A "fairy gnome village" in the Culloden Point Preserve, undoubtedly erected without a building permit, has become an amusing but also divisive issue for those living on Montauk's lesser-known point.
The village in miniature, which first appeared last summer, has recently expanded and Maura Donahue, a resident on Cranberry Road, has had enough.
"I kind of hate it and I think it has to go," she said in a recent phone call. She emailed the town's Natural Resources Department about the village last year, yet it remains. Last week, expressing some reluctance, she wrote a letter to The Star, identifying herself as a "Fairy Grinch."
The toy village is tucked behind a huge felled tree in a mossy nook beside a trail that runs around Stephan's Pond, not far from the trail head at the dead end of Cranberry Road. It is certainly not large in footage, compared with the typical Hamptons development, with tiny houses and whimsical decor adorning an area of perhaps 200 square feet.
A green and white metal sign nailed to a tree at one side reads "Protected Area: Please Respect the Fairy & Gnome Village." A mustachioed face with nail and acorn eyes is wood-glued to another tree, greeting passers-by. Collected within lengths of white plastic fence two or three inches high — some of the dollhouse-size fencing having blown into the bog water next to the mossy knoll — are red-capped mushrooms, fairy houses, solar light sticks, a small trash can, a plastic mailbox, and a collection of plastic figurines with wings or white beards. A black metal silhouette of a fairy holding a bronze watering can and a mini sun umbrella completes the scene. It would be fair to say the items are strewn about. Fairies and gnomes are not known for their strict adherence to zoning code.
While no one involved disputes that small children would be dazzled by coming upon such a sight in the woods, as Ms. Donahue pointed out, children's' delight is not the only consideration when it comes to land use in wild places. A fairy gnome village in a public nature preserve raises boring adult questions: Is it trash? An art installation? Is this an appropriate use of public land?
"No dumping/Littering," warn the signs at the entrance to the preserve. "Unlawful use of this nature preserve is subject to a fine of up to $2,000." Perhaps that is why no one has come forward to claim ownership of the fairy gnome village.
Andy Gaites, the principal environmental analyst in East Hampton Town's Department of Land Acquisition and Management, said he became aware of it last year while doing trail maintenance. "It's a small thing off to the side. We just figured it wasn't a big deal and left it alone." He said the town has a nature preserve committee that could review the Culloden Point Nature Preserve management plan and decide if it is an appropriate use.
"The person who wants it installed should contact land management. Then we can discuss it with the nature preserve committee, and it would ultimately require town board permission and a public hearing," said Mr. Gaites.
No, Mr. Gaites is not kidding.
And so, as if 2024 were not already set to be a politically divisive year, the East Hampton Town Board could be put in the position of either approving a miniature fairy gnome village or forcibly removing it. Any potential public hearing would pit those in favor of a laissez-faire fairy and gnome zoning policy against those looking for tighter restrictions on plastic flotsam and jetsam in woodlands.
Naturally, there are strong opinions on both sides. After weeks of observing the fairy gnome village and hoping it would disappear, Ms. Donahue responded to the previously mentioned metal sign with one of her own, handwritten, that read, "No! How about respecting unspoiled nature in a nature preserve! And teaching your children the same. This was our favorite spot till you ruined it with plastic crap from China."
That sign was removed by persons unknown. She followed it up with another, threatening the fairy village with destruction: "How about respecting nature in an actual nature preserve? And if you take my sign again, I will take a bit of F.V. [fairy village] here for every day it is missing," she wrote.
That is when the conflict really escalated. The unknown fairy village planners responded by installing a camera, apparently watching for thievery.
Those who frequent the preserve and its trails may initially have been either charmed or irritated by the fairy gnome village, but soon most of the neighborhood seemed rankled, one way or another.
"Sorry, I'm not a pro-plastic ugly gnome village person," wrote Tina Thor, a neighbor, in an email to The Star. "In fact, it really bothers me every time I head in for a walk with my dog. And as a single woman of a certain age, I really feel uncomfortable about the camera watching me walk by. And the placement of the junk is at a crossroads of trails so there is no way to avoid walking by it from where I live."
"I'm not sure what the hullabaloo is about regarding the wee fairy village at the nature preserve," wrote Nancy LaGarenne, another Montauk resident. "It's not odd that's where fairies would show up. It's a long tradition in Ireland, for instance, to attract fairies to a circle of trees on a yard or wood. It's not garbage, what's the issue? We could use a little whimsey these days."
Ms. Donahue framed the issue as one of nature despoiled — even if the despoiling is pocket-size. "My father taught me early to appreciate things that weren't ruined yet," she said. "People have just become so detached from the natural world, they don't know that feeling anymore. They go into the woods and things seem wild and dirty to them. Woods are supposed to be sacred. People should leave no trace."
It is not impossible that the fairy gnome village might get official approval. In 2015, an "earth art" installation of a stone labyrinth, 50 feet in diameter, was created by a civic group known as the Twelve Women in Montauk's Rod's Valley park preserve near the Navy Road pier. However, with no one claiming responsibility for the fairy gnome village, as yet, no art permits are pending.
"Unauthorized use of town lands and preserves is something that the Town of East Hampton actively enforces," said David Lys, the town board liaison to the nature preserve committee. "Anything that happens on town land needs town board authorization. If not, it is litter. Being classified as a nature preserve is one of the highest designations of protected land."
Whether the fairies and gnomes, tempted by an open glade and an inviting carpet of plush moss, will heed the rules of man remains to be seen.
