Cleanups Abound Across East End
There is no shortage of troubling news about the state of our environment as Earth Day approaches.
A few examples: Global greenhouse gas emissions increased last year, while here in the United States, the Trump administration continued its efforts to roll back emissions standards. A study published last month in the journal Scientific Reports revealed that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a massive floating island of debris composed mostly of plastics — is 4 to 16 times larger than previously thought. And in Spain, the necropsy of a 33-foot sperm whale found dead off the coast in February revealed it had more than 60 pounds of trash clogging its digestive system.
Against that backdrop, Earth Day efforts across the East End this weekend offer a chance to clean beaches, trails, and roadsides, recycle electronic waste, celebrate the planet through art and song, and consider lasting actions to protect it.
One way to do so is to see that all those old computers, wires, and electronic junk don’t end up in a landfill, and GeekHampton in Sag Harbor will make that easy by offering free e-waste recycling tomorrow and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and again on Monday during the same hours. The shop on Bay Street will accept old laptop and desktop computers, printers, monitors, copiers, mobile and landline phones, networking equipment, cable and wiring, and power supplies, and promises that data will be destroyed securely and that nothing will end up in a landfill. Last year, according to GeekHampton, it recycled 1,977 pounds of electronic waste.
The Southampton Arts Center will host a full weekend of films, discussions, and activities, including a summit on Saturday and a celebration and fair on Sunday. The center’s Earth Days will kick off tomorrow with a screening of “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” at 7 p.m., in which Al Gore continues his campaign to educate people about climate change. Tickets cost $10.
Registration for the summit on Saturday runs from 9 to 9:45 a.m., and programs will continue throughout the day. The cost is $25. The day’s events begin with a look at Paul Hawken’s book “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reduce Global Warming” from 9:45 to 11:30 a.m. A panel discussion on energy and sustainability follows with Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy Long Island, Jen Garvey of Deepwater Wind, and Andrew Smith of GreenLogic.
The Golden Pear provides lunch at 12:40, and after that a land and water panel at 1:10 will feature Robert DeLuca of Group for the East End, Edwina von Gal of the Perfect Earth Project, Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O, Colleen Henn of the Surfrider Foundation’s eastern Long Island chapter, and Melanie Cirillo of the Peconic Land Trust. Participants will ponder personal action to help the environment in a session at 2:20 with Sarah Hunnewell, Bruce Humenik of Applied Energy Group, and Joe Densieski of Wastewater Works.
Government action will be the focus of a panel discussion at 3:30 p.m. moderated by the columnist Karl Grossman, with presentations by Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, County Legislator Bridget Fleming, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and Southampton Village Mayor Michael Irving.
The day concludes on a peaceful note, with sound meditation led by Daniel Lauter from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m.
On Sunday, there will be free music, face painting, art projects, children’s programs, food, and films and videos from 1 to 4 p.m. at the center. Local businesses and organizations will offer tips for lowering your carbon footprint and creating a cleaner East End. Visitors can test drive a Tesla, learn about raptors with a representative of the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center, and groove to the sounds of Son Mondial, a world music trio featuring Bill Smith, Steve Shaughnessy, and Rodney Harris.
A number of vendors will be on hand with their products, among them Mary Woltz and Bees’ Needs, the Green Thumb organic farm, Ahna Redfox Smith Essential Oils, and Union Cantina.
People have been asked to take old fabric, wire, string, beads, and cardboard and plastic recyclables and other odds and ends for an upcycle art project with Lexy Ho-Tai, a 2017 artist in residence at the Watermill Center.
A full list of activities for Saturday and Sunday can be found on the Southampton Arts Center’s website, where tickets can be purchased in advance for tomorrow night’s film and Saturday’s summit.
The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton is also ramping up its programming for Earth Day weekend, starting with a talk by John P. Cardone based on his book “The Healing Power of Nature” at 7 p.m. tomorrow. A book signing will follow.
The museum will host a free open house all day on Saturday. Scheduled activities include family yoga with Laura Berland from 10:30 to 11 a.m. and a family walk in the Vineyard Field behind the museum at 11:30, weather permitting. Those who want to stick around for lunch can buy sandwiches and salads made by the folks at Bay Burger in Sag Harbor.
