Springs Firehouse on April 21 will be part of a test that will allow people to assess the visual impact of a proposed 150-foot tower from many vantage points. The new tower would replace the one that is already there.