Strict Wetlands Law Would Protect Wildlife

East Hampton Town has won a reputation as a trailblazer in environmental preservation, and this week it took another pioneering step as officials discussed an ambitious plan to protect wildlife through far more stringent wetlands regulations.

"People complain about insects in the summer here, but think about what it would be like if we didn't have the dragonflies, the damselflies, the diving beetles, the frogs and toads," said Larry Penny, the town's director of natural resources.

Mr. Penny and two others made the case for the conservation measures at a Town Board meeting on Tuesday, urging that the current wetland setbacks be tripled for structures and doubled for septic systems. Board members were receptive to the plan.

Spotted Turtle

The Town Trustees have passed laws to help protect threatened shorebirds, but this would be one of the first local laws that speaks to the protection of wildlife habitats in general. Usually municipalities leave such matters to the county, state, or Federal Government.

There are between 1,000 and 2,000 wetland areas in the town. Some of them are very small and don't offer much in the way of breeding grounds and habitat, some have already been compromised by development, but others, like the ones used by the spotted turtles that John Behler, a biologist, has followed for the past three years, offer prime examples of wildlife.

The East End spotted turtle population includes newborns to 40-year-olds, an amazing range, considering that a population he studies in Westchester County has virtually no turtles under 25 years of age, Mr. Behler said.

Greater Setbacks

That speaks volumes for the condition of the freshwater wetlands in East Hampton Town and is a prime reason to enact greater protections for this resource, Mr. Behler, Mr. Penny, and Andrew Sabin, a metals trader and a founder of the South Fork Natural History Society, believe.

They want the town to create a new "overlay district" where tougher wetlands setback requirements would help preserve critical habitats for freshwater wetlands animals. They argue that a number of wetlands are not adequately protected under current laws.

These laws mandate that structures be set back 100 feet from wetlands, septic systems be set back 150 feet, and clearing not be done within 50 feet of wetlands without special variances. Mr. Penny's entourage proposes a 300-foot setback for all structures and septic systems.

Montauk And Northwest

"Even with the most ambitious setbacks we could entertain, these areas would still have some problems," said Mr. Behler, who served on the Bronx Zoo staff for more than 25 years.

"With a 300-foot rule the majority of species that come to the water to breed and the majority of those that leave the water to breed would be protected," Mr. Penny said. These include not only insects, frogs, and turtles, but salamanders, snakes, and waterfowl.

The town may want to limit not only structures and septic systems within the 300-foot area, but also mowing and the use of hard pesticides, Mr. Penny said.

The proposed overlay district would predominantly cover areas in Montauk and the Northwest Woods section of East Hampton, where most of the town's wetlands lie.

Mr. Penny acknowledged that many properties wouldn't be able to meet these setback requirements. "We want to prioritize so the best systems get the best protection," he said. The wetlands with the richest contribution would be given a greater buffer zone.

The overlay district wouldn't save every animal, but it would be saving enough of the population to keep it going and in fairly good shape, he added.

"We're talking about a whole ecosystem here," Mr. Sabin said.

Mr. Penny and Mr. Sabin urged the town to act quickly. "We need something in place right away," Mr. Sabin told the board. "We don't want a long study and by the time we finish it, all the animals are gone."

Mapping Wetlands

However, the town has some breathing room, since the breeding season for most of the wetlands species is over for the year.

Mapping the freshwater wetland areas, the first step in the process, will take between three and four months. Most of the information needed to create the maps is already on databases of the Natural Resources Department.

The Natural Resources Department and one of its divisions, the Environmental Protection Department, will use these records and field surveys to create an inventory of freshwater wetlands and their uplands buffer areas.

They will then classify the wetlands in terms of their quality and importance as breeding grounds for wildlife and finally will rate each according to its level of value for wetlands fauna.

Getting It Rolling

If the overlay district is created, not all freshwater wetlands would require the maximum 300-foot setback proposed, Mr. Penny said. Some areas where there is just one small pond might not be as high a priority as areas where creatures such as the spotted turtle could move from water body to water body.

An overlay district could start with just the highest-rated areas at first, and then be expanded in the future. The point, Mr. Penny and Mr. Sabin said, was to set the ball in motion.

Town Board members agreed and offered their unanimous support for the plan. Now, the mapmaking begins.