On Saturday afternoon, the museum will host a nature scavenger hunt for kids 5 and older at 1:30, a tin-can planter workshop for families at the same time, and a discussion of tick-borne illnesses with a representative of the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Resource Center at 2:45 p.m. There’s an astronomy lecture on Jupiter co-sponsored by the Montauk Observatory at 7 p.m., and star viewing to follow from 8 to 10.
On Sunday, museum staff will hit the trails. Joe Giunta leads a birding session at 8 a.m. At 11, people will set off on a walk from the museum to Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor. A picnic lunch has been suggested. A bus will transport people back to the museum at 1 p.m., but heartier hikers can make the trek on foot starting at 2. That afternoon at 5 at the museum, Louie Psihoyos’s Emmy Award-winning documentary “Racing Extinction” will be shown. The cost is $7.
On the Beaches
Cleanup efforts abound this weekend, from Montauk to Southampton to Shelter Island. The largest of these are Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s Great Montauk Cleanup and the Shoreline Sweep, an East Hampton Town-wide assault on beach litter organized by Dell Cullum. Both are on Saturday.
A host of Montauk businesses and environmental organizations have joined in sponsoring C.C.O.M.’s cleanup, which will start at 9 at its office on South Elmwood Avenue, where bags and gloves will be available along with hot cider and doughnuts. Participants will head out from there to roadsides, parks, the downtown, and bay and ocean beaches around the hamlet to gather trash that can be deposited in a big Dumpster near the C.C.O.M. office. The rain date is April 28.
The Shoreline Sweep will bring together more than half a dozen other groups to gather up trash from dozens of points around East Hampton Town from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bags and gloves will be available at Main Beach in East Hampton and Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett. Volunteers will be dispatched to Beach Lane in Wainscott; Georgica, Main, Egypt, and Two Mile Hollow Beaches in East Hampton; Indian Wells, Atlantic Avenue, Napeague, and White Sands in Amagansett, and Hither Hills in Montauk on the ocean side. On the bay beaches, volunteers will hit the Walking Dunes, Napeague Harbor, Lazy Point, the Devon Yacht Club area, points around Accabonac and Three Mile Harbors, Northwest Landing and Harbor, and Gardiner’s Bay. Mr. Cullum has asked people to reach out to him with their destinations at [email protected].
He will provide more detailed instruction. Trash can be taken to town recycling centers or left bagged at designated beach heads, where Mr. Cullum and other volunteers will collect it after the sweep. Mr. Cullum will also organize for the mechanical removal of any larger debris that cannot be lifted.
Among the many other cleanups this weekend, the South Fork Natural History Museum will tackle the beach at Sagg Main in Sagaponack on Saturday at 9 a.m. The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will tidy up a Montauk section of the Paumanok Path on Saturday at 10 a.m. during a two-and-a-half-mile walk led by Eva Moore. Bags will be provided at the Montauk Library prior to the hike. Ms. Moore can be phoned at 631-238-5134 or on the day of the hike at 631-681-4774. The Southampton Trails Preservation Society will lead cleanups at various locations on Saturday. Those who wish to lend a hand have been asked to call 631-725-7503.
The Amagansett Village Improvement Society will spearhead a cleanup of the hamlet’s alleyways and Main Street on Saturday at 11 a.m. starting from Amagansett Wine and Spirits. Participants have been asked to take their own gloves and bags.
At the Nature Conservancy’s Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island, visitors have been invited to join in two hands-on projects on Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon: a beach cleanup on the preserve’s shores and an effort to cut invasive vines from trees. Those who plan to attend have been asked to take work gloves, hand pruners, and loppers if they have them, and to R.S.V.P. to 631-749-4219 or [email protected].
On Sunday, the Surfrider Foundation’s eastern Long Island chapter will clean the beach at Flying Point in Water Mill from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
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Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly reported that GeekHampton in Sag Harbor would be collecting e-waste through Sunday. The shop is closed on Sundays. Its recycling effort took place on Friday and Saturday and will continue on Monday.